Sunday, September 19, 2010

Scenic beauty or not.

Well, here I go a wondering again, this time about what we perceive as beauty in nature. Myself, I see beauty in each blade of grass and each grain of sand, but like most of us, I see beauty in some things more than others. For instance, there is beauty in an all blue sky, but add some fluffy white clouds and it gets a little better. Add a setting sun with all its additional color and it gets even better. Of course, maybe you prefer the pure blue sky.

For today, let us just consider landscapes. It seems to me that most of us think the most beauty is where there had been some traumatic and explosive geological events. Erosion by wind and water, upheaval of huge layers of rock, volcanic action, and many more cataclysmic geological actions all tend to create what we perceive to be beauty.

OK, I have a few examples. Look at this first picture and I am sure we can find some beauty here:

Now, look at this picture taken on Interstate 40 just as you leave New Mexico and get into Arizona. Don’t you think that you can find some more beauty in the cliffs and rocks than in the flat prairie?
Now take a look out the motor-home window at this scene:
Now compare this picture to the next four pictures below. Do you see any more beauty below than in the one above?



OK, one last time. This is a picture of where nothing cataclysmic ever happened except a dust storm or two:

And these last three show the aftermath of a lot of terrible past events:



Now, tell me, where do you see the most beauty in nature. I also love a thick lush green forest and sparkling brooks, and, gee whiz, I guess I love everthing in Nature.

7 comments:

  1. Boy howdy Dizzy, we must both go to the same eye doctor. My son come to my rescue when I had my surgery a couple year ago. Said the desert is ugly, no trees....nuttin for miles and miles. He was driv'n a hunert mile a hour what made everything just a blur. On his trips back and forth between Los Cruses and "da house", he seen the real beauty of the desert. Just like the photos you posted. The desert holds beauty seldom seen by the "fast" world. Ya gots to slow down, look around, take time to see every piece of beauty nature has to offer....it's free.

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  2. Yep,give me the wide open desert every time. I drove up to West Virgina once and felt like I was trapped, all them hills and what not,, couldn't see more than bout 100 feet.. Thought an ole moonshiner was gonna jump out and play deliverance on me!!!

    Now the wide open area of west Texas and southern NM? Yep, love it. Some of the parts of California I liked,, and I undertand that part of Oregon and Washington state are open plains. I would love to drive from Oregon east across Montana to Iowa and then follow the Mississippi down to Vicksburg and back home.

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  3. Billy Bob, you are right. Sometimes I just sit down on the ground and look real close at everything. Surprising the beauty you can find up close when the same thing from afar looks like a carpet.

    Ben, I lived just outside Justin in 1982 & 1983. Could see for miles and miles. Only trees around were a few on my place. Fields of wild sunflowers were beautiful. No hills in sight.

    I loved the desert at Terrlingua Ranch and in Arizona. But there were always mountains off in the distance. A little contrast, you know.

    The secret to a pleasant life is to find beauty in everything (well, almost everything).

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  4. Hey FT, thanks (or do you dissagree with me) :)
    Actually, so far we seem to agree on a lot.

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  5. I was agreeing... and as you know, I posted on a similar vein this morning. Beauty in nature, for me the fragrance of freshly hewn wood...

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  6. This photo I took a few months ago shows a shell the size of a pea.

    http://picasaweb.google.com.au/111708269463932743039/PointPlomerJuly2010#5499942128837626658

    I'd have gotten even closer if I had my tripod.

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