blue hills.a form of katuata sees a poet named teagan crafting an insight that many men - particularly reflective men - could see clearly as describing themselves . . .
a small boy sees hills
then he will make them mountains
he will have to climb.
if he can climb them
what will he have overcome
that he did not make?
teagan
2 comments:
His fears of the unknown - of what lies up there - of a too-daunting and thereby unattainable goal? Or, perhaps making 'mountains out of molehills' - exaggerating/exacerbating the task/problem? I don't know, but it's fun guessing. :)
'small boy' kind of threw me - a small boy might make the hills mountains in his imagination so that he can boast later about his mighty feats ... 'men see clearly as defining themselves' fits my first paragraph more.
If 'reflective men' see themselves always as 'small boys', then I think the answer might be too convoluted for my addlepated brain to assemble. There's a small child inside each of us if we allow it to be there.
'What will he have overcome that he did not make?' Such a simple little poem and yet so profound. Could even (small boy AND man) allude to magnificent dreams of achievement, but I'll go back to my first answer - fear.
I don't want to say 'fear of failure' for a small boy, but it certainly might apply for a man.
Can hardly wait for you to wake up from what I'm hoping is a restful sleep so you can give me the correct answer!
hi goldenrod! "addlepated"!!! now that's a word i'll borrow (and i'll try to remember to give you credit whenever i use it!!!).
correct answer?! hmmmm . . . dunno if (even though i went to bed early and almost made it through the night - a feat i haven't achieved in weeks now) i have a right answer for you here goldenrod.
i've hoovered back a bit of coffee but my thoughts aren't at all clear this morning so hang on tight and i'll see what i can see.
i think that in every person, there's an essence of each stage of their existence. from little boy / girl through adolescent, young adulthood etc. i've noticed that some people celebrate some of those stages more than others by maintaining a sort of semblance of behaviour, sensitivity, play, even "being" that corresponds to that stage.
i chose this little poem because (well this'll seem off-base perhaps but picasso was quoted as having said "all children are artists. the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.") i'll extrapolate from that the idea that there's something valuable in the quality of being child-like as compared to childish.
my thinking around "reflective men" is that among other things, they can be aware of the artifice of "goal". a goal is a very small thing in itself but a mountain when seen in relief. why?
i think that we are brought up to believe that moving through a task (certainly a task that can be deemed worthy) can only be represented as having overcome something much greater than ourselves and not simply as an experience that we have experienced for itself. for example, artists need history, context, knowledge and much more to "place" their work in.
children don't instinctively need any of that - they simply paint! they have nothing to overcome - they express themselves and there it is! but they learn that there is an assessable quality to their creations, they learn that there is a pecuniary value, they learn that there can be "good" and "bad" art, they learn that there are many many contexts to, and perceptions of their work and so - the little hill becomes a mountain. and of course they learn to apply that to all parts of their life. they lose the knowing of the direct relationship with themselves.
there's an unlearning that needs to take place in order for the man / woman to reconnect to that essential self that isn't defined by the creation, and climbing of an imaginary mountain.
that's where my thinking ends!!
steven
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