VISTAS

We boarded a little puddle-jumper on the way home this weekend.  It was a full flight of nine passengers, leaving no room for a co-pilot.  We lifted off the ground and went upward into a grey ocean, and when we emerged we could see over the swells, and the sun was setting at the horizon.

The man across from me took a picture on his phone – he tried to, I should say.  The thick gold of the evening was lost in the image, the depth of a cloudy ocean impossibly elusive.  And I wondered: how much do we miss by living below the clouds?  Today there was rain on our side, but who can tell what sumptuous vistas were hiding just out of sight?

My camera was not with me at the time.  I spent a minute or two regretting that, trying to perfectly save the memory of the richness that I might have captured but could not.  It might not have been such a wonderful picture after all.  It would never have captured the nuances of the view.  These moments are for the eyes alone.