Friday ~ January 10, 2010

Sublime places repeat in grand terms a lesson that ordinary typically introduces viciously: that the universe is mightier than we are, that we are frail and tempory and have no alternative but to accept limitations on our will; that we must bow to necessities greater than ourselves... This is the lesson written into the stones of the desert and the ice fields of the poles. So grandly is it written there that we may come away from such places not crushed but inspired by what lies beyond us, privileged to be subject to such majestic necessities. The sense of awe may even shade into a desire to worship.

(Alain de Botton, b. 1969)