Thomas Merton - Slice of Life Moment

A short, funny bit of Thomas Merton speaking at the Abbey before moving to his hermitage. Always good to hear his voice.

[@cherylmburton7486]

Don't know what mug lumps are. Sounds like an expression for something native to Kentucky woods. Although since he mentions the Scotland Loch Ness Monster legend, it must have been something sludgelike in the woods around his hermitage. I have not read anything of him describing the woods around him that way. Only beautiful praise of nature surrounding him is what I have read?

[@chrisw451]

Yeah just a made up fantasy creature. Yes the woods around him are beautiful. I live a out an hour away and have visited them many times.

[@cherylmburton5577]

Listening to it again, It sounds more like mud lumps.

[@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods]

"Mugwump" is an Algonquin word, and refers to a lake monster.

[@cherylmburton5577]

@@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods Thanks for answering! Now it makes sense. I know he described a small body of water where he would walk in the Forest there. Any Forest like that with no electric lights outside at night, can cause ones thoughts to conjure up those images. Probably the moonlight on the water would enhance the Idea.

[@cherylmburton7486]

Possibly it is a false voice, sounding like Merton's?

[@chrisw451]

Nope that is him joking around.

[@cherylmburton5577]

The second half was at first more believable as joking around, but now I see the odd humor in the first part also. Those kind of tales were popular in the 1960s, like the Science Fiction movie "The Day of the Triffids" when they kept multiplying, growing, to incredible heights, threatening to consume the whole earth, until they discovered that SeaWater could kill them!

[@cherylmburton5577]

We only had a black and white TV when I was a child, so I remember those Triffids as looking like an arsenal of black missiles, standing tall, straight up in the air.

[@chrisw451]

@@cherylmburton5577Day of the Triffids is one of my favorites, both the book and the movie. Freaked me out as a kid.

[@cherylmburton5577]

@@chrisw451 I had nightmares over those types of movies, especially the "Blob", also the monster movies.