Monoman on Tor (part 3)
I'd gotten the exploring bug out of my system so was happy to spend Thursday and Friday just bumming around Glastonbury. The weather was good; clear skies and quite hot, so it was a pleasure to simply relax at the top of the Tor, visit the abbey and climb Wearyall Hill (Glastonbury's second tor, where the famous thorn bush is planted.) I find the commercialisation of 'spirituality' in the shops on the high street fairly unpalatable and cynical. Most of the artefacts for sale are just overpriced tat. But it's always interesting to observe the denizens of the town, and understand the purpose of their being here; people visit out of curiosity, or to experience the atmosphere, be healed, explore esoteric and spiritual pursuits, engage in the counter-culture, teach and learn, get high / drunk, relax and unwind; and no doubt a myriad of other reasons. I can't tell if the place has a 'specialness' or not, but I think it's good that it exists. If nothing else it provides an antidote to the identikit, homogenous anytown a lot of people have the misfortune to live in. I overheard someone yesterday say that 'Glastonbury tells you what you need to know, not what you want to know.' I scoffed at the remark. But it stayed with me and, over the course of Friday, I did feel that a few big personal issues were coming to a resolution, and not necessarily in the way I'd expected.
BTW, the photo above is of a mysterious message found on the ramparts of Cadbury Castle...
Posted by monoman at 01:47 PM on October 17, 2008
