Our Beautiful, Ever-Changing, Long View

The other day, I was remarking to friends that we continue to be fascinated by the view from our apartment, delighted every time we arrive home to see it in front of us, never tiring of staring out to the horizon, constantly remarking on the beauty, collecting photo after photo (none of which do it justice, of course).  

We fatigue of seeing all kinds of things, even things that we initially liked--a billboard, a certain color or color combination, a style of house, the shape that a type of clothing makes hanging on a person--but there seems to be something particular about (some) views that they never lose their visual appeal.  Perhaps it's the beauty, although I have been mesmerized many times by views that would probably not be described as classically beautiful.  And I don't feel the same compulsion to stare at a beautiful painting or photograph or print, even though I love to be surrounded by them and glance at them often.  Perhaps it's the fact that the view is ever-changing--trees lose their leaves and gain new ones, suns set and rise, clouds move across the sky, colors evolve over the days and seasons.  Or, maybe our brain is telling us that there's something about focusing our eyes far into the distance that is healthy and important.  In fact, many years ago, a stranger in Cambridge stopped to talk to me on the street and told me as much, and it has always stuck in my mind.  (We were living in a dense residential neighborhood in Cambridge with two small children.  I was out in our tiny yard with the kids playing one day when a woman stopped by to chat.  She said something kind about how well the girls were playing together and then turned to me and said, pointedly, "You must get them out of the city often to someplace with long views.  The brain does not develop properly without long views."  Part of me thought, "What a crazy, busy-body, quintessentially Cambridge moment." Another part of me thought, "Well, we are five blocks from Harvard.  Maybe she's a world-renowned expert on visual stimuli and brain development.")

I guess I come down on thinking that the view is so appealing for all three reasons, at least in part.  Whatever the reason, I can say that it feeds my soul on a daily basis.  I am always very impressed by the photo series taken from a particular vantage point every day at the same time for a year, say.  I do not have the patience or foresight for such a project, but here is a motley assortment of a few of the many (not-doing-justice) photos I have taken over the past few months.