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Things that don't suck
Mar. 16th, 2003 02:06 pmI went for a short hike in the sleet, yesterday. Going up into the mountains always makes me feel better. (Getting lunch at the Sultan Bakery doesn't suck either.) Wet and rocky with little green things coming up everywhere... four miles feels a lot longer when you spend significant amounts of time trying to figure out how to get across creeks. (In inappropriate footgear -- the original plan called neither for going out that far or really hiking.)
When I was studying Kazakh, a lot was made of how as a people they regarded the mountains as places of refuge.
(There's a wonderful story in particular of a band that was being pursued by their enemies up into the mountains, to whom a white she-wolf presented herself. She seemed to want them to follow her, and lacking any better ideas, they did. She led them to a cave, and into it, and they followed her for days, though a dark tunnel. Finally, they came out the other side and found a rich, beautiful, uninhabited land around a lake -- Baikul? Darn, I'll remember the name of the lake eventually... Kazakhs in general really love wolves.)
I'm trying to remember a phrase, too, which means something like "my heart to the mountains". My Kazakh is so rusty! I think of that a lot when I go up into the mountains. Their bones go so deep, and they are strong and tall and so much bigger than me. There is something so safe, so reassuring about having the mountains around me. When I was a child, I always dreamed that I would run away to live in the woods up there.
Wushu is going well. The big with my lower back is progressing, and suddenly the wushu crouch stance just works -- though I need to strengthen some of the muscles so I can get out of it more easily. (Or more often -- it was fine the first thirty times or so.)
When I was studying Kazakh, a lot was made of how as a people they regarded the mountains as places of refuge.
(There's a wonderful story in particular of a band that was being pursued by their enemies up into the mountains, to whom a white she-wolf presented herself. She seemed to want them to follow her, and lacking any better ideas, they did. She led them to a cave, and into it, and they followed her for days, though a dark tunnel. Finally, they came out the other side and found a rich, beautiful, uninhabited land around a lake -- Baikul? Darn, I'll remember the name of the lake eventually... Kazakhs in general really love wolves.)
I'm trying to remember a phrase, too, which means something like "my heart to the mountains". My Kazakh is so rusty! I think of that a lot when I go up into the mountains. Their bones go so deep, and they are strong and tall and so much bigger than me. There is something so safe, so reassuring about having the mountains around me. When I was a child, I always dreamed that I would run away to live in the woods up there.
Wushu is going well. The big with my lower back is progressing, and suddenly the wushu crouch stance just works -- though I need to strengthen some of the muscles so I can get out of it more easily. (Or more often -- it was fine the first thirty times or so.)
