I grew up with the words of Tennyson's "Ulysses"
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
The Parkway is a place where that margin fades ceaselessly.
Whether I am driving in my car or sitting at an overlook or hiking along the Mountain to Sea Trail or sitting atop Balsam Knob, something new is always coming into view.
When I am driving I see the vistas and the changing trees. I learn again and again that every day they are moving a little bit deeper into the season or moving out of it. When I'm sitting, I realize that the longer I gaze out, the more appears to me, as though happy I am paying attention. The margin is never fixed, unless I am so stubbornly fixed within myself, my own problems, that I am not looking in the right way. But when my eyes are open, when my heart is open, I understand exactly what Tennyson is talking about, more and more when I move.
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