Sometimes I get so caught up in understanding the how of things that I lose the beauty of them. As Wordsworth says in his poem The Tables Turned, “We murder to dissect.”
In the classic rock and roll song, aptly titled Rock and Roll Music, Chuck Berry laments people trying to change the music, to make it better, to make it something other than what it is. To control it rather than to sing it, dance to it, just enjoy it.
Maybe I do that too much with life.
Lest you think this is a rant against science, knowledge, linguistics, etc., be assured that I have all the curiosity about the world that most people have. Maybe even a little more, seeing as how I tend to question most things. And I appreciate what others have done to make this world a better place.
But there comes a time to just enjoy what is around us, and I am really trying to do just that. To take in the sights, sounds, tastes, sensations, smells of this world. The old saying (and song by Mac Davis) says “You’ve got to stop and smell the roses.” Unfortunately, it turns out, most roses today don’t have the sweet smell, or any odor, they used to have. In order to make them more durable, we ended up genetically removing the things that made them put out that well-known aroma. Try stopping by the flower section in your local supermarket or flower shop and sniff those beauties. Might as well sniff a package of frozen corn kernels. People today would not understand Shakespeare’s Juliet opining “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” As sweet as what? A plastic plant from Walmart?
Gary Larson’s take on this was “Cow Philosophy”- “You’ve got to stop and eat the roses.” Wonder if they still taste the same?
The point of it is, every now and then we need to walk in the woods and just enjoy the experience. “Forest bathing” is what the Japanese call it. We need to hear music and let it move us rather than analyze it. We need to slow down and taste food that does not taste like the cardboard container it came out of. We need to jump in the puddle just because it’s there.
As Wordsworth wrote:
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Excuse me now. I think I’ll go take a walk through Lucas Park.
Michael Henderson 