(no subject)

[Some thoughts about what soavezefiretto said about seeing beauty in daily things... ]

There are moments when it's almost as if perception shifts a little or some sense expands, I'm not sure what causes it, but suddenly there's this feeling of awareness, of really seeing things, and everything (the shades of grey of a bare winter forest when it rains, the wet stones and decaying leaves on the path...) is... 'beautiful' or any similar adjective is a label, a mental short-cut, a (poor) translation into words, either because I don't have the fitting words or there aren't any. It just is, and that's enough to make it wonderful, somehow.

It's hard to (consciously) maintain this state of mind for a longer time, but I seem to be getting better at it...

*sigh* This doesn't make much sense, I simply lack the vocabulary to describe this kind of metaphysical/spiritual experience, if it is that at all; I've never been much interested in philosophy or religion, but in some ways for the first time in my life the emphasis on beauty and love in e.g. Platonic philosophy begins to actually make some sense... You can like a person for all kinds of things, a thing can be useful, those are more or less clearly defined qualities, you can rationally argue about them; but 'love' or 'beauty'... vague emotional superlatives that are almost impossible to define or to be rational about; maybe the words are only approximations, maybe this isn't so much about the 'object' at all, but about one's own perception and state of mind, and being able to experience it is (the beginning of) a kind of connection with the greater scheme of things...


Oh my. I should stick with not being interested in philosophy or spirituality; I'm not good at this.



Took the tram to Pötzleinsdorf and had a two hour walk, first in the park and through the forest, then back to the Underground station; sunshine alternating with dark clouds and rain, and at one point rain from a sunny sky and the most brilliant, picture-perfect rainbow I've ever seen, close, just across the street, spanning perhaps three buildings, with a second, fainter rainbow above it.
I really love the outer districts, the villas and old houses, where the city blurs into the country and you sometimes still get a sense of the villages that were there.

I could have taken so many pictures... this time I'll really use my Christmas money to get a digital camera. If only I knew where to even begin looking, or what to look for...


Watched more S2 Buffy, which I'm kind of conflicted about. What I love about the Buffy/Angel universe are the characters - quirky, not perfect, but all likable - and the relationships between them, the unlikely 'families'; there's something very touching and sweet about it I simply can't resist. The weakness IMO are the plots: With all the slaying going on, after watching four episodes I'm already having a hard time telling them apart and to actually remember who got slain when and why and how and does it really matter? *sigh* B5 has spoiled me...