thankfully, is not here yet.
On the contrary, since coming back from Greece last Saturday (5th September 2009), we have had a string of breathtakingly beautiful days.
To be sure, these days will not last (though there’s no real rain in the forecast for the next week, FWIW), and our friends here are reminding us to enjoy them while we can.
They are certainly to be savored – not only because they will eventually be replaced by less pleasant ones, but also just in themselves.
Today was a particularly beautiful morning – perhaps in part because it’s the first real Saturday we’ve had for a while, i.e., a morning when we could take our time.
And I’m convinced that, as I vaguely recall has been demonstrated in neuroscience, since the environment is still new to us, our brains have not become dulled by its familiarity: rather, everything hits us with the sharp, all but overwhelming presence of The First Time, as if the senses were somehow more fully open and awake.
And then there’s the fact that the air is often unusually clear, perhaps an effect of our living on the coast.
Finally, perhaps it’s because of the northern latitude. The sky, deep blue overhead, shades into an eggshell blue towards the horizon. The sky and clouds are those you’d find in a Vermeer. It often seems as if we’re walking through a painting made real, comprehensive, ultimate – or some science-fiction world, where the colors and hues shift subtly but clearly away from the familiar and the everyday.
In any event, as we walked down to town to look at bicycles (yes! Charlie is now the proud owner of a new Raleigh!) and enjoy what we call (from the Germans) a Stadtbummel (roughly, just walking about without much of a plan or agenda, to enjoy the sights) – the beauty of the clear but restrained northern sun, blue sky and distant sea was all but beyond belief. The sun poured down like honey (to steal from Leonard Cohen) on the university buildings, fanning their burnt yellow or red bricks to ultimate brightness and clarity.
All due respect: it’s hard for me to imagine any heaven improving much on this.
