A Ken for Life

A Review of Ken Simm's Letters to a Far Away Lover

A man may come to understand a great many things … but none more poignant … than his soul. In ' Letters ' … Ken Simm brings himself to bare his soul … in the mountains and glens of the frozen Scottish NorthWest … and returns with an affirmation of where it all began for him … with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Its such a clash of wills in the experience of a man … an academic model versus the rock of ages … fought in the living nature of the individual … by his volition to take it to the hills … and prove to himself … the living nature of man … and its revelations.

 

In the three letters … Ken progresses from the city boy who landed in the woods of his homeland … to the upstart who dares presume that … he is better than … the age old rocks. Its a statement he makes about man … and his relations with the world around him. And Scotland's beauty of nature and wildlife does not come wrapped in flimsy plastic. Its the stuff of stories … legends … soldiering … poems … and the wondrous natural history of the wildlife. Yet Scotland never shined brighter than the sun of England … whose contribution to urbanization spanned the globe … and began early their emphasis on academic learning.

 

For Ken … his letters begin with the preoccupations of a wandering hermit … who has a fair sense of regard for his own abilities … and the power of the will … to bring expression to his passionate appeals. ' Personal ghosts outnumber the living especially in this place.'  And so it appears … that's why he came here. ' I have five friends alive. Three are not human. One is a landscape. And the other is always here.' And in this living landscape … that Ken identifies as his human friend … we find him striving for his rebirth … as a member of the family.

 

The sound of the fiddle in the dark is no doubt a forlorn sound of plaintive endearment … calling to the soul … to find himself among the unknown mysteries of life's experiences. He implies that he may have wondered about whether there is more to life. ' When solitude like ice is to be grasped and encouraged to change.' And what does he seek in place of solitude? ' … simple cryings in the dark.' And that is the way he begins his first letter … a young boy … lost in the wilderness … who speaks of his tenderness in relation to his romantic impulses … and stumbles in the woods … for an answer.

 

However in the second letter … we realize this is no green horn … sending out an SOS. He finds his footing … like the white clouds above … and brings an expression to his will in the matter … as if telling the Gods of old … what he is about … in this time. In the vastness of the frozen Northwest … he claims that … ' Each glen has its own micro-climate and geography … ' obviously its not all one … and like him … each glen obviously … finds a way to create its own statement about itself … in relation … to the ageless rocks. And its here … that we find that young boy … losing his boyish charm … and taking on the fathers of old … in the shadow of the mountains.

 

He claims familiarity with colors … that were first laid down by the hand of the creator. The color on the surface of the water is like his cat's back. The layered colors on the mountain are like a cake. The moss is the same color as the back of a beetle he saw. And the mountain is the color of the wine he drank some days ago. And with that right of passage … he turns his attention to the wildlife … living … surviving … in nests … and in the water. The heron … the owl … rooks … vultures … otters … and fish … share in the vision of his view … of a life they live … much like his own … and his pronounced knowledge of the delicate nature of life.

 

In the night … he comes across shapes in the darkness … and reminds himself it was always there. Lives lived … in relation to our own … that we always knew … but in the opportunity presented … we are discovering it again. ' It was a feeling rather than a sight.'  And he jumps into the delicate nature of touch … ' I can smell / hear a hill fox hunting somewhere ahead and above me.' And he figures … he might simply come to rest in that place of … touch and sound … like a second home. ' I will sleep out here soon.'

 

In the third letter … we see him … emerge from the cave of self affliction … into an organized thought about life … in these times. And there he boldly unites with the child of his youth. ' Children and the innocent always found doorways unlocked … ' And he begins a feverish reflection of all that occupied his mind … now displaced … to bring himself to encounter them again. ' The stories of old walls. Tales of clans. Of empty lands cleared. Stones of knights carved in the style of the loch, leaning. ' And always … the thought from his first letter … accompanies them … ' Where the sea lochs chisel away into the fabled rocks of the west.'

 

And on the day … he came back … he finally brings himself to project the authentic nature of his own identity to reflect on the human condition.  ' Prayers in stone at the entrance to the glen. Warnings, welcomes? Here is food and shelter? Here is where we come to hunt, to gather, to live. Our season’s travel. Our skin boats along the sea lochs. Here we come each turning of the earth. ' And only then does he rests … to build a fire and cook a meal. Then gives his attention to the aphorisms of man … ' As above so below.' Thereafter … the master of the glen begins a review of the achievements of man … on the back of the horse of the apocalypse.

 

His fascination with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs … creates a re-emphasis of the model that …  defines the basic needs … up to the self actualization ambitions of man. He views that in relation to a world which he claims … ' …  stops play and therefore stops living.' Inexplicably he turns his labors into a critique of modern living and lashes at  them as … ' Cities are museums of the unnatural. Wunderkammer buildings and assorted curiosities. Taken in small doses they can stimulate slightly. Cities are misshapen pit entrances to vague thoughts. ' Child's play?

 

And here … it becomes clear why he came to spend some time in the wilderness. In the civilizing influence we are … brought under a degree of management by public opinion … social attitudes … and the general regard for not rocking the boat. Some places boast of their histories … to keep away the vandals of egoism … professing reform. Certainly Ken's experience of society seems to indicate that. ' Between two rocks or two trees there is always a door, if you look.' Its the search for the volitional third view that every man creates in himself.

 

Each man's condition brings into focus the two trees … his individual and social identities. The understanding gained by a man … primarily serves himself … and where society seems to look the other way … the man makes do with his comfort of himself that he shares with others. But to mix the concerns of the individual with that of society … achieves neither an individual realization … or the possibility of social reform. A perceived lack of individual achievement does not spell into a criticism of the failure of society. That is the purpose of an individual realization.

 

The rocks and the mountains in the Northwest … have stood there from the time the earth was created. A man who brings himself to commune with them … realizes that human society brings a hasty sense to their issues … unlike the rocks and the trees. Its an important guide … provided by the mountains … especially since they don't speak … but relate by sight and touch. And by doing so … they make it clear that … man is not rushed to find that in his understanding … but will most certainly gain it … in the course of time. ' The things that are simply there in the stars.'

 

The letters bring the reader … into an archetypal portrayal of the condition of man in these times. A man who is garbled in his passions … because he cannot fight everlasting love … in the delicate thoughts … of the miracle of life. A man who is intimidated into a withdrawal of thoughts … that need to be bold … to make their expression clear. Its the search for the last stand of the warrior … whose love for life … is embroiled in the need to destroy what doesn't work … and what needs to be supported to grow. And as two branches … on the same tree of life … it is indeed a formidable task.

 

Yet his notions of the universal romance and love for life … is alive and well … in the forests … where like the otter in the water … he is free to live his life just the way he wants. But to make the transformation to a man in the urban architecture of human dwelling … he has more difficulty. There is a significant difference between the two … and a young man growing up in these times … must face them and make the cut … like Alexander's sword on Gordian's knot …  to separate it into two trees … that are distinct and separate. But that hasn't stopped him … and like the owl with the benefit of sight … dives at the first sign of a meal. Love would certainly bring a greater ambition.