Saturday, 14 April 2012

Perspective

I have been thinking about perspective today and how it can affect the way that we view the world. I saw a view of the world from space and my God what a beautiful sight! I have seen photos that were taken by the Hubble telescope of galaxies and nebulas thousands of light years away that are simply breath taking. So much beauty, and so very far away.


I saw a sunset today that lit the sky and clouds so that everything was this amazing shade of orange. It probably means that there is a huge fire or that a volcano has erupted spewing tons of ash into the atmosphere, but from my perspective it was quite beautiful. I have seen skies that are so lovely that if they were in a painting hanging on a wall, I would swear that the artist wasn’t very good because nothing could look that good.

Most things look good from a distance; even a water purification plant looks pretty cool. I tend to look at life a little closer than that. When I am on a beach, I find myself taking a handful of sand and trying to see the different tiny things that together look like sand. Most ocean beaches are mainly made of tiny shells pieces, bits of glass and plastic and grains of what once were rocks. Some beaches are made of lava and I guess some are almost all rock. I just looked at a vial of sand from the west coast of Vancouver Island and it is made up of shells and rocks mainly.

People are much the same. Even very beautiful people tend to be less than pleasing when you break them down into their component parts. When you are talking one on one you see little skin blemishes, hair where there shouldn’t be hair, one eye lower than the other and sometimes a little mole inside the right ear. The closer you get, the harder it is to find a place to look that isn’t downright gross.

I mention this because as I was admiring myself in the mirror today, I noticed a small hair growing out of the bridge of my nose. I have never had a hair growing there before, why would my body start to grow hair on my nose now? Does it have something to do with global warming? It is only one hair, so the insulation value would be pretty limited. You know, when I think of it, my body has started to up the ante on patches of hair.

Every now and then I notice a hair growing on the outside edge of my ear. I understand that hair on the inside of the ear might have a value. It could keep out dust, fingers, birds (my ears have started to grow), and hopefully the words of any and all idiots that attempt to talk to me. My eyebrows seem to grow at an alarming rate. I can’t keep my glasses clean because of the greasy eyebrow hair rubbing against them. How do eyebrows get greasy anyways? I can remember the first time that I was at the barber and when he had pretty much finished the hair cut, he trimmed my brows. WTF? Why are these things growing? What possible genetic mutation would make this desirable?

I have lived a pretty hairless life. Sure, I have a beard, but it isn’t a really thick one that I could win competitions with. One of Maegan’s old boyfriends asked if I shaved my legs for cycling. I think Maegan still laughs at that, not me. I have so few hairs on my chest, that early on I gave them names. I have always been pretty comfortable with my hairless body. There are some extremely hairy men that just pick an arbitrary spot to start shaving. My belief is that they are closer to apes on the evolutionary ladder; I am closer to the dolphins.

When you see a particularly intriguing looking person, you just might want to stay two or three paces away to give yourself the proper perspective, or if it isn’t me, then focus on their nose.

  

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