Something Beautiful
English 101/50232
June 18, 2012
Something Beautiful
Written By:
It’s easy to see why before there was science native tribes of the northern hemisphere believed the aurora borealis to be supernatural. Most cultures thought the lights to be spirits of the dead; warriors still joined in battled long after the wars they fought in over, and ancestors reaching out from the heavens trying to communicate with the living. In ancient times most people were afraid of the lights. Children would be brought inside when the mystifying flames of the auroras spread across the heavens, for the lights could descend and cut their heads off. It was a common interpretation during medieval times that northern lights were an omen of war, disasters, and plague.
How anyone could see the auroras as something evil is baffling. I was in a state of awe when I first saw this picture, and it seems impossible to fully capture the beauty of it using mere words. It almost gives you a sense of solitary but doesn’t quite fulfill the promise because it’s impossible to feel alone when you look at the spectacle going on above. The veils of color from the northern lights seem to be melting from the sky and dripping straight into the water connecting heaven and earth. They literally illuminate the sky with their brilliance. The sheer vastness of it is hard to wrap your head around. The neon green path, out lined in tones of lavender, stretches as far as the eye can see and beyond. Majestic, glorious, breath taking, awe inspiring are all words that come to mind, but still seem to just fall short, when describing the auroras. Even knowing as we do that the lights are a product of the Sun’s radiation mixing with the Earth’s atmosphere, mystic probably comes the closest to describing the northern lights, because one can’t help but to feel a sense of something magical and greater than ourselves when looking at them. The beauty of this photo doesn’t stop with the auroras. The stilled waters of the
June 18, 2012
Something Beautiful
Written By:
It’s easy to see why before there was science native tribes of the northern hemisphere believed the aurora borealis to be supernatural. Most cultures thought the lights to be spirits of the dead; warriors still joined in battled long after the wars they fought in over, and ancestors reaching out from the heavens trying to communicate with the living. In ancient times most people were afraid of the lights. Children would be brought inside when the mystifying flames of the auroras spread across the heavens, for the lights could descend and cut their heads off. It was a common interpretation during medieval times that northern lights were an omen of war, disasters, and plague.
How anyone could see the auroras as something evil is baffling. I was in a state of awe when I first saw this picture, and it seems impossible to fully capture the beauty of it using mere words. It almost gives you a sense of solitary but doesn’t quite fulfill the promise because it’s impossible to feel alone when you look at the spectacle going on above. The veils of color from the northern lights seem to be melting from the sky and dripping straight into the water connecting heaven and earth. They literally illuminate the sky with their brilliance. The sheer vastness of it is hard to wrap your head around. The neon green path, out lined in tones of lavender, stretches as far as the eye can see and beyond. Majestic, glorious, breath taking, awe inspiring are all words that come to mind, but still seem to just fall short, when describing the auroras. Even knowing as we do that the lights are a product of the Sun’s radiation mixing with the Earth’s atmosphere, mystic probably comes the closest to describing the northern lights, because one can’t help but to feel a sense of something magical and greater than ourselves when looking at them. The beauty of this photo doesn’t stop with the auroras. The stilled waters of the