When I was eating dinner Thursday night at Chick-fil-A, I looked out the window next to my booth and saw a colorful, dramatic sky as the sun set. I pulled out my iPhone and snapped a few pictures, including the one you see above.
But I noticed something. Other people didn’t seem to be paying attention to the spectacular light show going on in the sky outside. I stepped outside for a few pictures. People continued to come and go, not bothering to look up at the sky. A couple of people noticed that I was taking pictures and looked up to see what I was shooting. But it didn’t seem to warrant more than a quick glance in their eyes.
Once I had the picture transferred to my MacBook, I showed it to some other people around me. They all thought it was beautiful.
“Wow. I’ve never seen anything like that,” said one woman, as the fading remnants of that exact scene lingered in the sky outside the window.
I was reminded of the scene early in Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” in which Clarisse McClellan pointed out the moon to the disillusioned Guy Montag.
“And if you look” — she nodded at the sky — “there’s a man in the moon.”
When she later told Montag how she knew there was something different about him, she mentioned that it was because when she mentioned things such as the moon and other oddities that she noticed — and which he hadn’t noticed — Montag actually looked.
We live in a world where everyone is busy with plans and programs and schedules. We’re going places quickly. We’re getting things done, I suppose. But I’m not sure we’re living. I’m not sure we’re paying attention to the beauty and wonder that are so much a part of making life worthwhile.
There’s beauty all around you. It might be in the sky. It might be in the leaves under your feet. (The shot below was near my house earlier this week.) Life is beautiful if you’re looking for it. There’s a lot that’s ugly and painful and mean, but there’s a lot of beauty if you open your eyes.
I don’t know exactly what the beauty is in your world, but I guarantee it’s there. Somewhere. Open your eyes and look. Take pictures of it. Share what you see with other people. You might find it makes life a little bit more worth living.