Monday, November 10, 2008

Exploration: Final Frontiers

The Introduction

To wrap up October's Exploration theme, I asked doctor and writer Rene Allen to share some thoughts, as her personal and professional experience seemed to lend themselves well to the topic. You may also want to explore her article on Tucson's Rattlesnake Bridge in the October 2008 issue of Highlights Magazine. Thank you, Rene.

The Blog

When I was young, Disney produced “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” It has since been remade, but seems lackluster to my memory of that first cinematic adventure to the earth’s core and its many remarkable discoveries. The exit route was also dramatic – I recall a sort of cup made of stone containing the explorers and a blast from a volcano.

Sarah has asked I share a few thoughts on this kind of exploration that takes us to the inside, in this case, to the core and center of ourselves where the landscape is mutable and where you, too, will make remarkable discoveries.


On this trip, we may study the geography of memory. There will be mountains and valleys, vistas of swelling emotional recall and those which flit passed with only small tugs at our heartstrings. A well-known character from literature whose seasonal remembrance is almost here, Ebenezer Scrooge, was deeply touched as he was taken by the Spirit of Christmas Past back to his own childhood. Many of us hold unresolved in memory pieces and chunks of our childhood that can be like landminds in some circumstances, going off with an emotional ker-bang that leaves us stunned. Returning to such memories is not for the faint-hearted or ill-supported, yet they often demand one way or another we return and finish the business of growing up.

There is also the landscape of contemplation, of search for answers and truth, where you let your mind wander, permit it to construct for you the solution to whatever problem frustrates the surface of your existence. The answer is often a spontaneous thought that comes unexpectedly, as a whisper or image, perhaps, but also having a kind of resonance that it is, indeed, the solution you are seeking. This is the kind of pleasant journeying through the unconscious that is whacked into hiding by anxiety and the perfectionist’s need to always be right. It is a tender, fragile thing, and requires serenity to flourish.

There is also the exciting landscape of creativity. Here is where, with you in the director’s chair and your mind the screen of your own talent and creativity, you let go, trust the process, and watch and listen and feel. Then through your own vision, through your fingers and ears and eyes, you translate, produce, and refine. Your inner landscape has evolved, been changed and solidified. You have made it real, turned it into story or art or music or whatever and shared it.

The thrill, I believe, is similar to that last wild ride from the center of the earth on the breath of a volcano.

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