My Dear Helven ~
You have given current substance to a saying here, that I have always believed in and found true ~ "Good things are worth waiting for" ~ I have been feeling [as you know], with this sentence of the poem, that I'm in the right neighbourhood, but I just can't find the right house. I'm glad you're finally here, helping to locate it
.
My heart is dancing with joy and leaping like your dolphin from the water, with happiness ~
first, that I invited you to this thread;
second, that you so readily accepted;
third, that I insisted that we not bypass the "lowly"
and tiny acorn. I am thrilled! It's not [
at all!] that all of your exquisite verbosity
[well-divided into its separate postings] would not have eventually emerged, or at least congealed, in such fashion. It may, or may not, have come in such detail. Yet, who can be certain as to which it would have been. In situations such as these, one person's thoughts play off and trigger those of another. Linmag's simply stating the saying itself, about acorns growing into oaks, seemed to congeal a line of thought for you. I am so anxious for Sohbet to see
your offerings based on
your observations
. We may find ourselves blinded by the gold stars he places on your forehead [a common, positive-reenforcement practice that teachers use with school children here
].
The way that you have developed the meaning and significance of the acorn is simply beautiful. Your contrasting of the extremes is
so true, and something that I had missed altogether ~ what a gift this exercise is!
I want to divert only long enough to say that you have caused me to miss Autumn, and to highlight "It’s a wonderful, magic season. Trees are covered with yellow and red foliage; the leaves rustle underfoot. The weather is rainy, as rule, and humid air is full of smells of earth and leaves. Sometimes clouds clear away and then everything is bathed in sunlight – the sun reflects in puddles, plays in wet golden foliage." This, amongst many other things you said in your description, is so vivid for me. "So when an acorn is talked about the shadows of memories of that slipping autumnal beauty flash through the mind"......yes. Surely so, I would think, with Leonard as well, from his childhood and his years of youth in Montreal and New York. I also would like to ask who is the quoted person, who reveres autumn, as well, and has written this beautiful poem?
You have brought so many layers to this! The tiny acorn holds so much. The uniqueness and depth of your perspectives really open new doors with this. There are many of your sentences worth repeating, but these thoughts in particular add new dimensions for me, and I feel they are supportable within the poem:
~ "...thinking over those merged “references” to inexpressible beauty and almost total pointlessness, we can recall, for example, that romantic craziness which makes sometimes the loving ones to do delightful foolish things for the sake of their beloved..."
~ [Even though I, personally, have always loved the look of acorns, with their smooth skin and tiny, bumpy hats, that fit so well ~ though here, in my yard in Florida, the fallen ones that I pick up don't have hats], I still appreciate the way you've applied your thoughts, "An acorn itself isn’t an item of beauty. And what’s more, it refers to the ephemeral and even 'dying' beauty 'of nature's farewell bloom'."
~ "Or, rather, we may mean here something of
exaggeratedly imperceptible value." [italics mine to highlight this brilliant way of expressing some of the contrast I referred to earlier]
~ "And let’s recall that in order to “pick up” that “something” one undertakes some extraordinary –exaggeratedly extraordinary - actions [he “whips” or moves incredibly, “unfathomably” fast]."
~ "We have here an evident disparity between means and goals – and an exaggerated one. And we can’t but think of an absurdity of such an action."
YES!!! Very well said!
~ "...where the absurd actualized in the act of belief turns out to be the one and only true way of relating to the divine…" I believe that even your Kierkegaard reference holds up, in the sense that "If You Are Lucky".....you will live a divine life, relating to the divine, doing the absurdest of things, whilst you live out A Life of Errands, helping other people.
~ "And perhaps your life will be like one of a saint who shares with others the seeds of his wisdom which may come up within their hearts and yield the good fruits afterwards." I like this very much, Helven. I had thoughts along this line, as well.....some imparting of Leonard's wisdom that might eventually result in the parables of others in the years that follow. I just didn't know how to make the whipping down the 405 fit into it. I kept getting stopped at, "Whip down the 405 to discover ["pick up"? some bit of wisdom that, later shared, might eventually result in its own parable???] ~ I finally let it go, in lieu of
literally picking up something.
Yet, even so, Leonard's actions [and I use "Leonard" as I'm speaking, as opposed to the speaker in the poem, or the "you" that the poem is directed to ~ for purposes of discussion, at this point, I'll be saying Leonard] of whipping down the freeway, for something dramatically inconsequential could, in fact, end up the substance of a parable.
~ "Perhaps, burning with your beautiful desire to make someone else happy, you’ll do a lot of foolish things but you’ll still live for others with fervour of a lover." This also falls in well with the beauty and truth found in the extremes, expressed with the 405/acorn/parable sentence. Actually, your
entire last paragraph should be quoted here. You've done exceedingly well, Helven, and I feel privileged to be in this classroom with you. Your command of English, by the way, is incredible. You've written a poetic piece of prose, in and of itself, in the expressing of your ideas. So beautiful.
~ Even though I'm very familiar with the saying regarding not casting your pearls before swine, I wasn't aware of acorns being actual food for pigs in Russia ~ nor of their symbology in Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism. Very interesting information. The connotations here for "pig" are very similar to what they are in Russia ~ perhaps some cultural sharing we did during the Cold War
?
Today, I was [
synchronicity ], however, looking through one of my friend Ron's catalogs that offer, for sale, expensive, unique stuff. I saw complex-patterned and richly-coloured shawls from Russia, and thought of you ~ So, it's quite fitting your response would finally arrive tonite!
[
WELL! Since I already have 1 Edit notation, due to elaboration on the above paragraph on the pigs, I might as well make it
2 Edits, to say what I'd
intended to include the very
first time around ~ that I'll need a little more elaboration/explanation from you regarding the more negative connotations of the acorns, i.e. the pigs, if they apply in the poem. Thanks
!]
*************************************************************
Now, just to add a tidbit of information, for your own edification [as well as possible future, culinary use], aside from your interpretation of the acorn lines. I learned awhile back, but only fairly recently tried, a bit of information from my former husband. He learned it from one of
Carlos Castanedas's books. There really is a practical use for acorns, aside from aesthetic [and symbolic] decorating .
You can use acorns in your cooking. After they've fallen to the ground, you pick them up and place them in a pan of water. You dispose of those that float, as they are undesirable in some fashion, recognizable through their floating. You then crack them open and remove their meat. When you cook rice, you cook them in with it, and when cooked, they have approximately the texture of a mushroom, a subtle flavour, and nutritional value, as well . I promise you won't grow into a might oak, Helven ~ and I hope you'll try it sometime 
. It's Fall here now, and I have some in my refrigerator right now, that I'll be using this weekend. I tried his suggestion, and love them.
Now , how this little bit of information, regarding our little acorn, may or may not make any difference in your beautiful interpretation, I have no idea. I honestly don't think it alters it at all. I just wanted to share it with you.
Finally, Helven, I'm going to sleep tonite feeling very gratified and grateful, for your valuable input; as well as excited, about all the places we're still going to go with this poem! I've been checking for your "Acorn response" several times a day, and this evening, I hit gold!!! Thank you for your seriousness. Thank you for your depth.
Love,
Elizabeth
. It's great that your plan is to integrate our ideas on it 
~ and I look forward to your own verbosity 
. A new route to health and wellness may be in the next pill with light-golden glass 
Actually, I wasn’t quite serious writing my “Discourse on the Acorn”. Of course, it doesn’t mean all of that was nothing but joke. But it was rather like a game or playing with meanings. Well, games may be serious too but they are still games… I hope you won’t be disappointed by these words. I wouldn’t like to disappoint you!
Of course, I meant only some our folk-tales and fables about pigs. 
