Modus Operandi
19 Feb. 06 Sunday Evening
The other night I estimated I've walked or jogged approximately 25,000 miles in the last 24 years. My favorite routes are in & about Santa Monica & Venice Boardwalk and on a diverse number of paths & streets in Santa Monica, Venice, Westwood & West L.A. I also have walked & jogged all about and within Isla Vista home of UCSB & in various back streets & main thoroughfares of Goleta. In all this pedestrianizing I have become an observer of everything that crosses my path---Nature's million secrets. But also the human world of man-made objects. Houses & cars rank first in that latter occupation in my judgment. And I have acquired the steadfast & concentrated gaze of the true esthete when it comes to cars & houses & the buildings of the city. I am a city man who loves the green of the breathing world & the blue sky.
The invention of the automobile was the crowning event of the twentieth century from my point of view. A car is a cool form of heat. It has a hot motor inside a cool frame. And the brilliance of scientific engineering now gives us almost unbelievable elegance in these latest smoothest incarnations of the gods. This thought is not new to me. It has inhabited me for the last 21 years I have been car-conscious here near the true blue sea where so many owners of automobiles happen to be female students at the university. They give me great confidence these women behind the wheels of these shining gods. I am a confirmed Walker. Yet, I love cars. Even as I am aware of the damage fossil fuel is wreaking on the earth. Cars are not to blame. The shallowness of human being is here at fault. We must purify our engines.
I have witnessed these shining Eminences from my eternal pedestrian posture, as I say. When I walk I own the earth & the architecture I behold. And often I find it the architecture beholding me. It is so. I read the book & the book is reading me. I walk the earth & I find the earth & its man-made objects giving me back their gaze. Every house is also a Face, a Body. A Personality. It has a history. And so does every car on the road. Or in the drive way or garage. And I find these two prevalent structures---the House & The Automobile the most fascinating art objects in my one & only Life. I am amazed by those apartment houses along the Venice Boardwalk as one heads south from Windward all the way to Venice Pier and then beyond to the little stone pier. That whole stretch of buildings is mine. I own them lock stock & barrel. And I am their sole owner as far as I know.
O yes, there are landlords with official papers "proving" property rights. But when I walk my eyes and ears command the elements that surround me. I have never in all these years & the hundreds of times I have taken that sacred walk witnessed any competition. Everybody else seems concerned for the dog or is on a bicycle or in a hurry to get to work or is talking. The human race is a completely distracted species. Mainly of course money & the possessions it can load up for us. But the absolute Beauty of those buildings & of the sky above them & The Sea off to the side belongs to me. And even now as I sit in this room 125 miles away from that lovely God-kissed walkway& the majestic sky above it & the great flat-bellied Pacific off to the side-----I carry it with me. It is deep inside me. It has become me. To Love is to take complete possession of a thing & to own it in the only authentic Robert L. Greenfield sense of actual Ownership. This is not a matter for lawyers or theologians or art professors. Beauty belongs as it has belonged since the beginning of time to the eyes & ears & noses & tongues to: The Lovers. And this seems to me worth saying to you---you Readers in cyberspace who still have time to listen & to see & taste & to assimilate-----to Wonder!
RLG Copyright 2006
The other night I estimated I've walked or jogged approximately 25,000 miles in the last 24 years. My favorite routes are in & about Santa Monica & Venice Boardwalk and on a diverse number of paths & streets in Santa Monica, Venice, Westwood & West L.A. I also have walked & jogged all about and within Isla Vista home of UCSB & in various back streets & main thoroughfares of Goleta. In all this pedestrianizing I have become an observer of everything that crosses my path---Nature's million secrets. But also the human world of man-made objects. Houses & cars rank first in that latter occupation in my judgment. And I have acquired the steadfast & concentrated gaze of the true esthete when it comes to cars & houses & the buildings of the city. I am a city man who loves the green of the breathing world & the blue sky.
The invention of the automobile was the crowning event of the twentieth century from my point of view. A car is a cool form of heat. It has a hot motor inside a cool frame. And the brilliance of scientific engineering now gives us almost unbelievable elegance in these latest smoothest incarnations of the gods. This thought is not new to me. It has inhabited me for the last 21 years I have been car-conscious here near the true blue sea where so many owners of automobiles happen to be female students at the university. They give me great confidence these women behind the wheels of these shining gods. I am a confirmed Walker. Yet, I love cars. Even as I am aware of the damage fossil fuel is wreaking on the earth. Cars are not to blame. The shallowness of human being is here at fault. We must purify our engines.
I have witnessed these shining Eminences from my eternal pedestrian posture, as I say. When I walk I own the earth & the architecture I behold. And often I find it the architecture beholding me. It is so. I read the book & the book is reading me. I walk the earth & I find the earth & its man-made objects giving me back their gaze. Every house is also a Face, a Body. A Personality. It has a history. And so does every car on the road. Or in the drive way or garage. And I find these two prevalent structures---the House & The Automobile the most fascinating art objects in my one & only Life. I am amazed by those apartment houses along the Venice Boardwalk as one heads south from Windward all the way to Venice Pier and then beyond to the little stone pier. That whole stretch of buildings is mine. I own them lock stock & barrel. And I am their sole owner as far as I know.
O yes, there are landlords with official papers "proving" property rights. But when I walk my eyes and ears command the elements that surround me. I have never in all these years & the hundreds of times I have taken that sacred walk witnessed any competition. Everybody else seems concerned for the dog or is on a bicycle or in a hurry to get to work or is talking. The human race is a completely distracted species. Mainly of course money & the possessions it can load up for us. But the absolute Beauty of those buildings & of the sky above them & The Sea off to the side belongs to me. And even now as I sit in this room 125 miles away from that lovely God-kissed walkway& the majestic sky above it & the great flat-bellied Pacific off to the side-----I carry it with me. It is deep inside me. It has become me. To Love is to take complete possession of a thing & to own it in the only authentic Robert L. Greenfield sense of actual Ownership. This is not a matter for lawyers or theologians or art professors. Beauty belongs as it has belonged since the beginning of time to the eyes & ears & noses & tongues to: The Lovers. And this seems to me worth saying to you---you Readers in cyberspace who still have time to listen & to see & taste & to assimilate-----to Wonder!
RLG Copyright 2006
posted by rlg at 8:18 PM
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