Page 39 - The Irony Board

Into the Body

Vegetation
Lacking motive
Still enjoys the
Stirrings of wind.

Language is rich in figures of speech portraying the phenomenon
of will. Going against the tide, taking matters into one’s own hands,
beating the system—these are expressions of the human need to feel
active in the arena of entropy. If I don’t push hard, I will fall apart or
fall behind. Psychological commitment to this belief is strong in our
culture, but other points of view exist.
This proverb-like epigram has several layers of intent. First, on
the level of botanical imagery: terrestrial flora, otherwise immobile,
do receive Aeolian animation. “Enjoy” means both to possess and
to partake of pleasurably; necessary for respiration and aerial
dissemination, the breeze, if anything, may be considered as
productive of positive sensations in plants.
A general existential statement abstracted from the physical
referent is this: like the wind, time flows on, forcing change upon
even those entities least able to move in other dimensions.
Gluckman also is implying that the random fluctuations of external
influence are enjoyable only when mere “stirrings;” anything
stronger may be threatening to life and limb, like the uprooting
power of a hurricane.
Finally, this comments upon a human tendency to retreat, under
various conditions, from normal activity and “vegetate.” Here, the
lack of motivation may represent neurotic paralysis; the persistence
of deeper needs, however, makes such a passive individual thankful
for any gentle interactions with the world at large, even if not
initiated by himself. On a less charitable level, in a partially-literal
reading of the last line, Gluckman may be suggesting, somewhat
sarcastically, that an indolent person can be gratified by little else
than his own intestinal rumblings.

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