Comments on: Yggdrasil

By: ER

ER — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 02:53:35 +0000

I feel the same way about the sea. I feel uncomfortable and insecure when I’m too far or too long from salt water. I spent 5 years in Western Pennsylvania, and a year in East Tennessee, and even though I really liked both those places, I still missed the sea terribly. When in Pittsburgh, I even took a trip to Lake Erie, but it didn’t help. The minute I got out of the car I noticed that even though it looked like the sea, it didn’t smell right. It was very disorienting.

I don’t think it had anything to do with my Navy time or my sailing hobby. My mother used to say she couldn’t stand being too far from the ocean either, and she never had either of those experiences. But both of us were brought up by the sea. Maybe that’s it.

You feel that way about the forest, and some feel that way about the mountains, or the desert, or the ice. I love all those places too, but it is the sea I must always feel close to. I live only 8 miles from it now, and I must confess I rarely go there. But I need to know its there.

By: bowser

bowser — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 23:50:04 +0000

The tree. Being raised in the Pacific Northwest I’m used to trees. And hiking and climbing one spends a lot of time intimately connected with trees, and when one has gone above the treeline he has entered a different, much less friendly world.

Driving around the US, when in the desert I know that in a catastrophe I’ll die. I don’t know how to get along out there, what resources there are or how to access them. If I’m around trees I know I’ll be OK for a good, long while.

In an emergency a tree will offer fuel, a basis for shelter, a wind-break and generally indicate there is water someplace not too far away. Since trees often occur in clumps, or forests, there is even more shelter, even more chance for water, survival.

Maybe there is something primordinally comforting about a tree. Dunno, but for me, anyway, it’s possible.

By: podrock

podrock — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 21:54:20 +0000

Nice essay, ER. Perhaps the archetype of the tree comes from having evolved in them?

I too shared a fascination with the Christmas Trees of my youth, enthralled by the depth of the sculpture, always placing decorations deep into the gaps between limbs.

I was also curious about how the lights worked. Perhaps it was the only time that I saw the wires that made lights work and wanted to know more about them. My curious mind wanted to know why removing a bulb turned off all the bulbs. These thing were explained to me but I still didn’t know what electricity was.

When I was five, give or take, I found out when I removed a bulb and stuck my finger into the empty socket. Yikes! I can still remember the feeling of the electrons vibrating at 60 cycles coursing through my fingertip, even though it was only in the socket for a fraction of a second.

No, the experience did not really teach me what electricity was; but it taught me what it felt like and to respect it. Something was moving through those wires, and it was dangerous.