Growing up in the British West Indies in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, English Literature (and later Caribbean Literature) was a required subject in high school. English Literature at the time of my schooling was defined as various works by William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer and Charlotte Brontë. It was limiting, but the subject title says it all.
I supplemented my access to literature by reading fiction written by English and American novelist H. G. Wells, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and Isaac Asimov. This, of course, is mostly science and fantasy fiction, but it was what held my youthful interest. I was never much into poetry and being forced to read Shakespeare, Chaucer and Brontë turned me off from anything related.
I have never read anything by Ralph Waldo Emerson, but from my kids and the many references around the Intertubes, it seems he was a big deal in American Literature1. I recently came across a quote attributed to Emerson while perusing a photoblog.
The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows… Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature and Walking
That phrase will be with me the next time I am out in nature with my camera, film or digital.
I wanted to enjoy some sun, so at lunchtime, I set up my CLIQ Chair2 an a patio table in the backyard so I could enjoy a hot dog with onion relish and a beer, Cadillac Dreams by Ex Novo Brewing. I sat in the yard, enjoying the sun and sun the silence. I sat still for so long the birds that visit the feeder ignored me and started flying around me and between the trees while dining at the feeder. I saw a few birds engaged in some violence just behind me, just beyond the fence.
I went back inside after the sun ha moved to the other side of the house.
Linked to Jeff Sinon's Isolation Photo Project.
Submitted as part of the 100DaysToOffload project.- My kids are amazed that I had never heard of Emerson. But then I reminded them that they had never heard of Caribbean novelist V. S. Naipaul. ↩
- formerly GO CHAIR. ↩
A garden, a chair, something to eat and something to drink.. what else?!? 😉
I took a short nap. It was refreshing.