A TREATISE OF NATURE AND THE SELFSurrender, Solitude, and Synergy(112 pages 7 X 10 format)Encapsulated in a mere twenty-four hours, there are moments when time seems to stop; at least slowing down to the point, each passing minute seems like hours. There is also another peculiar and coinciding sensation when one senses something unusual occurs: in some inexplicable way that which we watch and experience also watches us! At times, the subtlety of these experiences is verily transformational whose profound effect on our senses denotes where the objective melds with the subjective. Nature, therefore, is personified to the nth degree and countless levels and layers beyond the usual ken of reasoning. In all Her varieties, Nature does indeed serve as a reminder for all of us to stop and pay closer attention to the unfolding process and reality. Indeed, in the earthly's plane space-time continuum we are all spectators for as long as our breath lasts.Given the prose and style in this treatise, composing the verses have changed over many years. Thus, the wording and phrasing provided me with new insight each time the treatise was edited. (Indeed, there were numerous modifications since 1968 when this essay first came to me and later became a work of prose.) Eventually, the essay-turned-prose was modified into stanzas, of ten lines, and later fashioned into a seven-line meter where each line averages eleven feet (the cadence of the words). For example, this verse explains the structure and rhythm of all the verses measured in accentual-syllabic meter (about 11 to 13 feet per line): A solitary hawk flies into the ethereal vault, turning on lithe wings that draw lazy circles.the raptor resembles a silent spirit departing.Then vanishes and reappears, again and again, performing graceful ballet to unheard music.It teases one to peer into that tunneling dimensionwhere birds, like clouds, float along like cotton, one using effortless wing, the other effortless wind.The seven lines signify the conscious report of my musings while the ensuing (and italicized) three lines denote the subconscious report. The dialogue therein also creates the modality of the overall treatise, taking me, the observer, around the clock in two sweeps (i.e., a twenty-four-hour sojourn that ends where the treatise begins a day later). Moreover, when my thoughts transcend the conscious aspect of the life process, I simultaneously tap into the finer aspects of the looking glass that mirrors the life process and experience the wondrous circle of ad infinitum consequences.Because every circle must also have a beginning, the peripatetic reflections depicted in this temporal exposition is predicated on a linear concept of time and merely observing the life process from the high aerie where my watch begins. Once settled in, I begin to realize there is something extraordinary about an ordinary day in passing. Thus, the mundane elevated to the supermundane. For me, eternity has peeked through the clouds of typical and everyday illusion and cognitive analysis, thereby presenting me, the steadfast observer, with another view of reality conveyed through a circular stream of passing moments. When the mind is silenced and does not make any judgments, the life process shimmers in the light and acute awareness on a transcendent level, almost supermundane but without stimulates of any kind.At the close of the verses, there is a lengthy segment of the text under the title, ESOTERIC NOTES TO MYSELF. These vignettes are philosophical and spiritual musings about Nature, the Temporal vs. the Eternal modalities of life, as well as a variety of associated subject matter that more or less complement the evocative prose and imagery imbued in the verses.(eBook version also available)For more about my credentials and background, visit my online bookstore and home page at this URL: www.richholtzin
About the Author: After being Honorably Discharged from the Navy (submarine service), Rich Holtzin has lived in the West and Southwest for over four decades. Earning three academic degrees in Eastern and Western Philosophy, for some thirty years, he made a living as an outdoors educator and interpreter teaching a variety of geosciences, human, and natural history geared to the Colorado Plateau Province. Additionally, Rich was a professional studio and stage musician and taught guitar and music theory, including composing two soundtracks for the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks; a high school Educational Assistant and Substitute Teacher; a Commercial Pilot flying a variety of aircraft; a professional Photographer; a GPS surveyor and Topographical Mapper for the U. S. Forest Service; a Planetarium Control Room operator; a museum docent; and the Coconino County Sheriff's Office. What Rich is more enthused about, however, is serving in the role of an Interpretive Guide and Educator for the Grand Canyon Field Institute (a National Park Service endorsed outreach program (http: //bit.ly/1D6YS1u). He was also an instructor at Northern Arizona University and Yavapai College (respectively, Flagstaff and Prescott), as well as the owner of a Southwest eco and cultural tourism enterprise. Fairly recently, he became the Executive Director of a think tank in Albuquerque, based on astronautics and aerospace S.T.E.M. classroom projects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), including the co-author of a math-lab book based on rocketry (www.stemfortheclassroom). For more of RICH HOLTZIN'S backstory, peruse his website under his legal name: www.richholtzin.com He also writes books under the nom de plume, RK ALLEMAN, as published on his other Amazon Author's Page.