You can’t dream about the world from below. It takes climbing a hill, mountain, or riding up to the Eiffel Tower to look out and see an entire world below in your grasp.
Writes Tomas Tranströmer in “Schubertiana”:
“Outside New York, a high place where with one glance you take in the houses where eight million human beings live.”
Where your attention goes, your energy flows. From above, the mind bleeds into the world below, overturning everything you believe in.
Feeling inspired, perhaps larger than life, the elevator takes us back down to normal intensity where such closeupness suppresses exploration.
You can still collect the world from the street, but up and above is really where you understand it.