But I will resume some of the unfinished silence.

[thoreau]

Auguste Rodin's sculpture of Victor Hugo at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco's Lincoln Park

"MY DEAR FRIEND,—I believe a good many conversations with you were left in an unfinished state, and now indeed I don't know where to take them up. But I will resume some of the unfinished silence. I shall not hesitate to know you. I think of you as some elder sister of mine, whom I could not have avoided,—a sort of lunar influence,—only of such age as the moon, whose time is measured by her light. You must know that you represent to me woman, for I have not traveled very far or wide,—and what if I had?... You have helped to keep my life "on loft," as Chaucer says of Griselda, and in a better sense. You always seemed to look down on me as from some elevation,—some of your high humilities,—and I was the better for having to look up. I felt taxed not to disappoint your expectation; for could there be any accident so sad as to be respected for something better than we are? It was a pleasure even to go away from you, as it is not to meet some, as it apprised me of my high relations; and such a departure is a sort of further introduction and meeting. Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."
- Henry David Thoreau in a letter (dated May 22, 1843

---

I've been reading from the letters of Thoreau lately - his side writings were almost more lush than his published works - he let go with verse and passion that he'd never thought one day a middle aged homo would be reading and studying. I posted this whole paragraph because it has so many powerful and delightful things to say.

He is writing to Ralph Waldo Emerson's wife. This letter describes his admiration for her - even though he had to remain at a distance because of her marriage and her higher position in society. I posted it with the image of the Rodin from the Legion of Honor - because - the Rodin sculpture was returned to the artist. Rodin said "oh - no - you misunderstand - it is finished."

Rodin saw Victor Hugo in the rock - but only to the extent that we see today. He didn't see anything more to "finish" about it. The client never paid him for it. so - like Thoreau's writing - whenever I return to the Legion of Honor - - this piece singularly haunts me because of it's finished unfinishedness. (silly term I realize - but it's what I see)

Part of my path these days is finding the way through life - without seeing life or my experience(s) as a path between point A and point B - that there is no "finished" until my eyes close the last time. There is a spark deep inside me that won't accept declaring any part of me finished or "done." My friend Lance althrman always teases me that I never stop to smell the roses or find time to enjoy simply "stopping." I giggle - because one of the reasons I'm in design and the web for a living is that it is always changing and evolving - the new script to learn; the new video technique; the new this - the next that. It's simply how I lived.

but back to Thoreau's letter... I simply adore this section: "....Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes...." Always the charming optimist - the longing in his words says 'I wish I could have you right here every day to talk to and adore and enjoy, but I cannot - so I draw a line of latitude and longitude to where you are each day - and enjoy that like you were right here.' I look back at some people in my life I've had to accept that the best thing to do is to keep them at a distance - and draw that line for myself. Not losing track of them - but more - not fighting the distance that life sometimes places there. Will we meet again, spend time over a great meal and embracing as we see each other - spend time over a great meal - laugh at our great times and not let the pain of a path long left interfere? does that even matter. We build this web of lines and connections to people events and well - perhaps the longitude and latitude Thoreau speaks of us in our hearts. and as we move down the path or across the world - our lives become like the lines in a airline brochure showing all the different places we've flown - or been touched by the compassion of a like minded soul in our lives.

schmaltzy thought perhaps - we're all drawn into peoples gravity - we let them in and on and around us. we do. and when it is done and we've moved on - are we content to resume in unfinished silence? or what. its whats on my mind today thats all.

Comments

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

Shift your paradigm. Instead of being unsettled by the unfinishedness of the Rodin statue, consider that it is complete as is. Reevaluate, and discuss.

Personally, I love that piece. It's like change, caught in mid-metamorph.

Sometimes the distance is part of the statement...

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

I'm totally not unsettled by the Rodin statue - i think is the awesome actually. That Rodin simply said - "thats all of Hugo that I can find in the rock" and proclaimed it finished is so super cool. and I agree - it's "complete" even if it appears unfinished.

thanks for commenting on my long entry - most times when I post that kind of stuff - I get no comments and have this image of a worldwide eyeroll and scroll buttons on mice being used. (chortle) but I do write it for myself - to record when I have those kinds of thought puzzles.

[audrabaudra.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking of your quotation from Thoreau for awhile. Was going to respond straightaway, then thought, No, I'll let that one simmer.

There's a lot of ambiguity in his words, isn't there? With latitude and longitude and distance...perhaps he was saying that he measured the growth of his thought by where he placed Emersonian thought in space and time. Mrs Emerson seems to have had her own thoughts, her own system of being, and Thoreau responds to her as a cipher of domestic life and how to live, as well. So the entire Emerson household is something that he responds to, that resonates for him, but from which he's separated himself in space in order to live his own life.

I dunno, just playing around. Thoreau's ideas are maybe something that we respond to on a different level than analytical.

Like yesterday, after reading this, I was thinking that my ex-husband is someone at a distance from me, latitude/longitude-wise, and in other respects. Yet we still know each other, we've known each other since I was 20 years old, we still talk occasionally, and I often think of him as a marker of where I was and where I've come to. I don't measure my growth or change *against* him, that's not it at all, but in relation to who I was in when I was married to him compared to who I am now. The perspective makes my changes as a person seem spacious inside myself, even over the past 5 years.

I very much like "Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes." I like the idea of influences at a distance, too, as those milestones we can turn around to see stretching out behind us.

Thanks, Bob. I appreciate the literature-based discussions, and you've turned me on to Thoreau through your blog. Thanks for that, too!

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

Robert - I know that for myself, I often think about the thoughts I would share, the conversations I would have, with those once my life that are no longer, or that are alive but for whatever reason have drifted away.

I know my id won't accept that kind of final closure ... so I suspect this keeps me sane (to the degree that I am, anyway :>))

Probably it also explains my non-atheism; I need for there to be some form of afterlife where we can be together again.

Thank you so much for this post and your thoughts.