"To read is to fly:
it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view
over wide terrains of history,
human variety, ideas, shared experience and the
fruits of many inquiries".
A. C. Grayling
I like the notion of reading as flying - no matter how earth bound I may be by virtue of gravity and other such things, I feel as if I can get that view from above and over when I read. Somehow reading lifts me up and lets me see beyond my own horizons and limitations. It lets me get up high and observe the world in a way I cannot do from my own head and my own experience to date.
The suggestion that this bird's eye view carries across history, human variety, ideas...just shows how much stuff there is to be read! Reading is one of the few things that enables you to take this view - sometimes movies do, sometimes art does, perhaps music or song in way; but I think reading does it best and gives you more detail and more information about the rest of the world, and so many other ways of being and experiences.
I still love that I can get high up in the sky like this without leaving my chair, stool, bench or bed!
The wisdom and vision in much Aboriginal art stuns me. This painting depicts an important waterhole or well (Well 33) along the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia, set among the sandhills through which ancient people travelled. I continue to be amazed at how well Aboriginal artists represent the land in an aerial view when clearly, they had traditionally, never flown above their land. Somehow they knew that it appeared like like this from above.
This painting is one of my favourites and hangs near our dining room so I see it daily and smile.
A. C. Grayling
I like the notion of reading as flying - no matter how earth bound I may be by virtue of gravity and other such things, I feel as if I can get that view from above and over when I read. Somehow reading lifts me up and lets me see beyond my own horizons and limitations. It lets me get up high and observe the world in a way I cannot do from my own head and my own experience to date.
The suggestion that this bird's eye view carries across history, human variety, ideas...just shows how much stuff there is to be read! Reading is one of the few things that enables you to take this view - sometimes movies do, sometimes art does, perhaps music or song in way; but I think reading does it best and gives you more detail and more information about the rest of the world, and so many other ways of being and experiences.
I still love that I can get high up in the sky like this without leaving my chair, stool, bench or bed!
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| ©2013 Fiona Dempster - Eubena Nampitjin Ngirlpil |
This painting is one of my favourites and hangs near our dining room so I see it daily and smile.
Fiona, I can't imagine my world without reading. It is such a delight and a privilege to be allowed into other worlds, to travel to faery lands forlorn and places of the wildest imagination. And then to learn new things - very exhilarating.
ReplyDeleteThe colour and texture of your Aboriginal painting is beautiful. I can imagine how it draws you in.
Hi Carol - me too, life without the opportunity to soar and discover would be somewhat bleaker...Thanks too - I do like this piece!
ReplyDeleteOh, I can see why the painting makes you smile - I love that it's an aerial view. And what a beautiful choice to accompany the quote. Happy reading/flying!
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa - honestly the manner in which traditional Aboriginal people could depict their landscape form down here yet as viewed from up there constantly astounds me. I love that notion of maybe somehow soaring spiritually above things. No idea, but I am often in awe. In a funny way I thought it worked with the quote - a bit of a wander here and there to get there, but...
ReplyDelete