Will Bassing - Natural Beauty

Today in class we discussed Dr. Redicks travels.  I believe that traveling and having new experiences, and experiencing culture shock is beautiful.  It is so easy for us to take things for granted.  I believe that there is a certain beauty in going out and living and hiking and surviving out in the world.  Whether it is a several month hike down the Appalachian trail or if it is a hike through old cities and small villages.  They each have their own aspects of beauty in them.  I hiked old rag once, which isn’t all that impressive since it only took about two hours, but it felt good to get out and experience nature.  And there is a sense of accomplishment when you get to the top of a mountain and look across at all of the valleys and trees and you see how high you have climbed.  I would love to have been able to camp out for a few days and stay out in nature.  I think that too much effort today is spent on controlling elements.  If you look around CNU’s campus, every single thing is controlled; the amount of water the grass receives, the color of the grass(spraypaint), the placement of flowers, the moss and weeds that grow through bricks, the pattern of the sand in the JR volleyball court.  I do think that this is a pretty campus, but it is so artificial.  There is a different kind of beauty that exists in nature, a more real beauty.  It isn’t controlled or regulated, the beauty just happens.  In the photo’s shown by Dr. Redick, there was a church that had moss and grass growing on top of it, and stork nests as well.  If there was a single blade of grass out of place on the great lawn, it would be cleansed.  If a brick was resting askew because the ground shifted, it would be replaced and leveled out.  In previous classes we have discussed the Greek temple of Poseidon.  Part of the power that the temple has, has been achieved because it has been there for centuries.  Nobody goes out and power washes the columns on Poseidon’s temple.  I believe that there is a deeper more meaningful beauty that exists in the natural world, rather than the artificial preserved world