Purchase a copy of
The Lively Place to read the rest of Kendrick’ s engaging tribute to Mount Auburn.
exclaimed,‘ There goes a Sainte-Terrer,’ a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander.” So every walk can become, under sly pretneses perhaps, a pilgrimage, a hike to the Holy Land. Still, striding with purpose or ambling with note, any walk is in the direction of something sacred.“ So we saunder toward the Holy Land, till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever he has done... as warm and serene and golden as on a bank-side in autumn,” Thoreau concludes.
As long as you are lost in Mount Auburn, let me offer a little advice. Keep moving and the circling roads will not let you be disoriented for too long. They are designed to curl back upon one another, like the spiral in a seashell or the twist in your DNA or the wheeling of the stars above your head( though I trust you’ ll be out and striding past Story Chapel before they appear). The founders would not let you down. You are supposed to only feel lost, not actually be lost.
And as you go, pay attention. Never let a perambulation in this place be wasted— look up and look around. A lot is happening. A blue heron is gliding overhead. A raccoon is shuffling along the rose hedge to your right. The clouds above you— if you read them right and sense the wind picking up and lifting the silver undersides of the shaking trees— tell you it is going to rain tomorrow. You just passed the grave of the man who invented parcel post delivery.
“ You can observe a lot by watching,” said Yogi Berra, who said a great many things he probably never said, but you will find it true.
These vistas were designed to confuse you, in a gentle way; so circle on. Turn something off, even if it is just the insistent jabber in your head. You would be surprised how much you will hear when you are silent, and the surrounding air surrenders up its reverberations. It is a good tradeoff. Then you can sense the wind moving through the tall grasses, and hear the rough caw of an obnoxious blue jay.”
Purchase a copy of
The Lively Place to read the rest of Kendrick’ s engaging tribute to Mount Auburn.
Copies are available for purchase through the Friends of Mount Auburn online and at our Visitors Center. Members receive a discount off the cover price.
© Matthew A. Longo, 2015
2016 Volume 2 | 19