Breaking through

Sandside, Cumbria

Somewhere in my enormous collection of unsorted books is a copy of John Steinbeck's Log from the Sea of Cortez. Included with this edition is an account of the life of Ed Ricketts, his friend who inspired the character of Doc in Cannery Row. Ed was a marine biologist and polymath, a man who was interested in everything.

I thought about him today as I looked at the sun breaking through the clouds as it sank towards the horizon. One of his ideas was a concept of "breaking through", a sort of transcendence where great art or music might take you to another plane of experience. From what I recall, he never quite had one of these breakthrough experiences, but he thought that something like Bach's Art of Fugue came very close to taking him there.

I hope I've remembered this correctly, as I couldn't track down the book. Quite what a breakthrough would feel like I don't know, but I guess we all come close at times.

For me it is mostly the beauty of living things that takes me closest, or amongst works of man, perhaps the sublime paintings of Vermeer. Some of Steinbeck's writings have the beauty and power to transport me. It was a deeply emotional experience to visit Cannery Row in Monterey a few years ago where Ed Ricketts had his marine laboratory close to where the Monterey Aquarium is now sited.