Nature

Nature never stays the same, even as we insist upon life maintaining consistency. So often we want the same temperature, the same food, the same movement as before, and yet with each moment of each day nature tells us, “no.”

There are measures we take to avoid the trouble. We create air conditioned boxes of comfort, fridges full of produce imported across seas, cashmere sweaters and swim trunks and running shoes and sunglasses. All of these accoutrements smooth out the edges of an unavoidably inhospitable world.

But beauty, so often, is created in those moments where the dynamism of nature is met in compliment with the fabrications of man: the boots that got you to the top of the mountain, the glass of ice water that cooled your throat on a warm day, the quiet warmth of a building lobby as you come inside from snow blowing sideways. Both need the other, and all of us need them all.