THREE TIMES THE CHARM — Roaming with Roth

Imagine creating your own fairy tale village, and living its perfect existence each and every day. This fairy tale locale would include magical mountains, mystical manor houses, sinewy streets, snow capping high peaks, while wafting aromas of freshly baked bread pursue your path on cobble-stoned streets, where the food is hearty and a good brew is always at hand, as men laze in Lederhosen and women dance in dirndl dresses.

Now, imagine that you are not imagining at all.

That this fable is no fantasy.

That what you are envisioning is not a mythical place; you are not ambling through your mind; you will not suddenly awaken from a foggy dream, befuddled; or need to recapture or reconstruct parts forgotten and lost in that fuzzy, misty haze.

It’s all here, in front of you - flower boxes dripping color; the decoratively carved fencing; window shutters with wrought iron handles; wood piles in preparation for winter…

The place is called Oberstdorf.

Surrounded by the Bavarian Alps, Oberstdorf is a ‘town’ sitting ‘fishbowl’-like within a mountain chain of peaks and ridges ranging from 4,500 - 8,000 feet. The feeling one gets, without sounding obvious, is “uplifting”. I don’t necessarily mean that “feel good”, temporary sugar rush, or the ‘high’ one gets from a hefty toke of marijuana, although those bolts are readily available at 3,000 meters. What I am referring to is the sense of belonging, experiencing our evolutionary necessity for being, knowing that life is real and purposeful and revealing of the infinite variety of Source. To that end, human existence is vital.

I remember living in Brooklyn Heights, New York, and each evening walking the ‘promenade’, a one-third mile long raised concrete boardwalk above the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway with a view of the southern tip of Manhattan on the East River side that included the Statue of Liberty, South Street Seaport, Wall Street and before 9/11, the World Trade Center Towers. It did not matter what weather condition prevailed, the view was always spectacular, never boring, albeit in a human mastery of architectural prowess and design sense. Overcast and darkly cloudy, or sunny and brightly reflective, New York’s skyline remains breathtaking regardless the cast.

From the peak of Nebelhorn at about 7,500 feet.

The allure of the Alps is completely divergent. As opposed to strict structural design, the Alps, as in all of nature, is random and complex. There is no visual order. No draftsman drawing renderings. No ‘AutoCad 360’ generating perfect environments. No uniform linearity or angles.

In fact, nature possesses inherently what architects strive for - a sense of spirit that transforms and eclipses the material. And, these rocks have that in spades. They exceed their height by transcending. Their utter beauty is indescribable in it scope and breadth and variety. What is transformative is their relatability without words, explanation, or analysis. These basic elements are the reflection of our guts, our insides, our core, the stuff of truth and solidity. The mantle that precedes mental.