JUST A SUNSET…

I didn’t plan on writing about sunsets again, but… Last evening’s display was a corker, a real knock-your-socks-off presentation of dazzling sky color—the best of which actually came after the sun disappeared below the horizon. The show didn’t last long, but then sunsets are an ongoing process, a kaleidoscopic progression in hues of orange, pink, purple, and blue, that deepens and intensifies as day slides westward and night lays claim to the land. The image above was taken at almost the final instant before the upper portion of the sky went dark, whereupon the only color remaining was a fiery band just above the horizon. At this fleeting point, however, the puffy clouds and their wispy surrounding veils are simply glowing, as if soaking in the last vestiges of warm, fading sunlight. I took photos from beginning to end, but this single ephemeral moment is where everything came together, the event’s true crescendo. This morning, I uploaded the shots to my computer, weeded out the ones I didn’t like, or the blurry images where I again failed in my attempt to prove that I can indeed hand-hold a camera steady at a half second exposure. (Not anywhere close!) Afterwards, I filed several of my favorites shots into the folder labeled “SUNSETS.” I shoot a lot of sunset images, and almost as many sunrises. Most will never be printed, or used in illustration, either online or hardcopy. But I save them because every so often, I like pulling them up and viewing them on the computer’s screen. I like to remember, vicariously relive the time and place where they were taken…and in some small measure, perhaps recapture just a bit of the scene's sense of wonder. Wonder is important to me. I need a good dose of wonder on a regular basis. Wonder is the antidote when I begin feeling blasé; the stimulus for overcoming ennui. I seek wonder because I want to be awed, thrilled, mystified, amazed. What good is a life lived if it lacks wonder? Modern life is wonder’s anathema. The frenetic pace leaves little time for seeking out and enjoying wonder, while the mesmerizing flash and sizzle of technology would replace real wonder with some artificial version. Children are increasingly robbed of their burgeoning capacity to find pleasure in wonder by foisting on them the responsibility to succeed, while simultaneously frightening them with the perils of failure. Where does a kid find the freedom or willingness to experience wonder? The natural world is filled with wonder. Wondrous sights, wondrous sounds, wondrous smells, wondrous places and adventures. Surely a spectacular sunset delivers wonder. No matter that all sunsets share basic similarities. Sunsets are like people—no two are ever exactly alike. Just a sunset? Not on your life! It is a moment of wonder—and I say it’s worth anyone's time to allow this glorious culmination of the day to work its ancient natural magic in your soul.