The Briny Muse Forum The Pond

In Walden, Thoreau used the experience of a pond to move himself in his creative will to cultivate an expression for that which he observed. It would appear that he experienced a total meltdown in what he was, but allowed the process to continue to completely rid himself of all that was past and no longer true.   In effect, he made a home of his experience - settle down, learn to cook and apply himself to the rudiments of survival as a way to rediscover the life impulse. He related to plants and trees and brought his eye to witness the regeneration of growth through the seasons. His isolation helped him to make that transformation.   Walden pond, like any other, represented to him a place where the water pauses for a while before continuing its journey to the sea, then the evaporation to the sky and then back down as rain before it comes back to the pond.   A mind that is undergoing transformation is not much different from the water in the lake. It ripples over the surface, stays stagnant in some places, moves in others while always maintaining a sense of what it is. A handful of water taken at one end of the pond may not be very different from another part and this helps the mind to understand its own origin and source of experience.   The creative sense views itself as one and at the same time as the many. In the mix of sensation that it undergoes, it experiences a curious will to understand itself. To do so it seeks to cultivate an expression and thereafter to communicate it in words. An expression is like a musical note or tone in us. Our defensiveness creates a resistance to the free flow of our impulses.   A tiger by the water's edge, seeks only to drink the water and then move on. A crane on the other hand steps into the water, hunts for food, sets its nest by the side, raises its young and then moves on with the seasons. In living the pond, the crane notices that the water behaves a certain way.   The stream rushes the water into the pond and causes it to bounce off the rocks on the side. This ripples in waves to the ground in the opposite bank and cools the red clay by the side. The wind blows from the direction of the outgoing stream and creates a second wave of ripples that flow to the middle of the pond.   On the bank a mulberry tree plays host to the butterflies. Its branches are hung with chrysalis sacs that gleam in the sun.   To the man standing by the pond, the pond is stirring the experience of dementia in his feelings and raising his eyes to view the regeneration of life. It is experienced as the seasons. Above him, Ptah, the sky god smiles in response. There is no birth without death and vice versa. This is just another day by the stream of life's consciousness.

Life is perception AND perspective... Henry - and I use the familiar intentionally - had a need to be where he was and at just that time.  The reasons were his own... BUT they were important and relevant to Him in a way that no one else can appreciate without understanding the world perceptions that faced HIM.

He reconstructed his perspective and perceptions - found purpose and meaning at the HEART level and that in turn empowered his mind to speculate on his new constructs and conceptions.

I agree with Sri, as regards the image and allusions all of us can readily perceive as relates to a pond (body of water) and its environs.  Matching the images and personifying actions of animals that instinctually and via learned behaviors survive (as they might) and inanimates (e.g. ripples radiating outwards and inwards) are an oft used way we grow our points. 

I believe we by necessity now re-invent our selves (two words) daily in this life.  The changes to what is relevant - impact too quickly to be absorbed, accepted, re-defined, and reacted upon... in a timely manner otherwise... at least THAT is what any teenager will seem to gently explain if you ask and listen.

Chris