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Traipse

To walk or tramp about; to gad, wander. < Old French - trapasser (to trespass).

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Pebble on the Tongue: “If You’re Lucky …”

July 21, 2021

To say that travels will move you, is a tautology, self-evident on the face.  But Kate Daniels,  lyricist of the gritty, personal truths of the American South has penned a line that captures the traveler’s rarest take-away, the most powerful gift of a ‘traipse’:

If you’re lucky ….
It will bring you to your knees.

Kate Daniels, ‘Gertrude: In the Rooms’

A 19th cent. devotee of Samarkand lost in an abyss of mystery.  In the background, beyond the frame, are Silk Road stories, the rugged ranges of Zeravshan (‘Sprayer of Gold’), the rise and fall of empires, the clamor of streets, caravans and bazaars, the striving and dreams of clan and individual.  And here, the brevity of a single life, of silent, momentary worship.      photo credit: Aleksandr Kun 

It may come as unexpected grandeur, some miniature gesture of beguilement, some happenstance that disarms reason, some scene of crushing misfortune, some reckoning with the breadth and power of life.  It may even produce a life-long calling.  But it’s effect will be something like what the ancients call ‘worship’

Written by Jonathan Larson

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