The art of letting go, impermanence and being in the now taught by Andy Goldsworthy. This is a clip from the documentary Rivers and Tides. He makes these intoxicating fragile creations which have such a short life time, but extremely beautiful. His art is similar in concept to the sand mandalas created by Tibetan Buddhist monks. The mandalas are painstakingly created over days. They are destroyed when they are finished to mark the impermanence of all that exists.
I like this quotation of Andy Goldsworthy.
I find some of my new works disturbing, just as I find nature as a whole disturbing. The landscape is often perceived as pastoral, pretty, beautiful – something to be enjoyed as a backdrop to your weekend before going back to the nitty-gritty of urban life. But anybody who works the land knows it’s not like that. Nature can be harsh – difficult and brutal, as well as beautiful. You couldn’t walk five minutes from here without coming across something that is dead or decaying.
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There are many native dance forms in the south Indian state of Kerala, where the dance starts with an elaborate tantric pattern drawn on the floor with colored powder. The dancer then goes into a meditative trance, and as part of the dance destroys the pattern. Again, it is an abstraction for the greater dance of the cosmos, where in the very act of creation, something is destroyed. We die each day, that we may live forever.
There is an Indian movie (the name is not important), where the protagonist finds a novel way of letting go. When life gets too much for him, he goes and hugs a tree, really hugs it tight, and then howls with all his lungs. His belief is that the tree acts as a kind of conductor; it takes his pain and drives it deep down into the earth where it can never return.
So when you feel the need, just find a tree, hug it tight. And howl.
Good advice, Howl. It came in handy.
I was kind of addicted to lara bars. I think I used to go on these long hikes or backpacking trips just to eat some lara bars. I like them so much, that I sometimes have it for breakfast.
I will not have access to lara bars anymore. Right now, I am traveling in the far east. I found a nice banyan tree. Hugged it tight and howled. The local people were confused and the Buddha. Anyway, it felt great and I am over lara bars. So long, lara bar. Thank you, Howl.