In South Africa I recovered an experience which I had not known since my childhood, moments, even hours, of intense exhilaration, when one seemed to be a happy part of a friendly universe. The cause, no doubt, was largely physical, for my long treks made me very fit in body; but not wholly...They came usually in the early morning or at sunset. I seemed to acquire a wonderful clearness of mind (1) and to find harmony in discords and unity in diversity, but to find these things not as conclusions of thought, but in a sudden revelation, as in poetry or music.(2) For a little, beauty peeped from the most unlikely wrappings and everything had a secret purpose of joy.(3)
...One especially stands out. I had been ploughing all day in the black dust of the Lichtenburg roads.(4) and had come very late to a place called the Eye of Malmani...the spring of a river which presently loses itself in the sand of the Kalahari. We watered our horses and went supperless to bed. Next morning I bathed in one of the Malmani pools--and icy cold it was--and then basked in the early sunshine while breakfast was cooking. The water made a pleasant music, and near-by was a covert of willows filled with singing birds. Then and there came on me the hour of revelation, when, though savagely hungry,(5) I forgot about breakfast. Scents, sights, and sounds blended into a harmony so perfect that it transcended human expression, even human thought. It was like a glimpse of the peace of eternity.
Well now, how about that? Is that not telling on the soul of Tweedsmuir? Such a good man, such a good soul.
The first footnote is to reference some few similar instances this blogger has had. They too occurred when I was very tired and after sunset. One, on the drive home from work after a day's trial had ended. I had tried the case once before, it ended in a hung jury. I remember exactly where I was in my car when the "sudden revelation" (on how to successfully cross-examine the key witness) occurred to me. Fatigue, physical or mental, seems a suspicious font for clarity but it has happened to me on other occasions as well. When it has happened to me I have always expressed it to myself as "my defenses are down," I am not thinking "well," I am almost too tired to think at all, and the revelations come "not as conclusions of thought" but in the absence of thought, just voila!, from somewhere.
The second footnote because I have had "glimpses of eternity", not as in music but in music, the first time I heard J.S. Bach, the first time I heard Sarah Vaughan's voice. I had gone into a record store in college. When I entered, it was like entering another world and being swallowed up. The Brandenburg Concerto was playing throughout the store. I lost myself, forgot why I had come to the record store, walked around lost in the music, finally went up to the cashier and asked, "What is that?" Bach's music is sometimes described as the Voice of God. That is how I felt at that moment.
The third footnote. Joy, Beethoven, now the anthem of the European Union, which Buchan so would have favored.
The fourth footnote. How many times have I read Pilgrim's Way? The two pages from which the above excerpts are taken are more underlined by me than not. There is a margin note in my hand, "Happiness" in the next paragraph down is triple circled. The page is marked by two post-it notes, one of them starred. I had never noticed that typographical error, the period there. As I typed this I looked closely, was it a comma?, took off my glasses and examined it, moved the book to the side of the computer that my desk light is on, thought about it, Could it be some archaic punctuation? No, it's just a typo.
The fifth footnote in this chapter entitled Furth Fortune: Hemingway was a big fan of starvation as spur to writing. It too gave him a "wonderful clearness of mind." Adderall does it for me.
...One especially stands out. I had been ploughing all day in the black dust of the Lichtenburg roads.(4) and had come very late to a place called the Eye of Malmani...the spring of a river which presently loses itself in the sand of the Kalahari. We watered our horses and went supperless to bed. Next morning I bathed in one of the Malmani pools--and icy cold it was--and then basked in the early sunshine while breakfast was cooking. The water made a pleasant music, and near-by was a covert of willows filled with singing birds. Then and there came on me the hour of revelation, when, though savagely hungry,(5) I forgot about breakfast. Scents, sights, and sounds blended into a harmony so perfect that it transcended human expression, even human thought. It was like a glimpse of the peace of eternity.
Well now, how about that? Is that not telling on the soul of Tweedsmuir? Such a good man, such a good soul.
The first footnote is to reference some few similar instances this blogger has had. They too occurred when I was very tired and after sunset. One, on the drive home from work after a day's trial had ended. I had tried the case once before, it ended in a hung jury. I remember exactly where I was in my car when the "sudden revelation" (on how to successfully cross-examine the key witness) occurred to me. Fatigue, physical or mental, seems a suspicious font for clarity but it has happened to me on other occasions as well. When it has happened to me I have always expressed it to myself as "my defenses are down," I am not thinking "well," I am almost too tired to think at all, and the revelations come "not as conclusions of thought" but in the absence of thought, just voila!, from somewhere.
The second footnote because I have had "glimpses of eternity", not as in music but in music, the first time I heard J.S. Bach, the first time I heard Sarah Vaughan's voice. I had gone into a record store in college. When I entered, it was like entering another world and being swallowed up. The Brandenburg Concerto was playing throughout the store. I lost myself, forgot why I had come to the record store, walked around lost in the music, finally went up to the cashier and asked, "What is that?" Bach's music is sometimes described as the Voice of God. That is how I felt at that moment.
The third footnote. Joy, Beethoven, now the anthem of the European Union, which Buchan so would have favored.
The fourth footnote. How many times have I read Pilgrim's Way? The two pages from which the above excerpts are taken are more underlined by me than not. There is a margin note in my hand, "Happiness" in the next paragraph down is triple circled. The page is marked by two post-it notes, one of them starred. I had never noticed that typographical error, the period there. As I typed this I looked closely, was it a comma?, took off my glasses and examined it, moved the book to the side of the computer that my desk light is on, thought about it, Could it be some archaic punctuation? No, it's just a typo.
The fifth footnote in this chapter entitled Furth Fortune: Hemingway was a big fan of starvation as spur to writing. It too gave him a "wonderful clearness of mind." Adderall does it for me.
