Encounters in the Mountains

Something very short from a Swiss train ride that may also be relevant to the New(ish) Year

You wonder if children playing on a football field surrounded by the abstract geological formations of the Alps realize the sublime surrounding them. Jagged edges create a cocoon where sounds leap around the basin. Mountain goats — ibex, chamois — perch in the surrounding landscape as the protectors of fragility. You are a new visitor, if only for a few moments. The awe is present in your eyes, in your palms that grasp the window, trying to capture this surreality beside the more familiar sports ground: a foreground of chalets with intricate wood carvings and red flags, of docile cows with large bells hung by woven flowered patterns against the backdrop of sheer cliffs and gentler snow-covered slopes, perhaps climbable, perhaps marked by little yellow signs designating time-to-destinations and suggested itinerary for the most pleasurable experiences.

You wonder if the adult walking from the local grocer on the adjacent street has forgotten the strangeness of this place he inhabits. He holds an exploding basket with eggs perched gingerly atop and snuggled between lettuce and bread. A few short years - a moment - of deep understanding, then gone. Or does it last forever?

Is it a threshold that is crossed…as we cross it, that is the moment. It cannot be held onto. We realize an extreme beauty, then it is nothing.

You pass too quickly in the train, left wondering about their destinations. We are given short windows into others’ existence.

The wonders of time — a weekend with friends from so long ago. Such lovely people. We drift back into each other’s lives after a decade. You know the whole family, they become yours. And in the same way that you only see some of your aunts every decade or so in the flesh, this has happened here.

But you don’t want the waiting to be as long next time.

You have gone through so much since you saw them. Good. Bad. Evolving. There’s something euphorically sweet about seeing old friends.

The burden of life can often be pleasure as well. Skiing is now a thing to travel for. Friends are relationships to work on, or they disappear.

The reflection in the train speaks back to you: I am joy.

You try to live fresh. Unburdened by the past. To fly into the world.

One day —

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This word sketch was inspired by a little village surrounded by mountains on the way to Wengen (home of the Eiger; I have more to say about the Eiger!).

Relatedly, I can’t recommend The Eight Mountains enough that I saw on the plane from London to Boston this Christmas. Feeling really immersed in Italy, I reminisced on the days I spent living in Milan and traveling Italy by following the nearly three-hour long film with a documentary that was as fun as it was educational: Rob & Ryland’s Grand Tour (available on BBC via the link).

Enjoy!

P