<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 26 February 2008 - Volume 04<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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=========================================================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);"><a href="mailto:foga0301@stcloudstate.edu">foga0301@stcloudstate.edu</a></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Etymology"<br></span><p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span lang="ES-MX">Queridos
amigos (Ron y Luc y todos),</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="ES-MX">
</span><span>Thank you Luc for
your astute additions to this geographic quest for the world soul, or whatever
soul-space we're seeking here. And also Ron, you add a lot of content, so also <span>Jacqueline.</span> However, I'm still holding an "otherwise"
thought here to all this emphasis on walls and the fear of the other. Yes,
that's a universal quality that humans have to build walls, but the way this
activity works its way into the ideal space of literature and hidden inner
meanings is still up for grabs <i>structurally</i>…It is here that I still wish
to speak of how a diversity of structures can be seen reflected in visible
things that are <i>culturally distinctive</i> [different elsewhere from the
European/western experience]. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span> After
teaching in Bangkok and Kolkata and walking around those cities for fun, I notice
two things: <i>more</i> cultural diversity and a <i>less</i> organized way of separating
one ethnic enclave from another [in space]. Granted civilizational boundaries
have the highest walls and marriages are still ever so specific to in-groups
everywhere, but there is a subtle shift in how we talk about things so serious
as paradise or the king's </span><i><span>bāġ</span></i><span> <span dir="rtl" lang="AR-SA">باغ</span></span><span dir="ltr"></span><span><span dir="ltr"></span>. Luc, your European rendition of the wholeness of this
paradise beyond the wall is wonderfully western yet still faithful to the meaning
of park (vs. garden). It takes the true meaning of this "</span><span>integral unity of a 'body', of a 'whole'"
</span><span>into account. But there
is still a <i>difference</i> between its wholeness and that of its eastern
counterpart. This has to do with the social <i>location</i> and imagined <i>geography</i>
of the subtle passageway between public and private [group facts and individual
verification of them]. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span> Let me
use a Byzantine/Roman distinction to explain. After studying Russian theology, I
notice that Augustine's western view of the <i>Trinity</i> castes it onto a
distant place [the western location of <i>heaven</i>, perhaps]. Since it is a
distant place, one can see the whole of it, and as you mention so well this is
a wonderfully complicated whole. But when walking in Bangkok, I got the best (only?)
view of the whole by transversing a lot of cluttered neighborhoods. Now one
metaphysical vision could ever predict this whole—it's too, too big and as
Jacqueline said so well, each individual child adds something vital to this
whole. You have to talk with a 'whole' lot of people to even get a small taste
of this immensity, yet this talk needs also to resist quick labeling. It needs
to come from the heart and speak to the heart of the other. This takes lots of
talent, bravery, and a sense of the holy within the self (more than I have). Such
people kind of glow if they get really good at this. Oh, and in the images of
inner soul space I read about in the Eastern side of Byzantium, people talk of
this inner space as being shaped like a tree growing inward with lots of
branches. If this tree grows large and all these branches bear lots of fruit (free
of deceit), one is considered holy. Putting this in spatial terms, we can then
say that a holy man's </span><i><span>bāġ</span></i><span> <span dir="rtl" lang="AR-SA">با</span></span><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="AR-SA">غ</span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="ltr"></span> </span><span>is the
place where such reflections are imagined to reside. This space is, in turn,
located within the walls of a house as an inner courtyard. Here, meditation is
the way to paradise, it's visible in one's eyes not on the horizon. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span> For
sure, here inside the western individual one also finds this link between self
and world, since someone like Augustine is probably also doing this in his
house too and storing it in his head. But in the west, it seems that there is
still this outer sense of distance…of something that is viewed from afar. Funerals
include stories of needing food for the journey. And also like Hieronymus
Bosch shows so well </span><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/GardenED.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/GardenED.jpg</a></span><span>, there is this sense of duality between
heaven and hell where both are <i>material</i> <i>places</i> connected spatially
to one's earthly home. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span> In the
east though, this '</span><span>triptych'</span><span> view of the whole is but one of
many that one encounters on the daily journey across town. What does one do
then to unite this larger more spatially cluttered whole? At minimum the philosopher
needs to discuss this with an equally fearless friend. That's were Russian
theology starts, with letters between friends, dialogue, poetry readings, and
quiet meditations on mystery. It's no wonder the Christian church cracked up
into pieces. But what wonderful pieces these are! Then add all that exists
beyond these and you have something like a whole. The </span><i><span>bāġ</span></i><span> <span dir="rtl" lang="AR-SA">با</span></span><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="AR-SA">غ</span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="ltr"></span> </span><span>that
Kipling recounts in <i>Just So Stories</i> in his story of Solomon and the
butterfly is intimately connected with this larger whole <i>despite</i> the physical
walls he has put up. But as a wise man, this invasive presence of the other does
not pose a problem for him. Even the sea monsters are present to him as his
friends adding insights to his thinking. Hope this makes sense.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>Blessings
to you all,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>Gael Fonken</span></p><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">