11 Comments
Dec 17, 2021Liked by Cole Noble

Your descriptions always draw me in, so this was an unexpected treat! I’m wondering about the plane covered by orange leaves now...

Expand full comment

Have you read Rebecca Solnit's essay on the "blue of longing"? It's from her book 'A Field Guide To Getting Lost', and it's been bouncing round my head for a decade now...

Her point about mountains and particularly summits: when they're seen from afar, with that amazing blue tint to them that's so evocative, they stir up all sorts of emotions within us, and we're usually too quick to boil all of them down into a single feeling - "I want to climb/crush/conquer that thing (because obviously that will feel AMAZING)". But we don't stop and enjoy the feeling of wanting to go there. We don't appreciate that delicious frustration of wanting to climb a mountain, as a feeling to enjoy in itself.

(And in my experience, getting to the top of a climb *never* feels as powerful and inspiring as *wanting* to get to the top, or the excitement of attempting to do it. It feels good! But it's never that massive dopamine-rush payoff that I feel like my brain is promising me when I look at a peak from afar.)

Solnit argues that learning to enjoy that desire to climb without immediately turning it into action has a profound effect on us, because that distant blue "is the color of longing for the distances you never arrive in". It helps you deal with the immensity of life experiences we can never achieve. It helps us deal with regret, except in advance, because the feeling of wanting to do a thing is something to enjoy in itself, and if we *can't* do that thing, we can at least appreciate its call in a way that's meaningful and satisfying...

Okay. This is very metaphysical and woffly of me. I can recommend the essay - I just found it here: https://assets.website-files.com/5e9f1c5f2f493e99116fb917/5fa1fda56ee73d962e96afd2_solnit.pdf - and this is an overview of Solnit's argument, by Maria Popova at The Marginalian, formerly Brain Pickings: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/08/20/rebecca-solnit-blue/

Also, I am indeed always this long-winded. *Always*. It's a huge problem. Sorry.

Expand full comment

Very much enjoyed this! The mention of the woman carrying ashes to honor her friend...

Expand full comment

Well done!

Expand full comment

Just read this again... loved it even more.

Expand full comment