"'...that "something hid behind the ranges" maybe meant more to me than to most others.'" (p. 263)
There is an Irish saying: "Seek the fair land that is over the brow of the hill."
In our meditation group, we recite a text that includes the sentence: "It is futile to travel to other dusty countries, thus forsaking your own seat."
Years ago, on British TV, a guy said that he had gone to Tibet but a monk there told him that the place that he sought was in his own country. The guy returned to England and "realized" that the place that the monk had meant was Glastonbury. Someone said to me, "Isn't it strange that that monk described Glastonbury to him?" - which, of course, he had not. I think the Tibetan monk had meant: "It is futile to travel to other dusty countries..."
The "something hid" and the "fair land" are within us but we can carry them with us to other countries.
2 comments:
And of course there are other reasons for leaving.
My father's mother was the youngest of 13 on an English farm with no prospects.
My mother's parents wanted to get away from the class prejudices which made their families hostile to their marriage; I think WW1 had also made them feel more footloose and fancy-free.
And the first Stirling in Newfoundland, back in 1800, was a ship's surgeon set ashore in St. John's with wounded men... and the Royal Navy apparently completely forgot about them after that.
A simple desire for new horizons and adventure is also perfectly respectable.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, esp. with your last sentence.
Ad astra! Sean
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