It was too clear a spring day to sit in the house hearing Brahms piano compositions, though that was comfortable enough. I wanted at least the equal of Brahms to get myself out the door to feel a warm day of sunshine more directly. I also wanted to get outside my head today. Not that anything disturbing is going on in there, but I'm seeing a lot of new things happening I had no idea of before. I like it. It feels heartening.

The music of the water is the equal of Brahms, though out here with the rhododendron leaves open, sunlight on the white frothing water, continuously changing patterns of ripples and the absence of straight lines recommend it over indoors anyplace. Granted, I don't have to be concerned about a cat my size stalking me, but otherwise this feels like a timeless place, a place outside time.

Spending a day with dog in a truly beautiful place for a relaxing mind-massage by the water has been a favorite inactivity the whole time I've lived in these mountains. I learned about it as something to do from reading Chinese poetry in translation, probably where the mountains got their mystique for me.

Scenes such as the one I'm in now were frequently appreciated by the old Chinese poets from centuries back who composed some of the finest poems ever put on paper.

Our county is full of places like this. Many of them have been ignored for so long that a native habitat has grown up along the sides of streams, even in town, and all they need is dead branches and beer bottles removed.

Bonnie Vaughn, Sparta's platinum strider, lives in a house behind BB&T on Main Street. Her back yard has a mountain stream running through it with trees, rocks, moss, ferns, rhododendron and a carpet of last year's leaves on the ground like here. It's right there in town. Either side of this wooded stretch the stream running through there looks like a ditch for runoff. Bonnie has her own serenity place in the middle of town that takes you outside time to step into it from the lawn.

Somewhere in a book on the wisdom of old China I came across these words that stuck in my head like soft darts, "When puzzled by some conundrum look to water for the key." There's always some kind of conundrum going on with the bats in my belfry. I cannot say it's a conundrum now, but there is some mental processing going on that may be a conundrum. I can't figure out if the sudden surge of interest in the arts as the future of Sparta surfaced or came from out of the blue. Or both. Probably both.

I see quite a lot of people wanting to be involved in a community grass roots, at-home project that has the potential to pull Sparta together and inspire some life in the old town. When you look at all the people in this county who are talented in one art form or another, including gospel singers, bluegrass and old-time musicians, country musicians, rock musicians and others, we have a living heritage in the music. Even though we don't ride horses any more but for leisure, or carry water in buckets from the spring, the music carries in it the spirit of that time before machines, the time before television and pop culture when the people of the community entertained one another with their own standards of excellence.

If you pay attention to the monthly art shows at the library, you know that quite a large number of people in the county paint very well or take some excellent photographs. People making their own kind of art from cross-stitch to furniture, to all the variety of possibilities, can be invigorated bringing together art expression that's already going on here, unnoticed, to generate, of all things, business. It's mind-boggling. The other day I heard John Brady say, "Anything well done is art." My voice said, "That's right." Heart said, "Amen, brother." Art is not something off in New York you don't understand. Art is at home in everyday life. Living one's life well is an art. Is this proposed project or anything like it possible? I ask my self.

Does it have a foundation? After sorting over the conundrum several weeks, I'm beginning to see it has a firm foundation when I look at the people getting involved and wanting to be involved in creating something together as a community to feature the people of the community. Our annual Hillbilly show is evidence we have a lot of people who can really be funny on a stage before an audience.

That is definitely a talent and an art. We have a young theater group that is homegrown and encouragingly successful. The fiddler's conventions give evidence of the abundance of talented musicians in the county, who would enjoy more opportunities to play for audiences.

Last night I watched the movie Chinatown, with Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson. I'd not seen it since it was new a long time ago. Nicholson's character said of working as a detective in Chinatown that you think you have some idea of what is going on, but in reality you have no idea.

I thought of Sparta and how the unforeseen just might have delivered us something with wonderful potential.

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