ASEBL Journal – Volume 10 Issue 1, January 2014
is “gentle, respectful, tolerant and compassionate” (CN: 76). He shows “patience” and
has a well-looked after body (see CN: 114-117) that’s “relaxed and tranquil, balanced
and poised, yet possessed of vitality and energy, of a still power” (CN: 76). Above all,
he shows humility: “those with mature experience of natural life appreciate that nature
is a ‘great cauldron’ of ‘creation-transformation’ and accept with equanimity their
own subjection to the process” (CN: 53). “I’m less likely to ‘make too much of
myself,’” explains Cooper, “when I learn that the energy coursing through me also
courses through everything” (CN: 88).
4. Modernity and non-convergence.
While I am convinced that my own attempts to become attuned to nature’s profundity,
especially in Craster, have a desirable psychological effect on me, and while I feel as
though I do indeed thereby become more like the sage Cooper describes, I don’t feel
confident that the analogy with water is a strong enough foundation on which to build
a comprehensive model of wise comportment. Granted, the analogy itself recognizes
“the difficulty of describing this state,” but the convergent mindset needs further
elaboration.
Cooper recognizes this, which is why the main proportion of his account seeks to
elucidate the not