Wednesday, 19th
September, 2012
Easkey, Sligo
Finally surfed Easkey Left!
Up early and first in the
water felt great. Whilst apprehension grew as I paddled out around the harbour
wall it soon abated as I got to the peak. The wind was very light and 3’-4’
waves steadily came through. It didn’t take long to get busy but 5 or 6 people
out is nothing to complain about.
I guess I have had two really
good days now in waves that have challenged me. Whilst I didn’t have an all
time classic surf I did catch quite a few. Boots were the main issue. My first
time wearing them since last winter and not feeling the board under foot is
disconcerting. Also if my feet weren’t placed right that was it, stuck!
All in all an amazing start
to the day.
On Nature
Contemporary thinking often
posits the notion that we are no longer connected with nature. The linguist
Owen Barfield (1898-1997) argued that through the powers of natural curiosity,
humans began to retreat from nature whilst simultaneously perceiving that we
were different from other animals. For what animal other than human beings
contemplates its own nature? The result of which related to human beings no
longer feeling as though they were entirely at home. People began to ask: Who
are we? Where are we? In doing so human beings sought what Vernon highlights as a “new kind of communion
with the world, one that is curious about nature, though not alienated from
nature, because it still knows it belongs to it”. (Vernon. 2012. P. 156)
Animism which speaks of the divine in nature and Shamanism are both part of
what is deemed participatory consciousness.
Through scientific
contribution Barfield warns that we cannot return to these old forms of
consciousness. He believed we should seek a synthesis of the original
participation and what he deemed final participation. In passing through a
phase of alienation which objectifies the world it brings with it the
understanding of science simultaneously it distances us from nature thus
resulting in our treatment of the world as a resource to exploit by its
destruction, a destruction that may threaten our own future. Such an approach
proves to be unsustainable and as such an older way of being in the world again
starts to become important.
For Vernon individuals such as the ecologist
David Abram (b.1957) and the British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist,
and UN Messenger of Peace, Jane Goodall (b. 1934) help us to recall our distant
original participation. But as he states, it is final participation that human
beings need, a form of consciousness that uses the scientific mind in
conjunction with a more expansive imagination and could “move us to a phase
where we can know ourselves as of nature and observers of nature”. (Vernon.
2012. P. 156)
One photographer who
recognised the divine nature of Animism and sought to animate all things with
the spirit of man was Clarence John Laughlin. Laughlin began to realize that
“this extremely animistic projection rises, ultimately from my profound fear
and disquiet over the accelerating mechanization of man’s life; and the
resulting attempts to stamp out individuality in all the spheres of man’
activity – this whole process being one of the dominant expressions of our
military-industrial society…The creative photographer sets free the human contents of objects; and imparts
humanity to the inhuman world around him”. (Sontag. 2002. P186)
However, it could be said
that rather than knowing ourselves to be of nature Laughlin reinforces the
disconnection with nature in trying to animate all things inanimate with the
spirit of man believing that all objects inherent human contents.
As well as Animism we could
also learn from Confucianism in learning from the past or respecting the past
because it challenges the present.
On People
You meet people on your
travels. Some are simply a casual hello as they pass on their daily routine of
walking the dog or a cursory chat about the surf. While with others you get to
know more in-depth and begin to build relationships, different people from
different backgrounds, cultures, communities and countries. Most are here to
ride the waves and this is our common denominator.
A community develops around a
surf break like Easkey which is ever changing. People come and go and when they
or we have gone then for the most that relationship, however intense is gone. Quite
often, the extent to which you discover anything about other people’s lives is
limited, apart from the now, the waves, the wind, the sun and the rain.
Bibliography
Cotton C, 2007 The Photograph As Contemporary Art Thames
& Hudson: London
De Botton A, 2003 The Art of Travel Penguin: London
Grunenberg C and Pih D, 2011 Magritte A to Z Tate/London
Newby E, 1995 A Book of Travellers’ Tales Pan Books
Ltd: London
Perlmutter D and Koppman D,
1999 Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art:
Contemporary Cross-cultural Perspectives State University
of New York Press: New York
Smyth D Editor, 2012 British Journal of Photography Oct Issue
7805
Sontag S, 2002 On Photography Penguin Group: London
Tolstoy L, 1969 What Is
Art? And Essays on Art London: University Press Oxford
Turner V, 1967 The Forest of Symbols Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press
Turner V, 1969 The Ritual Process Penguin 1969
Various, 1987 The Age of God-Kings 3000-1500 BC Time
Life Books: USA
Vernon M, 2012 God The
Big Questions Quercus: London
Copyright Mark King 2012
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