+4 votes
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in Arts & Humanities by

Before moving forward, I'll move backward a bit by asking if you'd ever seen Tom Hanks in the movie, "Cast Away."  In certain quarters, the more smarmy among the regal film critics chastised him for his...."lack of dialogue," regarding the movie segment where he is marooned on the island.  In a simple answer to his critics, which I thought totally eviscerated that jaded lot, he simply replied that, that was the point.  He was alone on an island, and the salient sell of the thing was that the audience was being exposed to the very thing someone in his characters position would have been exposed to....

I've considered that ever since, and it's true.  We really ARE a saturated lot when it comes to cinema.  We expect every "t" crossed, and every "I" dotted.  How bloody cool that Hanks  conveyed the obvious, and I've remembered it since, which brings me to the main.

I'll just cut to it with where we all find our selves these day.  No matter where we are, we're all in some form of lock down or another if we're interested in stayin' as safe as we can.  Having put the job world in my rear view mirror, I'm blessed in that I can now walk out my door and over to my shop, which I'm setting up for woodworking.  It consumes me I suppose.  I've been gutting the barn of non-essential crap, buying woodworking equipment and building work stations.  I'm rather luvvin' it and this "isolating in place" really is not isolating for me.  I still go to a store to buy what I need, and recreationally, though the beaches are closed to gathering "on" the beach, I still go----I just sit in my truck....and fail that, I can be out the door and in the woods within minutes after crossing the river.  I'm fine.....and, I hope, no matter where you may live, you are too.

Anyway, bringing this full circle, this thread is about our different worlds of isolation, what life provides us and what we do with it.  It's why I'm introducing you to Nik Rijavec, an interesting guy from Slovenia.  He's building a log cabin in isolation with limited tools.  The reason I find his videos so compelling is that, like Cast Away, in the first video, he never utters a word---hah!.....the only thing you hear are nature's answers to his efforts and, why I understand that, this alone may be the catalyst which is gonna see the majority leave.  I guess I've posted this for that minority who are masochistic enough to dare  stay......and watch the first  episode to it's end.  There's a method to my madness of course.  Considering this to be the highlight of early morning with hot coffee and breakfast, time has flitted away with my lap top in place, and breakfast balancing on the arm of my couch as I sit there in jammie bottoms and a sweatshirt living a bit vicariously through someone else's dream.

Cheers and...on to the show.   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjAl_0yeKwUAQ2A3tQFcnA


2 Answers

+2 votes
by

What I liked is that he is getting zillions of views! Nope I did not stay for the whole thing, but flitted through several episodes to glean the general concept...and I liked it very much, also your comparison to Castaway, Hanks & Wilson!

You know what comes to mind... for me...long time ago I was reading the novels of Elizabeth Goudge, books with titles like THE SCENT OF WATER...well, she wrote about life after the Industrial Revolution. Before mechanization and industry, people would earn their living making shoes by hand, or chairs by hand, the beautiful doweling and such. 

And so Goudge's complaint of the Industrial Revolution? 

They Have Stolen Our Silence! 

Well, underneath all heart-breaking tragedy of COVID-19, now that we know we must isolate/social distance/quarantine to survive, maybe some people transform the tragedy into a chance to discover their own silence.

Two Meter Distance Determines Our Existence - Two Meter Distance ...

by
+1

I agree.  Yet who welcomes silence anymore. 8-)  How sad that you'd have to know it as other than a temporary exposure today? I find the books and author you suggest compelling.  I should look them up I think.

In it's stead, I know that for me,  I can still find solitude in a short trip to the sea to sit on a bench.   I get your point however and it's well said.  I don't think society is capable of sustaining that volume of silence anymore......witness all of those who have broken the requests to stay home, trading wellness for rubbing shoulders with strangers.

I'm a huge fan of Downton Abbey.......absolutely loved the series and still watch the re-runs.  I remember the episode where, a wireless was brought in specifically just to hear the King's first speech over the air waves.  Such a moment!  You'd have to watch the episode, but it dovetails in to this whole idea of less being more I suppose.

I understand we are all under quarrantine and that we are to stay home, or at least limit our contact with our fellow man, but I have to say.....I've been perfectly fine with that.  I stay busy in my shop, a walk in the woods or even taking a book or newspaper down to the beach in my truck where I "quarrantine" myself in my vehicle, but still, I am allowed to experience the beauty of the sounds of nature.  No volume knob there of course, but life, as indicated by the video(s) is what we choose to make it.  How enriching, and we don't always have to utter a sound to appreciate the day.

+2 votes
by

Looks too much like work, but to each his own...

by
+1

and yet, think about how much flitting about you could do in such a cabin.

by

I prefer flitting about in open spaces. No telling what that guy might be up to after being cooped up in a log cabin for months. :ermm:

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