Of Heat, Hobbits and Time Immemorial
It’s a blazingly hot Sunday afternoon. Temperatures have rocketed up to 100 degrees and everybody’s feeling the heat. We were at the Buddhist centre this morning where we sat together in the Chenrezik practice. Everyone lingered afterwards, unwilling to leave the beautiful space of the shrine room. Eventually we ventured out onto the streets and scampered to the cool safety of the car. The ubiquity of air conditioning here makes fools of us all!
We’ve taken our daughter to swim with her friend at a fairly new outdoor aquatics facility in El Segundo this afternoon. It’s a pleasant spot to spend time. I sit and watch as they shriek, swim and splash, guarded indulgently by my husband; far more water’s accomplice than I. The treat of daddy’s participation in such an event elevates the playdate’s status to one of high fun for both girls!
I often experience a time out of mind moment when watching the children play. There’s a shimmering scene just beyond the borders of memory; I reach out to touch it but it dances away laughingly. Childhood and its attendant innocence are such fleeting phenomena. I sit inside these moments and open my eyes to their rare beauty. In no time at all, the whistle will blow and their trains will depart the station, heading down the tracks to the rest of their lives. But for now they are here, the hour is golden bright and the energy of youth flows with delightful insouciance.
Speaking of time out of mind, I was struck by the most unexpected of literary echoes this week. As I drive around our city of sunshine I’m often listening to this podcast or that. A favourite is The Rest is History with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. It’s excellent on a wide range of topics and I always learn something new whenever I listen. This week they’ve been talking about JRR Tolkien. Two episodes full of fascinating historical anecdotes, delivered with the wit and lateral thinking that this podcast is noted for. They’ve succeeded in awakening my interest in this author to such an extent that I’ve ordered one of the biographical works which they recommended and am now considering the prospect of reading Lord Of The Rings.
I read the Hobbit many moons ago when my son did but rather carelessly I must admit. When Tom Holland was reading aloud the introductory paragraphs I paid attention and was caught by something lurking in the second paragraph.
‘This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable’
‘Time out of mind.’ I’m suddenly on high alert in the world of Dylan, Not Dark Yet and other classics from this particular album. From one universe to another the shining web of culture is spun and spun anew through literature. Words have indescribable power and resonance. An expression such as time out of mind carries every atom of its usage over the centuries within it. The more open and knowledgable our minds, the more we can feel the power of the language we take so much for granted. Spellbinding indeed.
Turns out, when you dig around a bit, that there’s a fairly recent movie called Time Out Of Mind. It stars Richard Gere and it depicts one man’s life set adrift amidst the homeless landscape of New York City. I haven’t seen it but I can’t help but feel that Dylan’s album must have been on the mind of whoever came up with the film’s title.
The bell bringing free swim to its end has rung and our watery afternoon draws to a close. We fly back down the freeway powered by electricity. The Santa Monica Mountains tower above the near horizon; nature in her vast Californian emanation reminding we creatures of a day of our true size and duration. Have a wonderful week!
