My friend Tom sent me a link to this video the other day.
“So often this time of year we hear the phrase ‘peace on earth,’ usually taken to mean absence of war,” Tom wrote. “I did this to show what I think peace on earth actually looks like and where you can find it.”
It’s also a strong reminder of how fortunate I am to live in Tennessee — and have friends like Tom.
I’ve always loved that scene in Harold in Maude where Maude tells Harold, “The earth is my body. My head is in the stars.” That quote popped into my mind when I found Stellarium, a program that basically turns your computer into a planetarium.
I’ve always been interested in astronomy, but I get overwhelmed when I look up and try to figure out what’s what. Stellarium puts things in perspective quickly. You tell it where on planet Earth you’re viewing from, and it configures the sky as it appears. You just need to figure out if you’re looking north, south, east or west and line it up to figure out what’s what up there. On my MacBook Pro screen, it’s pretty stunning. The sky moves in real time, and you can speed it up if you want to watch the moon rise and set or see the planets move across the sky. It’s definitely worth checking out …
And what better way to finish than with another quote from Maude …
“The stars are shining right now. We just can’t see them. Just another instance of all that’s going on that is beyond human perception.”
sunrise_paddle.jpg
Originally uploaded by Suffering the Benz
Anyone who knows me knows my interests become obsessions pretty quickly. Enter my latest obsession: paddling.
I’ve been going out in the canoe one or two mornings a week, slipping out of the cove before sunrise and exploring the Tennessee River as day breaks. This morning I saw my first truly transcendental sunrise after a series of cloudy, brooding paddles. This photo barely does it justice. I had to stop and drift for a while just to drink it in.
As I paddle, I leave a trail of croaking, pissed off herons in my wake. Often they’re dead asleep on a dock or a rock as I approach and I get incredibly close before they awaken and take indignant flight. Other times the warily watch my approach and move on only when it’s clear there is no alternative.
This morning I cut immediately over to the south shore at Parks Bend after exiting Duck Cove and paddled downstream about 2.5 miles to Sequoyah Heights. There’s a red buoy there that I set as my goal, and when hit it, I crossed to the north shore and passed the osprey nest on Coulter Shoal daymark as I headed back upstream. An osprey chick and one of the adults were in the nest, taking off and flying around for a bit while I passed.
I’m going to start uploading my paddling pictures to a Flickr photoset called, appropriately enough, Paddling Pics.