Nature: beauty and power

I found myself fascinated by trees. Yes, you read correctly. Trees. I used to love the way trees look in the summer, all green and glorious, with the sun sparkling between their leaves. I’m still fascinated by the amazing range of colors they take in autumn, from golden-yellow to dark red. But I never stopped to look at the trees when they’re empty, naked. I did that. I was in the bus actually, staring through the window at nothing. The bus just caught a red sign and I looked up at the trees on the side of the road. Hundreds of branches, from big to small, extending from each other in complete harmony. There was order in those branches. And they were almost like a painting, only much more detailed, and almost alive. Each tree had its own pattern, its own shape. I stared at them all the way. I almost forgot to get off the bus.

Trees aren’t the only thing beautiful in nature. Mountains, fields, flowers, oceans. Everything is perfect. Even phenomenons. Rain is both good and destructive. Heat can be pleasant and not so pleasant. Ice incorporates physical perfection, right down to the last molecule. The planet is beautiful, but it can also be defensive. Natural disasters happen more often than we’d like. Man can defend himself from aggressors by initiating wars, by creating weapons and with only brute force. But humans can’t defend themselves from the power of nature.

Tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes. We can build stronger homes, we can hide underground, we can move to areas less prone to this kind of catastrophes. But humans can’t defeat nature. It’s useless to try finding a reason for the disasters that hit the world when we least expect it. We can start an endless analysis of the impact humans have on Earth, on the fact that we drain the natural resources and that nature is “getting back” on us for that. We will never understand the “why”, maybe because there isn’t one in the equation.

Japan was hit by one of the biggest earthquakes in history. The people who were killed, their families and those who suffered material loss didn’t deserve what happened to them. Neither did the people from Haiti or other countries that were hit by something as destructive as the disaster in Japan. The world stood still, in shock, watching live what was happening yesterday, thinking of how unreal, unbelievable it all was. Prayers were sent to those in Japan, governments offered their help and people themselves tried to do as much as they could to ease the suffering of millions of innocent souls that happened to be in the “way” of nature when it decided to show us what it can do.

Where my heart lies

I just watched the landing of the  space shuttle Discovery. It was amazing. I watched for 20 minutes as it approached the landing strip and after the landing. If anyone had seen me, they would have laughed, as I was starring at the screen of my PC, with a dumb huge smile on my face.

The feeling of being proud of something is one of the best feelings one can have. Yes, I was proud. Proud of the crew of Discovery, proud of americans, which managed to do things, to evolve faster and better (I don’t want to offend other nations, but as the title states, it’s my own opinion, my own feelings and thoughts). I was proud, in that moment, of mankind. And my heart twiched at the thought of not being able to share that pride. My own naive brain thinks that all americans were joined today by that feeling of pride and honest happiness. I wish I could be among them. I wish I was there to share exclamations of joy when Discovery touched down. I can’t go that far as to wish I was apart of the crew, or even the ground crew. That would have been possible only if I was born an american. And I’m sure that if I was an american, I would have been apart of that moment. There is nothing better, in life, than to be able to say you helped  shape the world as we know it. History has recorded this moment. It will be remembered.