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#SeeForMiles

My hashtag is #SeeForMiles. I chose this because it’s part of a lyric to the song I’m using for my modern example of transcendentalism: “I could see for miles, miles, miles.” This lyric exemplifies my view of transcendentalism. Once you look out over a truly breathtaking landscape and just take it all in, and realize that you’re seeing for miles - that’s when you realize how small we are in this world, which is what transcendentalism is about for me. Seeing for miles doesn’t necessarily mean literally either, it could be figuratively, such as seeing for miles within you, and finding yourself.

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Declaration of Self

The thing that I’ve always wanted to give to the world is art. I see art as the epitome of our existence - be it in the form of music, literature, dance, or any other form. We were born to make art, and that’s what I want my verse to be in the spectacular play of life. I want to create music specifically, and have it mean something to someone else. My verse will be presented in the form of lyrics and chords that touch someone who I’ve never met. I want to make music that helps people through hard places in life as it’s helped me countless times before, I want to have the same impact on others that music has had an impact on me with. Even if the only person that hears it is a loved one or the night wind, I want to give my music to the world and have that be the legacy I leave behind.

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In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

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“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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“Not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves.”

- Henry David Thoreau

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I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.

John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)

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A few more from Horsetail Falls. 

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Carpe Diem

I promise this was a lot higher than it looks. Lake Tahoe, NV

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Celebrating the mountain air. Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, NV. 

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The Mountain Sound

The mountains belong to no one,  Yet they stand, ever unbroken.  They see our struggles from afar, Even as small as we are, And need no explanation. For when the darkness grows, And we succumb to rain, sleet, or snow, We can always go to the mountains there, Feel the night wind blow through our hair, And see what the old trees know.

For inside the darkness we find nothing, Yet they see everything unknown.

(Modeled after “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Photos taken by my dad and me at Horsetail Falls, NV)

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No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.

John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)

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A few pictures from our desolation wilderness camping trip at Horsetail Falls, NV. This was definitely my favorite vacation I’ve ever been on. I stayed up late that night, and my dad pointed out that the Milky Way was visible because of how clear it was. I’ve never felt smaller, sitting in the trees and looking up at the night sky - it was breathtaking. I could truly see for miles.

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Here’s the music video for Holocene by Bon Iver. This song has resonated with me since I first heard it in 2012 and is easily my favorite song of all time. It also happens to have clear transcendentalist themes, so I thought it would work nicely with this project.