Think in ways you’ve never thought before.
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.
Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you’ve never seen.
When someone knocks on the door, think that he’s about
To give you something large: tell you you’re forgiven,
Or that it’s not necessary to work all the time, or that it’s
Been decided that if you lie down no one will die.
– Robert Bly ‘Things to think’
“Opinions are epitaphs on the grave of possibility. It’s better to not always have one” ….and yet it’s inevitable to not form one. Somewhere between a strong impression and positive knowledge lie our opinions, serving our need for certitude in an ambiguous and unpredictable world. It’s not so much the opinions we create and harbor, as much as the exhausting time we spend defending them that blinds us to the possibilities. Despite knowing this, we succumb to nurturing and defending our opinions like we defend ourselves against risk and disappointment, yet it is of utmost importance that we somehow see the possibilities they blind us to. Quite possibly the single most devotional act to the ‘self’ is to ritualize every opportunity that reveals our underlying beliefs and biases to us. Maybe that’s why we devote ourselves to tea – when the possibility of their flavors impregnates the defenses of opinions, appealing for our confirmation, we, in affirmation, unknowingly unclench our tightly held fist of opinions.
Possibilities are visions we see when we rise above the need for certitude and read the signs, the auguries – divinations for awareness – littered all around us, that in observation set us free from our need for opinions. Possibilities reveal to us some belief we hold underneath, that we once allowed to create meaning for ourselves but now are a limitation. Robert Bly’s words, though reading like a roadmap to disappointment, seem to provide a way to unburden our beliefs in favor of the outrageous magical possibilities that one can quite simply ‘conjure up’. “Possibilities never broke a heart; it is the heaviness of festering opinions and the expectation they spawn that crumbles hearts”.
The Yabukita leaves always inspire such anticipation of their arrival. Although we’ve practiced refrain in opinionating about them but have inevitably ended up with opinions in our refrain. They have always humbled our needless debates, opinions and arguments, yet come bearing accommodation for our pithy expressions of certitude. Having witnessed the wisdom of Desiderata, multitude of the Spleen and the sauntering curves of Flaneur we, in our refrain thought summer to be the native expression of the Yabukita. Well, we’re not limited by that belief anymore. This Augury of Yabukita speaks ‘Autumn’ as well! We must learn to witness and wait, keep possibilities alive, like Whitman when he wrote, Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders, I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait……Both in and out of the game.
Magical realism is defined as what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe. Finding the expressions of Yabukita, in autumn is very much the possibility of magical realism that laid to rest any opinions we had about the summer nativity of the cultivar. Much like Robert Bly’s possibilities of magical realism, the augury of this autumn, it seems, is equally the awareness of possibilities in the present as it is a revelation of the future.
If you have encountered any of the Summer Yabukitas before then you will know how the realistic setting of summer has been invaded by something too strange to believe. If you haven’t then you will realize what magical realism is all about, beginning with a radiating, deep aroma of citrous– something lying between lemons and oranges – with a floral appeal, inspiring things to think, refuting opinions and seeking possibilities in this autumn Oolong. Notes like Auguries, forecasting a floral ruse to the more immediate Glycerin and palm candy sweetness, need no interpretation to be understood. The floral ruse becomes more apparent along with caramel and hint of coconut as the tea cools down. There is a very apparent smoothness with an aftertaste that reminds of a strange combination – a magic potion of coconut water and tea!
Still, it is fiction that needs to make sense in some way – truth doesn’t! So, in the spring if we hear the Yabukita bushes singing ‘nessun dorma’ in Darjeeling, we wouldn’t be surprised. It’s possible…
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.