go away winter

I have been thinking a lot about the abyss and what happens when you stare into it. In fact it was about a year ago that I was sitting on my friend Molly’s back porch when I declared (and let it be noted I don’t often declare), “People always say don’t stare into the abyss, but you know what I’m not staring at it, it’s staring at me!” I meant it truly and I suppose I have been thinking about it ever since. I talked about it all through my spring class here at Penland, because I felt like I was finally standing, staring blindly right into that abyss. Then just today I picked up this book by Joseph Campbell called “The Power of Myth” and read the line, “One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation”. Maybe just maybe this is why I am so drawn to folklore, isn’t folklore just a version of myth?

If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you. —Nietzsche