A Country Of My Own

Cerro San Bernardo, near Bariloche, Patagonia

To see a landscape like the one above, you could be forgiven for thinking you had died and gone to heaven.  Words and even photographs don't capture the beauty or the immensity of such nature.  Even more than this scene of lakes and trees amid majestic mountains, the kind of natural beauty that really calls to me is the barren, the overcast and the wild.  Heather bending beneath the wind on Scottish hills at the foot of a ben on a cloudy day.  Sheets of rain driven by a wind scudding across a New Zealand bay at sunset to contrast the utter calm and tranquility of the waters it has not yet reached.  The gray expanse of scrub and tundra nestled at the foot of imposing Patagonian peaks farther South, where I haven't trodden, but hope to someday.  

Or surreal, lunar landscapes of dry and dusty Cappadocian valleys in central Turkey, fairy-tale chimneys of stone rising out of nothing to stand in sharp relief against a bleached, faded sky.  Stars shimmering above endless dunes in Arabia, where a circular horizon shows itself for lack of landmarks, nothing here but sand, wind and stars.

And to think that, if Plato was right, these are just shadows and copies of a much more perfect and beautiful reality!  That these are but imitations of an ideal, as C.S. Lewis expresses so poignantly in the last chapter of his Narnia chronicles, Farewell to the Shadowlands.  I think Lewis must have been reading the book of Hebrews too--more on that in future posts.  It also reminds me of one of my favourite passages, in 1 Corinthians:

"Now we see but a poor reflection, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." -- 1 Corinthians 13:12

Hi, I'm Andrew.  Welcome to my blog!  I'm going to be discussing whatever comes to mind and piques my interest, and re-posting things from around the net and the blogosphere that I think are worthy of some more attention.  I hope you enjoy it!  Let me know if you do by following this blog or writing in the comments.  Questions and discussions are welcome.