![]() One can point to the dreamy procession of boats that Claude Monet drew at Argenteuil, conveniently leaving out the smokestacks of factories that surrounded the town in order to capture what could be real than what really was. The various methods that humans have crafted to seek a temporary reprieve from everyday life are well-represented in artistic traditions around the world, and examples of renditions abound among Harvard’s collections. And if social interaction is ever insufficient in helping us withstand the monotony of the workweek, we can always briefly go full Byron: venturing literally into the “pathless woods” to seek Nature herself. After all, the conversations we have every day, from Sunday brunch gossip to water cooler talk and barista banter, represent some of the most potent social glues holding communities together in America. Of course, we do not only find escape in following the lives of fictional others. Whether it’s Ross Geller or Superman, these are figures whose desires and destinies are more limited by the screenwriter’s pen than traffic or bounced checks. For instance, we watch movies and television sitcoms, melding ourselves into the characters onscreen who seemingly never have to pay rent or file a W-4. Lucia?Īs escaping to the Caribbean is rarely a viable course of action - at least for those of us who wish to maintain our obligations, livelihoods, and grade point averages - we naturally drift to less ambitious ways to abscond from the diktats of reality. To put it another way: How many of you have ever had the desire, however fleeting, to drop everything and take a two-week sojourn to St. Even so, there certainly lies in all of us to some degree, a tiny Mephistophelian voice that, rather than tempt with material pleasures, goads us to gleefully abandon the present. It comes to no surprise then that we often use our brief moments of respite to mentally teleport to a fantastical world, where all is forgiven and life is a lot more simple and serene.įor those more burdened than others by the drudgery of daily life, this escapist itch is predictably stronger. Defined by motion and unforgiving of sloth, the demands of modernity offer but few opportunities to stop and catch one’s breath. ![]() ![]() So waxed Lord Byron’s “Childe Harold” about what surely has been the unspoken sentiment of many. I love not man the less, but Nature more…” ![]() Pathless woods, steeped in peace and towering between heaven and earth would, I think, have that answer waiting for us if we were receptive enough to hear it.“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, In the woods there must be a sense that time has ceased and that for a moment we pause on the edge of some extraordinary discovery, that for the space of a heartbeat we are close to knowledge, on the verge of the solution to all problems, on the threshold of an answer. And, unless a leaf fell or a bird sang, there would be silence in the woods except for one's own footsteps which would, I dare say, be hushed also. And, looking up, a patch of bright blue sky. " ~Lord Byron So walk with me a little while in the pathless woods and reflect upon the unknown.I find myself enchanted by Byron's " pathless woods," and it isn't hard to visualize them: tall, crowding trees, between which you make your way the scent of earth and foliage and of evergreens. "There is a pleasure in the pathless woods. ![]()
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