Reason #5 - Beauty

I know I’ve spoken quite a bit in this blog about the beauty we’ve been experiencing. Just today I realized that that’s reason #5 (in answer to the title question). We were riding on Hwy 50 from Ely toward Baker, and we had a long straight stretch with snow-covered 13,000-foot Mt. Wheeler looming dramatically over us. Then we went over a moderate rise and emerged at the head of a long valley. We traveled along the upslope on the right side of valley, which spread out to our left, lush and green, to the base of a range of mountains that rose to some snow-covered peaks. To our right, much closer, was a line of rocky, craggy vertical cliffs.

Now, I’ve seen similar scenes before. In fact, Kathy and I drove this highway just two months ago. The difference is that, traveling at bicycle pace and with the ability to look all around, I was able to be immersed in this scene for the better part of half hour, rather than driving through it in a few minutes, with the limited vantage of a windshield and car windows. I began to reflect on all of the different ways in which beauty was presenting itself, most of which I wouldn’t notice from a car, or only notice fleetingly: the aroma of the sage desert, the ever-present bird songs, the seed heads of the low purplish grasses swaying in the wind, and so much more.

Robinson Jeffers said that beauty is God’s signature in the world. If that’s true, then traveling by bicycle is being enveloped in the bosom of the divine.