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2024-01-09 · letter vlog · John · 3:44 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location

Back from his annual hiking trip with friends in Kentucky's Red River Gorge, John muses on the word 'view' and Rudolf Otto's mysterium tremendum, admits great views (even the Grand Canyon) never quite move him, and says he finds the tremendous mystery instead in togetherness, interconnectedness and the wonder of being at all.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The annual Red River Gorge hiking trip with friends and John's lone mustache

  • ★★ John spent the weekend hiking with friends in Red River Gorge, Kentucky, where the views are phenomenal; the trip is annual and one of the highlights of his year. — 00:00:03
  • ★ John had a mustache because last year (2023) everyone on the trip shaved their beards into mustaches (five mustachioed guys), but this year (2024) only he did, so he looked like a weirdo. (playful) — 00:00:13

00:00:29 — The word 'view': everyone always has one; great views as seeing something vast and a little scary

  • ★★ John calls 'view' a funny word: it is what viewers give a video and also what anyone with open eyes can see at any moment. — 00:00:37
  • ★ Recording the words back home, John's view is an unmade bed, a Catherine Murphy painting and a window onto the gray Indiana winter; he always has a view. — 00:00:58 · Indiana
  • ★★ John says great views mean being aware of having a view: seeing the world as new, vast or overwhelming, something great and a little scary. — 00:01:10

00:01:27 — Otto's mysterium tremendum; the underwhelming Grand Canyon; not a views person

  • ★★ John notes this is how Rudolf Otto described the sacred, the mysterium tremendum; a great view is supposed to evoke that tremendous mystery, but it never quite worked for him. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ In college John drove across the country with friends Ransom and Kathy to the Grand Canyon; watching the sunrise there, at 20 and after 1,800 miles, he was underwhelmed. — 00:01:37
  • ★★ John is not sure he is a views kind of person, maybe because he lacks a vivid visual imagination and has an intense fear of heights, which often comes with good views. (hedged) — 00:02:13
  • ★★ John loves aggressively beautiful Red River Gorge but is not really there for the views; what he loves about it isn't what he can see. — 00:02:33

00:02:51 — The wonder is in togetherness, interconnectedness and being at all; sign-off

  • ★★★ John is there for togetherness: the feeling his life is bound up in his friends' lives, stories told and retold for over a decade, and shared memories. — 00:02:51
  • ★★★ John gets the mysterium tremendum not from views but from interconnectedness, with his friends and with the ground they walk. — 00:03:10
  • ★★★ For John the wonder is in every footfall and pine tree: it is astonishing to be at all, and a wonder that we get to be here for a while. — 00:03:20

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a later channel comment John says he has made a lot of progress with his fear of heights but still avoids being within ten feet of a proper edge. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: friendship · Interconnectedness · mysterium tremendum · Red River Gorge

Also: People: Catherine Murphy · Kathy · Ransom Riggs · Rudolf Otto

Concepts: acrophobia · wonder (emotion)

Places: Grand Canyon · Indiana · Kentucky

Only in the description or credits: Alex Jimenez

Also centred on friendship: How to Make Friends · How Do Adults Make Friends? · How I Made Friends · So, I've got cancer · My 2025 Bingo Card · I Was a Teenage Dirtbag

Also centred on Interconnectedness: This is Going to Seem Dumb, but Stick with Me · When You Can't Fix Everything… · The Ones Who Love Us

Also centred on mysterium tremendum: One of the Most Important Images On Earth

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