online:28 june 2008 modified: 24 may 2008 24 may 2008 39 steps
in fiction and reality
...pausing here for a picnic and to write this...
the fern leaves have grown so much since i was here ten days ago that they cease to resemble bare tree trunks and are now more like adult trees with many branches and foliage...
...and this evening there is a strong and gusty wind from the north east... i put on a pullover... thinking as i do so of what i've learnt today from re-reading The Stress of Life by Hans Selye (a classic, like most of the books that i've kept in my collection, literary or constructive)...
...what i learnt from him is that the wind, or a list of things to do, or a deadline, an interview, strong sunshine, or any of one's circumstance can be felt as a eustress (enjoyable) or as a distress (unpleasant)... depending on how one reacts to it, consciously or otherwise... and that, if one's reaction is excessive (or becomes habitual) it can cause electrochemical body changes that are either within one's capacity to recover or are beyond it... they can be life-enhancing or damaging, or even life-threatening...
...as i write i feel wind is becoming too great as my north east side and my writing hand are getting cold though i am enjoying these thoughts and don't want to stop until i've written them...
...now i stop to stretch a bit and to look at the 'whole trees in motion' of the high end of the Beaufort Scale of wind velocity... and drink some water...
...and now here comes a four-engined jumbo flying about 5000 feet (about 2 kilometres) and its noise which could be DIstressing if i was subject to it all day or if i was fearful of aeroplanes (whereas in fact i like anything to do with aviation)... but i don't much like wind, preferring stillness, unless it is actually stormy...
...but now, about an hour after coming to sit here at these real steps named after fictional ones, i am enjoying the sight of trees and cloud responding to high wind (though I'm glad to be in a clearing in case a tree is blown down!)
...reading what i've just written i like the unexpected variety of it... and i'm wondering if or how the semi-fictional quality of the 39 steps is going to relate to these practical, philosophic and scientific findings of Hans Selye (who is not afraid of mixing these categories)... for the moment i feel that the scientific character of his thoughts is driving out the imaginative, despite his openness of mind!
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