Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Beautiful dawn

My plane was flying from Dallas towards Atlanta before day break, on my way to SIGCHI, a prestigious conference on Computer-Human Interface. At first it was almost pitch black. As the plane was about half way through the flight, the sky started to lighten. Then it gradually turned red at the horizon in the distance. As the sky did so, the light started to reflect off the leading edge of the wing of the airplane.

The rich, complex shades of subtly changing colour is so beautiful. It is hard to imagine that there is not some purpose of the image. Someone must have designed it, for a reason. Why does the juxtaposition of the sun, the earth and the atmosphere produces such a image that that combination of the eyes and the brain of a human being finds so spectacular?

I am not so arrogant to think that God created the image for my sole enjoyment. That image is free, for anyone who is there that cares to look. In fact, that image is a moving performance that travels around the world day after day.

Much of the world is ugly. And I am sorry that I sometimes participate in that ugliness. But the world can also be exceedingly beautiful. And I am grateful that God allows me the privilege to sometimes partake in seeing that beauty.



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