experience and adventure

There are only two ways in which we can account for a necessary agreement of experience with the concepts of its objects: either experience makes these concepts possible or these concepts make experience possible.

--Immanuel Kant

Critique of Pure Reason

Hey folks,

It's not an uncommon experience for many of us: the nervous grasping of small hands, the motion and upset and soft, floating light muted by smoky clouds. The smell of the dog huddled behind in the way-back seat. Yes, today I went out.

No matter how many times I venture along the noisy streets of the world, I always find myself struck first and foremost by the broad accessibility of its lanes, alleyways, buildings and lawns. As the door opens, so to does the world, and we find ourselves lost for a moment in the sweet, confused agony of pure freedom.

We move through the world in the perfect shelter of the musty car, and arrive at last before the gates of the Library's great marble halls. Another doorway, and another opening into a world no less expansive, not merely in spatial dimension but even into the realms of mind and imagination, where time, space, life itself unfolds into infinitude.

We spent a lot of time in the picture book section. There was a book about a dinosaur that learned how to share.

Now that I rest secure again in my old haunts, I wonder how my world has changed from this experience; how my life changes with every sally beyond the realm of security. I feel comfortable saying that is upon experiences like this that my life has been built, a punctuated equilibrium of sensation and ideas. We can hardly hope to see over the horizon, but as at dawn we see the light of the sun before its rising, so we can look forward to the quiet revelations of future experiences and wonders.

Next week there is to be a film strip. I'll give a full report.

In the meantime, thanks for reading!

-Robo