Gossamer Bridges
It is not really a web
Just a single filament
Bridging a 5-foot chasm betwen the arm of the chair and the bench.
But the darn thing is almost horizontal!
The bench is just a few inches lower than the arm of the chair.
How
Did the spider cast a 5-foot line across that void?
And how soon will it break?
There's a pretty stiff breeze and the line is
Billowing
Like the sails of a boat.
But it's flexibilty, attachments, and strength are sufficient.
It holds as it moves in the wind,
Much stronger than it looks.
And then I saw the magical one.
This bridge was attempting to cross a similar chasm
From chairs across to bench.
But the ends of this filament were only a few inches apart
Attached to the backs of two chairs, close together.
The spider had done quite a bit of webwork between the two chairs.
But the magical thread, 10 feet long, extended 5 feet into space
Held horizontal only by the wind.
The open part of this u-shaped creature were the two ends of the filament
Attached only inches apart.
At a distance of 5 feet its snout stretched out
Probing, as if reaching for the other side.
It wasn't going to work.
The uncrossed space to the bench was another five feet.
The ten-foot line, doubled back on itself was too short.
Either, more line would be needed for a longer U
Or one end,detached, could fling across.
But the engineering didn't matter.
The important thing was the beauty of the dance.
As the wind moves, it supports the U-shaped line
simultaneously 1, 2, and 3 dimensions.
Moving out into space, the line defines an interior surface
Also constantly moving and changing shape
A two-dimensional thing, dancing in 3-D.
by Maggie Heineman, Wednesday, August 7, 1996
Picture postcard showing the deck on which the gossamer bridge was built
Sometimes
You can see the sky
But, because of the undercast, the earth becomes invisible.
At other times it is just the opposite
Yesterday
Our heads, and our eyes, were in the clouds.
In fact, the cloud even tried to enter the room.
That happens at The Mountain.
This morning
The waning moon and Venus could not be seen
Below, there was a single light, as bright as the planet.
We long
For the clear days with the unobstructed view of the earth
And for the dark nights when the Milky Way appears.
Soon
It will be light enough to see what the spiders did last night.
by Maggie Heineman, 6 am, Thursday, August 8, 1996
The Pool: A reflection on paradigm shift
What you see in the pool depends
On the Light
And on how you focus your eyes.
The pool is about 4x8, the size of a piece of plywood, and about 3 inches deep. It sits on a granite deck at the edge of the escarpment, before a bench defaced, or so I thought, by two who had carved their names.
The first time, I could see the reflected silhouettes of the lacy oaks behind. And my own silhouette, if I chose to lean over.
The next time, there was enough sun to see the sandy bottom. Instead of a dark mirror, the pool was transparent and reflections were harder to see. But if I stood just so, I could catch the light on my face and, leaning over, see a bit of my features in reflection. The trees did not show up well at all in this light.
The third trip to the pool was like mastering one of those optical illusions-- the crone and the young woman or the vase and the profiles. In this light, I could easily oscillate between the sandy bottom and the reflection of the trees.
Last night, the Milky Way appeared. Scorpio and the rest of the summer constellations. In the northern sky Casseopaeia was joined by Cephus and meteors brought exclamations of delight.
Following the rainless night the pool was smaller. There was a mudflat in one sector extending out to a 10-inch rock island which earlier had been in the center of the pool but was now a part of its shoreline.
The sun was bright and standing on the tiny island I could see my reflection clearly. The earrings were gold and the words on the sweatshirt, although backwards, were easy to read. The reflected sky was blue with white clouds and the lacy oak leaves were not just silhouettes but decidedly green.
The pool was alive with life. Dozens of insects, mosquitos I guess, were flying over the surface. The bottom was not sandy after all, but a rich organic mixture. Two small feathers, floating on the surface and the submerged twigs will join the unhatched eggs, the undeveloped larvae, and the carcasses of adult insects in the succession from pool to soil as the light green lichen on its shoreline works the rock-to-soil succession.
Looking again at the bench, I relize that it was not defaced by Michael and Lori. It had been their gift to the site. "Ascendor Mentors '92."
Looking up from my writing, I discovered I was no longer alone. The teenagers from this year's work camp were in a circle. Their song began, "The time has come for parting" and ended, "It will still go on and on. Words were spoken, tears were shed. I heard a sentence, "This is a place that will stay in your heart."
by Maggie Heineman, August 8-10, 1996
Epilogue-- the pool on Sunday, August 11
Yesterday morning, before leaving The Mountain, I visited the pool again.
In the rain the pool was overflowing. A tiny stream, a rivulet, flowed from the ply-wood sized pool across a few feet of granite to the edge, and then on down the escarpment.
I will use the road.
Looking closely for the images of the morning, the surface was a cacophony of ripples, each drop of rain sending out waves like stones in a pond, each signal interrupting and interfering with all the others. If you tried hard, you could see larger, extended circles. Mostly it was a matter of hundreds of drops of rain with little circles that disappeared (or did they?) in an inch or two.
In one area there were big splashes. This was below the oaks and over the developing mudflat. Big drops of water bounced up to heights of 2-4 inches making fountains that sent out secondary waves from the same spot. Being interested in making a splash :-) I studied the area. Water collecting on leaves makes drops much larger than rain. I don't know if the shallowness contributes to the bounce--perhaps. Question-- Does the shallow area result from a building up of the mud and/or from the contour of the granite below. Nature or nurture? Question2-- does the mudflat develop under the trees because of the trees, or is that a coincidence?
Goodbye pool, RYL
Monday, August 12, 1996
