“Beauty is truth,…
…truth beauty,” – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
OK, Keats was a romantic, actually a “Romantic” with a capital “R.” 
I thought of Keats and his poem on Sunday, when a woman who viewed the photos hung in my booth at “Art Under the Oaks” at the Alden Lane Nursery, turned to me and said, “There is a lot of beauty in this world.”
I thought, “That is a comment that I never heard while I worked in high tech.” One of the comments that I remember from my high tech days was someone asking me, “Is this a ‘hostile work environment’?”
What I remember telling the woman at the art fair is, “Yes, there certainly is… and I think about that every time that I photograph nature.”
So… why do some people create artificial worlds of ugliness, workaholism, and despair?
Beats me! 😉
The trick is not to let them drag you into these illusions. I have found that once you let them drag you into their illusions from objective reality, it is really hard to turn back. (The scientist in me really strives to cling to reality. )
I thought again about the natural beauty of the world as we traveled today from Mission Santa Inés at Solvang (more about the mission later [Note added August 17, 2009: MUCH more…! The photoblog entry with numerous links to photographs is HERE!]) to San Luis Obispo, through Morro Bay and Cayucos, past the elephant seals of San Simeon and northward through Big Sur. It was not the best of days for photography, because the fog was very dense on the coast in a lot of places. It was a wonderful day to appreciate the natural beauty of the world, and there were a lot of people, Californians and people from many other places as well, who were doing just that.
The cliffs and hills of Big Sur were covered in July wildflowers, and the fog, drifting UP the hills and swirling across Highway 1, added to the natural wonder.
Californians and visitors aliike – get out there and enjoy the beauty! Life is short, but it can be as sweet as me make it.
(Note added August 30, 2009: Photoblog entries about Mission Santa Barbara, Stearns Wharf, and Mission Santa Inés include numerous photos from the trip.)
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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