Esteemed Reader

by Jason Stern, July 28, 2008

Esteemed Reader of Our Magazine:

The gaggle of three and four-year-old children with their parents dispersed from the fire circle and picked their way over rocks and logs into the woods. Our nature teacher had suggested we find a “sit-spot” where we would go and be aware. The sense-task of the day was to use our “deer ears” and listen to the sounds of the world. But first was to find our spot.

“Here it is,” Asher said, without hesitation. I followed him to a small group of stones under a couple of maple trees. I was reminded of the scene in The Teachings of Don Juan in which aspiring shaman Carlos is told to find his beneficial spot on a porch (there is also the added pressure of a destructive spot that could be lethal if inhabited). Carlos searches all night trying to “see” the spot. But Asher had no doubt. This was his spot.

We sat down, and put our hands behind our ears, which amplified the sounds.

“What do you hear?” I asked after a while.

“I hear my knowledge, Dad.”

“What does it sound like?”

“It sounds like wind and trees. And birds…I have a lot of knowledge, Dad.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Thirteen gallons.”

Returning to the circle, there was an atmosphere of stillness in the group of adults and kids. I, for one, was seeing with fresh eyes. Trees, earth, faces, looked clean. In the newfound silence, alas, an association, with William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”