Emotion

[Van Canna]

Out of a dream finding me stranded at a solitary train station in a desolate valley. But,
In a short time the shrill piping of a coming train was heard, and
Immediately groups of people began to gather in the street appearing as by magic. Two or three open carriages arrived, and deposited some maids of honor and some male
Officials at a Grand – hotel by the hill.

Presently another open carriage brought the Grand
Duke, a stately man in uniform, who wore the handsome
Brass-mounted, steel-spiked helmet of the army on his head. Last came the
Empress and the Grand Duchess in a closed carriage;
These passed through the low-bowing groups of servants and disappeared in
The hotel!

So I left the valley and followed, also taking quarters at the grand Hotel, on
The hill, above the Castle, as if they, it, had been expecting me!

The city of dreams lies at the mouth of a narrow gorge- a gorge the shape of a
Shepherd’s crook; if one looks up it he perceives that it is about
straight, for a mile and a half, then makes a sharp curve to the right
and disappears. This gorge- along whose bottom pours the swift Neckar- is
confined between (or cloven through) a couple of long, steep ridges, a
Thousand feet high and densely wooded clear to their summits, with the
exception of one section which has been shaved and put under cultivation.
These ridges are chopped off at the mouth of the gorge and form two bold
and conspicuous headlands, with the city nestling between them!


Now if one turns and looks up the gorge once more, he will see the
Grand Hotel on the right perched on a precipice overlooking the Neckar-
A precipice which is so sumptuously cushioned and draped with foliage
that no glimpse of the rock appears!

The building seems very airily situated. It has the appearance of being on a shelf half-way up the wooded mountainside; and as it is remote and isolated, and very white, it
makes a strong mark against the lofty leafy rampart at its back.

This hotel had a feature which was a decided novelty, and one which might
be adopted with advantage by any house which is perched in a commanding
situation. This feature may be described as a series of glass-enclosed
parlors CLINGING TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE, one against each and every
Bedchamber and drawing room. They are like long, narrow, and high ceiled
bird-cages hung against the building. My room was a corner room, and had
two of these things, a north one, and a west one.

From the north cage one looks up the Neckar gorge; from the west one he
looks down it. This last affords the most extensive view, and it is one
of the loveliest that can be imagined, too. Out of a billowy upheaval of
vivid green foliage, a rifle-shot removed, rises the huge ruin of
The Castle, with empty window arches,
Ivy-mailed battlements, moldering towers- the Lear of inanimate nature-
Deserted, discrowned, beaten by the storms, but royal still, and
Beautiful. It is a fine sight to see the evening sunlight suddenly strike
The leafy declivity at the Castle's base and dash up it and drench it as
with a luminous spray, while the adjacent groves are in deep shadow.

Behind the Castle swells a great dome-shaped hill, forest-clad, and
beyond that a nobler and loftier one. The Castle looks down upon the
compact brown-roofed town; and from the town two picturesque old bridges
span the river. Now the view broadens; through the gateway of the
sentinel headlands you gaze out over the wide plain, which
stretches away, softly and richly tinted, grows gradually and dreamily
indistinct, and finally melts imperceptibly into the remote horizon.


The first night I was there, I went to bed and to sleep early; but I
awoke at the end of two or three hours, and lay a comfortable while
listening to the soothing patter of the rain against the balcony windows.

I took it to be rain, but it turned out to be only the murmur of the
restless Neckar, tumbling over her dikes and dams far below, in the
Gorge.

I got up and went into the west balcony and saw a wonderful sight.
Away down on the level under the black mass of the Castle, the town lay,
stretched along the river, its intricate cobweb of streets jeweled with
twinkling lights; there were rows of lights on the bridges; these flung
lances of light upon the water, in the black shadows of the arches; and
away at the extremity of all this fairy spectacle blinked and glowed a
massed multitude of gas jets which seemed to cover acres of ground; it
was as if all the diamonds in the world had been spread out there.

And so I dressed in black and slinked into the sparkling velvet of the mysterious night
On a date with emotion.




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Van Canna

[This message has been edited by Van Canna (edited August 06, 2000).]

[Lori]

Van-sama,

Thank you for posting this and the other wonderful "mind-journeys" ... you remind us that the martial arts involve much more than technique, power and mindset. Indeed - a well rounded martial artist appreciates the finer things in life - remembering the temporality of our existence and acknowledging rather than existing in each and every moment - moments that we will never see again... better to see the wholeness of life - more than blood and guts and destruction - but also emotional highs and lows, softness on the other side of hard, melodies along with driving rhythms, life and death intermingled into a complex sparkling gossamer web.

Samurai of old learned flower arranging, calligraphy, music and poetry - perhaps as a balance to the do or die style of fighting. Your stories serve well to remind us to nourish those other aspects of our lives... and set a date with emotion.

Thank you.
Lori

[This message has been edited by Lori (edited August 23, 2000).]

[Jackie Olsen]

I echo Lori's eloquent response in posting such excellent stories to stimulate the imagination and help the heart mind body come alive. There is more to martial arts that often gets lost in the toughness of training -- for women as well as men.

One of the keys is to stay aware and pay attention and not supress what comes up. Too often we stuff down what we're feeling and not convert the energy to e-motion (energy in motion).



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In Beauty,

Jackie