I know a man from Uganda who moved to Canada with his wife a few years ago. When he learned that I had lived in Guinea for a short time his first question to me was: "When you went into the jungle, what did you feel?" I thought back to my many treks through those great forests with canopies towering over the earth, blocking out the sun.. I thought about hunting there for meat, battling vine and jungle mountain, breaking suddenly through the foliage to see a great panorama of rain forest and mist, rainbow and endless green life.
"I have not been able to think clearly since leaving my village," he said. "When I am in the forest I can collect my thoughts, but here in the city I cannot." He smiled and looked down at his feet.
This story is telling and poignant. Thanks for the great post.
ReplyDeleteI recall Joseph Campbell re-telling a story of an African forest tribal member who was with an anthropologist, who had never been to the edge of the jungle or seen the savanna. When they stood on the edge of the forest looking out across the vista, this man felt dizzy, & found it remarkable that here, animals were so tiny. They were looking at a herd of elephants a mile or more away..
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