My family is originally from Florida and no one can understand why we would leave the sunshine state for the unfortunate state of Ohio.
It was nice for us kids because our parents were as delighted with the novelty of snow as we were (yes, at one time I did like snow) and would build snowmen with us and take us sledding as often as we wished.
The novelty wore off after a while. Only my little brother enjoys the cold weather and he was born here. We lived in a rummy area of Ohio too. The rivers are dirty and the parks are dirty and the trees are scraggly. So on a semi-annual trip to Florida I was suprised to hear a Floridian friend say, "You're so lucky you live in Ohio, it's so pretty up there!"
Pretty? Boring at best. The most the mid-west has to offer is a vast landscape of cows and corn.
This has always been true. It's less true due to the number of shopping malls and homoginized housing communities, but it's still true.
Even so, when I drive to work in the morning it's pretty amazing. Especially now that the sun is up earlier. Until just recently the light was only just peeking over the hills by the time I entered to office. But now everything is brilliantly lit up and all this cold, barren farm land, with it's empty corn fields and faded houses, actually is...beautiful, just as my friend said it was.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
I work up early this morning...
Posted by Melody at 6.3.07
Labels: it's a bird, it's a plane, it's...
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2 comments:
To borrow the tired cliche: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is a "beauty" to these midwest flatlands that takes a while to appreciate. I think I am learning to appreciate it more and more as I realize how accelerated our culture is becoming. The flatlands of Indiana represent stillness and quietness. You have to appreciate the ability to stop and do nothing first, and then you can appreciate the absolute simplicity of seeing the same corn fields repeated over never ending highways and backroads that all look the same. It is a beauty in the mundane.
Possibly so. I think it's because they don't all look the same that they're interesting...something different is around every corner.
My friend said of Florida, "It's just palm trees and piles of sand for as far as you can see." She was excited about our forests.
I pointed out to her that millions of people spend quite a bit of money getting to those piles of sand, but she said when you live there it's just not interesting.
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