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Cornel

 

September 29th

 

Michaelmas. A good time to consider man’s relations to the yard (or, in common parlance – his relation to nature). Is it one-one, or one-ten or instead more irrationally one-∏?

I saw a film about composer John Cage; this thing happened to him – first he discovered that music can be created from everything, then he somehow ended up living far from New York, all of ten kilometres away. Horrible experience, no avenues with numbers, only trees and trees. He tramples around in the woods, suddenly sees – something grows on the forest floor. Closer inspection reveals it to be a mushroom. And the man, in addition to creating  his unique compositions, started to study these silent witnesses and became a very good mushroom expert.

 

But what happens if man’s relation with the outdoors disappears altogether? When one day man doesn’t understand any longer if he is outdoors or in the kitchen, in a meadow or the office, the forest or a hotel? Can it be said then that man has gone  wild? But how can man go wild if wilderness has gone?

 

This thought  suddenly made the Potterer feel happy. If the wilderness goes, at least one good thing results  – man cannot go wild any more.

 

September 30th

 

It has been maintained that in nature nothing is unnecessary. But is there really nothing unnecessary in nature? Nature should contain everything that we can ever imagine – after all our outdoors reaches at least 13,6 milliards of light years away. If we now state that nothing in there is unnecessary  then at least this statement itself is quite unnecessary. So there is at least one unnecessary thing.

 

We must humbly and dumbly admit that in all-embracing nature there are just as many unnecessary things as necessary because we cannot begin to weigh the cardinality according to Cantor of the number of unnecessary things against the number of necessary things: which set would be more powerful than the other and which would go into the other. Cantor finally went mad with the fitting of things into one another. The Potterer will rather go out in the yard.

 

The sun shines, from behind his left shoulder. If his nose is turned towards the sea that is behind the forest.

The cornel is flecked in red, showing itself off in front of the green spruce. Whether it is necessary or unnecessary - beautiful all the same.

 

 

_{(Estonian original published Sept 30th)}