Symphony in the parc…

  So furniture is still making its way between old and new apartments and the tight unruly pile of books lying on the floor is slowly diminishing. 

  The weighty foundational volumes of Durant, Spengler and Campbell have found their place on the lower shelves of the cases. They are the key to it all, provide the overarching or underlying narrative (depending upon your perspective I suppose), the ‘meta’ story hidden in the vast informational confusion of history. As an aside as far as I can tell neither Spengler nor Campbell as grand ‘meta’ pattern providers are taught in school, which goes a long way towards the general state of bafflement that prevails today when dealing with global events. See that underlying arc with your pineal eye so to speak, with insight, and everything else—including our own infinitely small but personally significant arcs—falls cooperatively into place. 

  Everything becomes ‘detail’ to the One Great Narrative which here at the Omphalos Cafe I choose to frame as “Life is ALL there is!”

  Ok, art, and specifically Elie Faure’s History of Art, ranks very close to the Big Three and truly is inseparable from them. It recounts the meandering tale of humankind’s inner development and response through plastic expression: architecture, sculpture, and painting. It belongs beside Campbell especially. And then as a personal interest now bordering on obsession my collection of books on Photography sit next to the art volumes. 

  Above Durant’s Story of Civilization I’ve placed more contemporary historical interests such as nineteenth and twentieth century volumes, principle among them is Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. After all, the U.S.’s rise and fall, or more like subsidence, has been and continues to be the primary factor in comprehending where we are at today across the entire globe. 

  Next to books on the US is my small collection on the history of Canada, Quebec, and Montreal, my native land and city. We experience the grand arc of historic Life on a largely local level; without the former we have no way of putting our local events and current affairs into the larger cosmic context now stretching across the entire planet and we flounder when confronted by the ‘meta’ global happenings. 

  There, the Big Stuff is done, and the two bottom rungs on two separate bookshelves are crammed to capacity! 

  It’s breakfast time and after that I plan on filling a thermos with my morning coffee and heading across the street into Parc LaFontaine to take in the summer sights and sounds. 

  Have a wonderful day!