No doubt all of you readers out there have caught up on your maze homework and visited with family and friends for the last week. Now it is time to put your nose to the grindstone once again. Today I have the next page of my first maze. While you all were generally goofing off, I was fully dedicated to working on my fourth maze. Cloistered in a monastery retreat high on a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I labored like one of the the Irish monks of old over a manuscript.
True they labored on works of knowledge and truth such as all but lost works of Greek philosophy and literature. Or the gospels and other writings which where the key to the Christian faith. Read the fine book by Thomas Cahill called “How the Irish Saved Civilization” for a brilliant view of the work of the early monks.
In contrast to this, I was working on a grand time waster. A long tedious winding twisty maze which if indulged in would at least for a time leave one lost and confused. That is one way of looking at my time and the work. Another way to look at it is as a meditative device. Like rosary beads, or a candle, or a mandala
the maze can focus the mind for deep thought. Very occasionally, all too rarely in fact, I work on the maze unconsciously with myself detached and looking down at my fingers still working away as if they are another persons fingers. It is a strange feeling and I don't know that it does me any good, but it is a feeling that brings great satisfaction.
Despite the solitude and silence of the place I was still unable to complete the fourth maze. I was left with two pages to go. If you have read my posts for the last month you know that it was my hope to finish it by the end of the month. So you will not be surprised to know that I'm quite disappointed. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Anyway enough of those profound thoughts, here is today's page. First the scanned and edited version.
Page 27
Here is the same page in the wild. This is still the Ravenswood Estate in Livermore California. The main house to the right is where my friend and his family lived, but they had the run of the whole place. Behind my maze, there is another couple of buildings. One is a guest house which I never entered. There is another building behind that one which is the tank house. This is a building with a few rooms in it. The whole thing built around a large water storage tank.
One of the most interesting buildings for a kid was the barn which you can see at the end of the road. At the time my friend lived here, the barn held an amazing collection of toilets. Hundreds of them it seemed back then. Probably far fewer than that in reality. I couldn't figure it out. Where did they all come from? Why were they there? I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about this. There was always something else to do around his place, but every time I saw the huge collection of broken white toilets I was stunned a bit. I didn't go look in the windows, but I doubt if they are still there. But I wonder.
Tomorrow I will have an update on my Line Around The World project.
Jonathan
I had forgotten about the toilets. For some reason I associated them with the Redemptorist Father's who used the place as a retreat. But for the life of me I can't see where they would have put them.
ReplyDeleteHowever the best treasure that barn held was the flight simulator, or instrument flight trainer! It looked like a windowless aluminum train engine from the outside, but inside it was full of dials and switches. And there was a map table outside so that the trainers could monitor the student's progress. I never got to fly it, but I did spend hours playing with the wheel and switches. Wow, that was a long time ago...
The nights there were so dark and quiet then. We could turn off the street lights and play in the dark, or look at a whole sky full of stars.
I have many memories, both good and bad associated with Villa San Clamente. Somewhere I have some labels we dug out of the midden pile next to the winery. I wonder what happened to them.
Hey Mark, I have only the very vaguest recollection of that simulator. I'm sure that I never got to sit in it, but then I wasn't there as often as you were. Stan's old place looks pretty darn fancy now doesn't it? They even paved the race track.
ReplyDeleteI got you letter, I'm writing out my thoughts. I got struck on Centering when I was down there. I couldn't get a handle on that one.
Perhaps I didn't get my thoughts down well enough. Centering seems important.
ReplyDeleteI played around with Google maps, and I don't recognize the town anymore. I see that they preserved the Olivina winery sign! I spent days wandering that property also. Our neighbors leased it for cattle. And later when I worked for LARPD I put out a couple of fires there.
I know that they can't leave the bushes for the bums to hide in, but the place looks bald!