Week 8 - Awe and Odyssey - Andrew J Stefani

 

Awe and Odyssey

    It is the small things, I say, and here is a picture of clouds, which in themselves are quite large. It is the small things, I say, and here is a picture of mountains, who hunger upwards in size around us. It is the small things, I say, because this moment, with all of its spatial greatness, is quite temporary. A moment. A point. A dot on the timeline.

    I was on a drive back from Reno, and this moment made me pull to the side of the road. Is it a large scene? Perhaps. But it is not the clouds that awe me, or the mountains, but my luck in witnessing this point in their odyssey. Me, but a speck on the timeline seeing this even smaller speck. What a sight to see.

   

    You see, it is these gargantuan things coming together in such a way so as to define a small moment--it is these infinitely miniscule momentary interactions that I stare in awe at. Moments where the light slips through the giant cotton-balls blotting out the sky to make a moment such as this. But is there really so much difference between this moment and the one where I stared in awe at the light diffused on my bedsheets? I don't think so. They are different in texture, maybe, but their cause and size in time is similar enough. If you are open to it, they both inspire the same sense of awe; awe at both the large and the small.

   

    In the small odyssey allotted to me, I welcome all kinds of awe. Any other process would disadvantage my sanity.