A friend recently asked me, indirectly, how I like to spend my time. The actual question framed was this, “I must ask though, why don’t you enjoy being outdoors as much as you used to?”
Why don’t I enjoy being outdoors as much as I used to?
I love looking at beautiful things, provided I am in the company of people I like. There is something about beauty that demands it be shared. Time fleets away, when we’re young we mistakenly think we have an unlimited supply of that most precious thing. With each passing year we realize more that our time is finite, and we refine how we are willing to use it. Work begins to take far more than a just share, exhaustion another, duty another, all these voracious consumers of time hungrily eat away at our days and nights. What is left over, is all we have left to spend. Since we have so little we must become discerning. My choice of purchase with my time, is for the personal. Feelings and words shared with those we care about are far more precious to me than the most beautiful sight in the world, perceived alone.
In my life I have seen many beautiful things, I’ve been to many amazing places, and I’ve seen more of the seven wonders of the world than many have, or ever will. How do my memories of those places and sights play? They are all filled with the memories of those with whom I shared the sights, and those with whom I shared the sights feature more prominently within the memories than the beauty of the places themselves.
Yes, beauty does lie in the eye of the beholder, but beauty demands to be shared and if it cannot be, I think beauty is somewhat lessened.
Is beauty perceived alone as beautiful as beauty perceived together?
