Simon Robson- Blog 14- Student Chosen Topic

 As With the Weasel

Simon Robson

12/13/2020

Today I went back to read the excerpt from “Teaching a Stone to Talk”. This excerpt is very interesting as the author takes so much interest in this weasel that he stumbles upon. The author shows a great intention in his attempting to understand the weasel and its life and mind. It is a very good representation of allowing something to communicate with you even when it is not something that speaks. The way he opens up his mind and lets it run free with these ideas of the weasel and what its life is like. This kind of communication and understanding is something that we should all look for when we encounter things in the natural world such as animals, plants, rocks and other things. The author here goes about trying to understand the life of the weasel and what it would be like to be the weasel. These are questions that we can ask ourselves all the time, like: “What is it like to be this tree? What has it been through and what has it seen?”

The author takes this moment to communicate and gain knowledge from this little animal that he runs into. He doesn’t move or try to get closer or take a picture he just locks eyes with him for as long as he can and takes in the interaction. One of the interesting quotes from this is after the weasel darts off again and the author writes “I waited motionless, my mind suddenly full of data and my spirit with pleadings, but he didn’t return.” Here we can see the way that he has taken in this interaction and every detail of it and opened it up to something more than just his mind and his preconceived ideas. He takes the information he was just given and he begins to let his mind and his spirit run away with it. 

After his encounter with the weasel he starts talking about how he wishes he knew how to live like the weasel. He says that he comes to this pond in order to forget how to live. Forget how to live as a human being that is. He seeks to live like the weasel. To forget the past and to live as the world around you continues to turn. To live without rules. These ideas can sound so good in a world where we get caught up so much in the rules. Where we think about the past all the time. We rarely act on our instinct. Everything is analyzed and thought out. We make rational decisions (most of the time). But to be able to live free of all this and to be able to forget as soon as something is gone sounds so simple. I wish to be able to live in the present to that extent. I don’t believe it is possible though. 

As I think about this reading I have to continue to remember that I can find these interactions. I can go out and I can connect with the other in this way. I must open up my mind and my soul and be able to take things in with no biases or motives. This will help me ultimately to understand more about myself and about the world. About the creator and the created. With this kind of knowledge and this ability I can have spiritual conversations and experiences such as the one that this man had with the weasel. Questioning is the key to this. 

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