201211 Stars and Lamps (& beauty)

dec. 11

Here is the morning sky before the sunrise.

Last night's dinner was all prepared in the microwave. Veggie burger chopped up with red pepper, red onion, garlic and seasoning was prepared by first cooking the vegetables and then adding the burger and some HP, pepper, salt, and a bit of Frank's hot sauce. That done, I microwaved broccoli spears and then re-heated previously microwaved squash (from Rain's cellar). I have one bowl big enough for the first dish, and cereal bowls for the others. I felt very resourceful! One day my pots will come!

The sky cleared last night and the stars were as bright as I have ever seen them. There were two very bright lights in the east, low on the horizon, twinkling red and green! We thought: alien invasion? military espionage? satellites? but we finally discovered that they were stars! The brighter, more southern one was Capella, the other higher in the sky and farther north might be Sirius. They flash red and green because they are low in the sky and the atmosphere causes a refraction of their light. All this astronomical learning was made easy by the internet! Imagine a time B.I. (before internet): We would have to have brought an astronomy book with us and looked it up there, or wait until we could reach a library or bookstore for such a book! Above Capella a bright ladder of stars climbed the sky almost as concrete and tangible as diamonds reaching up to the wheel of the galaxy.

This morning we were up before the sun. The sky was streaked with bright pink clouds across the east and a fire of brightness where the sun would soon rise. I think I could look out at the panorama of hills and sky all day, the snow-laden trees and the dark firs rising starkly above the mist of snowy forest.

We can name beauty so readily. We use the word in a myriad of ways for sights, sounds, things touched or tasted. Beauty has been aligned with mathematics, truth (Ode to a Grecian Urn), perception and objectivity, the human and the non-human world. But why is there beauty? The rapture of a beautiful experience can be acute - soul-piercing. But WHAT makes it so? and WHY? What is it in humans that sees, that requires beauty? And why have I not asked this before in my whole life?! The experience of beauty may help us recognize truths, in math, in art and writing, in the natural world; as such it may help us to see what can harm or heal us, or show us a path. These are some of beauty's functions perhaps. In these respects it makes sense that it gives us pleasure - such that cognizance of beauty will promote health, safety or social and scientific progress. But as I stand on the apron of meadow in front of this house, the view fills me with joy, love, of life and of this world, gratitude that I may see it, even gratitude or love towards a god, certainly towards a wide mysterious universe beyond any comprehension. But again, why? What purpose has this joy and love? It is beyond my understanding, still I am humbly thankful.

*****

I walked up the hill yesterday, along a trail through the forest behind the house. It's a sort of logging road that goes behind our neighbour's place and on around a bend to somewhere. We must explore farther up. Once or twice we have seen someone drive up here on an all-terrain vehicle. Where were they headed?

Later I walked down to the bottom of the property where old apple trees and hawthorn grow. This picture looks up to the house from there. You can just see the snow-covered roof against the forest.

Here is the car, no longer absurd now that its purpose is realized: it is awake, in its element, ready for this wild winter adventure.

Blackie visits us every day; we see him when we go out the door, or across the meadow as he plunges into the snowy forest hunting or scouting his territory.

When I get electricity in the loft this pair of lamps will go live there. The charity store, Friperie Karma, had them for sale - the price had been reduced because no-one wanted them last week! They are vintage, I don't know what age, older than me, and they are in perfect nick: a gift from the universe, and as such, a good omen. Rain kindly fetched them for me. The Karma woman even put the lightbulbs in the box. Rain said, "Too bad they don't have their shades." I pulled a wrapped article from the box and said, "They are here!", as I unwrapped one of the shades. The Karma woman is the same woman who keeps broken china for my mosaics. She is an angel. Isn't friperie a wonderful name for a charity shop?!