These words are attributed to Ebenezer Bryce, when asked about the canyon that now bears his name. He and his family stayed just five years, from 1875 to 1880, relocating to southern Arizona due to his wife's bad health. During the five years he lived here, he cleared fields, dug irrigation ditches, constructed a logging road, raised cattle, and with hard work, prospered. So, here's the question. Was he a stoic or just too busy to notice the profound beauty of his home?
Bryce Canyon, land of the hoodoos (rocky promontories that over millions of years have been scoured by wind, water, and ice and transformed into so many chess pieces), is truly a an artist's pallet of color. Iron rich sandstone cake in tan, red and pink, interspersed with the purple of manganese is capped by white concrete icing. Holes in the rocks form arches, bridges and windows that let the cerulean blue sky shine through, a blue so dark and deep that it is hard to tell day from night. White patches of snow, under the greenest of pines and firs, melting in the warm sun, trickling down the hills as clear cold streams. So it is today. So it was in 1875.
Was old Ebenezer too busy to notice? After five years was he inured to the beauty of this place? Or was he just so focused on survival in a harsh climate that food and shelter trumped these considerations? And if he was just a man without feelings, it is too bad. Too, too bad.
1 comment:
The first few months of my life in Prague I noticed its beauty without effort everyday. I couldn't help it, it just slapped me in the face. But after living there for a year I started having to force myself to stop and look around. I got so used to living there that I rushed pasted the beautiful castles and views each morning while going to work. you don't mean to let it become normal, but you can't remain in a constant state of awe forever. it is always beautiful to you, but eventually it also becomes the norm.
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