Sluggish Beauty

As a kid I was amazed by so many things. When we were on vacation and had the chance to go swim in the sea and visit the beach, I always went out to find the most beautiful shells I could find.

_{Conus Gloria Maris - source: PxHere}

My parents told me that if I held one of the larger ones to my ear and listened carefully, I would be able to hear the sound of the sea. Even when we are back at home in the city, my mom promised, I would still be able to hear the sea. I didn't believe her of course, at least not the latter part, at first. And you know what? She was right! Back home, shell stuck to ear, I heard the sea again! Yeah, my mom was very wise... ;-)

But it's the shells themselves I want to focus our attention to now: I think all of us who had a chance to visit the sea when we were young, were somehow attracted to those beautifully shaped and wonderfully colored snail-homes. And somehow, most of us grow over that. When I took my son to the beach last summer, I didn't look twice at the many shells there. And now I wonder why: why and when did I feel that sense of amazement about the shells?

_{Listen carefully... - source: Wikipedia}

I think it's just because it's been a while since I looked at them. I mean really looked at them. I never lost my amazement about the stars and the universe, and that's because I never lost sight of those topics: I still, to this day, watch every new lecture by the scientists I follow, and those are almost all theoretical physicists and cosmologists. Likewise I never stopped being perplexed by the Human Condition and the age-old questions about consciousness and why we are here at all.

But all of that and even more is represented in the beautiful, sometimes almost regal appearance of the sea-shells that captured our imagination when we were kids. What I mean is this: I can stare at the night's sky, dreaming away and wondering what civilizations might be out there, or might have been out there. I know the light of some of those stars took billions of years to reach my eyes, so maybe those civilizations are already extinct by now. The knowledge that staring at stars is staring back in time, wondering about the incomprehensible size of it all, and then realizing that I experience all that with a mind that's built from the exact same particles as the stuff I'm staring at... Or is the mind more than the mere particles? And can we ever know for sure? Makes me feel humble, grateful and extremely happy, feels like it's okay to not understand everything and just be.

_{Did Giger design this? - source: Max Pixel}

Now take a look at this video by NaplesSeaShellCo, and tell me it doesn't fill you with a same kind of awe and wonder:

_Seashells

When I found this video, I was taken right back to those years as a kid, when simple, earthly things captured the imagination and made me wonder about the mysterious elegance of nature. These creations, some of which could have come from the hand of H. R. Giger himself, evokes the same sense of wonder the universe does. How does something so exquisit, yet illogical, evolve? What's with that fibonacci spiral that's present everywhere in nature?

I love feeling lost, not knowing these things and still being allowed to just wonder about them. And to just admire them, be awe-struck by nature from time to time. Stay curious and stay amazed, my friends. Hope to see you back here tomorrow!

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