Solvitur Ambulando
May. 4th, 2015 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceThis bike may be the death of me.
No, no: not on the road. I am a careful pedallist. But I have mentioned before, how walking and working are integrated in my system, and there is no comparable working/cycling crossover: the careful-pedalling thing demands my full attention, while walking frees my mind.
It may be no coincidence that the recent days and weeks of getting nowhere creatively can be neatly overlaid by recent days and weeks of "Ooh - new bike!" and a yen to pedal everywhere.
Knowing this full well, yesterday I didn't bike down to Jeannie's to feed the adorable puffball; no, I walked. And before I was halfway there, I had figured out that this going-nowhere story of mine about boat building and origami and sheepfolds was actually about liminality and physical marginalia (and boat building and origami and sheepfolds). The cynical among you might wish at this point to murmur that all my stories are about liminality and physical marginalia, which to be fair I cannot deny - but specifics are important. I feel like I have a grip on this one finally, or at least a place to hold on.
Also, the three things that have been ramping up the tension hereabouts are now reduced to one, which makes breathing a little easier. Tho' the remainder is a doozy, and waiting for someone else's news is no easier, I find, than waiting for one's own. Walking helps there, too - not actually walking away a la Diogenes, but walking in loops is a good thing. And also better than cycling, because again. Basically I am totally with Bruce Chatwin on this. Brucie said (often) that walking was a panacea, and I am right there in lockstep with him. Swift lockstep; he was never in a hurry, but always always fast.
Speaking of Diogenes, I see that some part of the internet attributes Solvitur ambulando to St Augustine. My lip was all set to sneer, until it occurred to me that the one thing we can be sure of is that Diogenes never said "Solvitur ambulando," what with being Greek and all. Is the Latin tag Augustine's, or earlier? I dunno; does anyone?
[And now I am going to the library. By bike, because time. Because I am not Brucie.]
No, no: not on the road. I am a careful pedallist. But I have mentioned before, how walking and working are integrated in my system, and there is no comparable working/cycling crossover: the careful-pedalling thing demands my full attention, while walking frees my mind.
It may be no coincidence that the recent days and weeks of getting nowhere creatively can be neatly overlaid by recent days and weeks of "Ooh - new bike!" and a yen to pedal everywhere.
Knowing this full well, yesterday I didn't bike down to Jeannie's to feed the adorable puffball; no, I walked. And before I was halfway there, I had figured out that this going-nowhere story of mine about boat building and origami and sheepfolds was actually about liminality and physical marginalia (and boat building and origami and sheepfolds). The cynical among you might wish at this point to murmur that all my stories are about liminality and physical marginalia, which to be fair I cannot deny - but specifics are important. I feel like I have a grip on this one finally, or at least a place to hold on.
Also, the three things that have been ramping up the tension hereabouts are now reduced to one, which makes breathing a little easier. Tho' the remainder is a doozy, and waiting for someone else's news is no easier, I find, than waiting for one's own. Walking helps there, too - not actually walking away a la Diogenes, but walking in loops is a good thing. And also better than cycling, because again. Basically I am totally with Bruce Chatwin on this. Brucie said (often) that walking was a panacea, and I am right there in lockstep with him. Swift lockstep; he was never in a hurry, but always always fast.
Speaking of Diogenes, I see that some part of the internet attributes Solvitur ambulando to St Augustine. My lip was all set to sneer, until it occurred to me that the one thing we can be sure of is that Diogenes never said "Solvitur ambulando," what with being Greek and all. Is the Latin tag Augustine's, or earlier? I dunno; does anyone?
[And now I am going to the library. By bike, because time. Because I am not Brucie.]