in parentheses

Various parts of our planet have been popularly dubbed beautiful, considered to be paradise, Shangri-La, the vestibules of nirvana. Narrowing our scope to the radiant oceanic scenes, we see that these places can often take mastery over a person’s pleasure principle or, at least, pull a person into a trance; and she sinks into a magnetic appetite for that aspect in nature that we label as ‘beautiful’. The viewer is in awe, breath-taken before the glittery luster of a bright day, hard azure over a calm sea; or perhaps the dusk fade of orange into violet.

But why are these visuals so appealing to people? Even after someone has taken it all for granted, she can still find a solace in staring off into the wide further.

Industries! are in place all for such a simple experience, to just mosey about on white sand with the view of an infinite ocean always around. What is it about the mixture of these aesthetics and the tropical climate that (as far as mankind is concerned) presents to many of us a place of utmost beauty, a paradisimo? Well, we could dive into all sorts of psychological theories and esoteric particularities, couldn’t we?

We could also consider entertaining the notion that perhaps experience is multicellular. We behold our surroundings one cell at a time. So when we encounter a phenomenon too large in scope and depth and perhaps splendor for our ‘cells of comprehension’, we marvel at it. Such a phenomenon is Sublime and people want to experience the Sublime, that which they cannot contain within one snapshot of consciousness like the expanse of the OCEAN or the DISTANCE.

These geographical phenomena indeed have something in common: They have the capacity to reveal to people an informative spectacle that human existence is dependent, complementary, microcosmic.  And what’s interesting is that we would translate our experiencing this truth of our universe into an expression of admiration.