Digressions: My Life in 500 Words or Less
So much in life is subjective, and different eyes see different things. What appeals to one person might not get a second look from someone else. By the same token, it is fortunate to be able to share things with someone whose tastes are similar. I was reminded of this after taking photos a few weeks ago, and the reminder was reinforced by a couple of other recent experiences.
The photos I took were of a line of puffy, textured clouds in the bright afternoon sky. I was on a drive with my sweetie, Rebecca. Both of us were struck by the look of the clouds, so I pulled over and snapped a few photos.
Taking those photos reminded me of the pastime of looking at clouds and finding specific shapes, animals or objects in them. Rebecca and I actually didn’t do that. Instead, we were in agreement the clouds just looked appealing. But thinking about that pastime made me think about what we see and how we see when we look at things.
Not everyone will see the same thing when viewing a spongy white cloud. And some might not even see anything remarkable. Some doubtlessly see nothing appealing about staring at clouds.
That’s not the case for Rebecca and me. As evidenced by our mutual admiration of those clouds I took photos of, we are typically in agreement about what we find visually appealing. We often have the same taste when it comes to aesthetics, be it in nature, art, music, film or other things.
A couple of days ago we watched an episode of Antiques Roadshow. On that particular episode a woman had brought a print by Andy Warhol to be evaluated. Rebecca and I agreed if we were that person who owned that piece we’d be able to sell it without regret because neither of us are fans of his work
On Sunday afternoon we watched the movie “It.” As we do whenever we watch a movie together we independently — without conferring or revealing — decided on a rating from one to 10, with 10 being the best. Once we were both ready, we counted to three and then blurted our ratings. We both said, “Seven.” That is not unusual for us. Usually we’re within one number of each other when we rate films together.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t times when our tastes differ from each other. It does happen, just not as often. On the other hand I also feel fortunate to have friends with all different types of tastes and interests.
So this brings me back to the clouds. The clouds are ethereal reminders that tastes and interests can be different, but they also can be the same. And when they are the same they can radiate their own sort of beauty.
