So Many Wonderful Things
I think the best part of spring (which I trust is really here) are the trees. Even one exquisite flower would be enough of an annual wonder, but we don’t get just one. To me, it feels as though God, knowing how much I would love even one blossom, turns to His angels and says, “Just wait until she sees this!” and then showers me with flowers as I walk beneath trees bearing thousands.
Humans, of course can’t make anything quite that amazing, but we are pretty good at making and doing things that have a similar quality of just for the fun of it exuberance. Here are a few that fill me with joy.
I’ve loved marble runs ever since my long-suffering aunt Jane let me play with hers after we had both suffered through another dismal piano lesson. Hers was good, but the best has to be the huge marble run that travels through a forest playing “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” as it goes. You can find it on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM8-lChVuJ4
Also, in the spirit of making music in the most difficult way possible, is this incredible machine that uses 2,000 marbles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q
Well technically, that is not the most difficult way to make music. I think the most difficult way has got to be to build a spaceship, send it to Mars and have it make music there. The land rover Curiosity, had its first Martian birthday on August 5. 2023. As I understand it, Curiosity does experiments with soil samples which resonate at different frequencies. Scientists used those frequencies to program it to sing “Happy Birthday” to itself to mark the occasion. I only wish it could somehow have understood how many earthlings were thinking of it on that day and wishing it well.
Far less inspiring, but somehow deeply fulfilling, was the extreme ironing fad of the early 2000’s. In case you missed this one, people began to make the mundane chore of ironing a little more interesting by taking it to the mountain tops, or with them snowboarding or even scuba diving. One of the best, Matthew Battley from New Zealand, got started when he and his friends were looking for something weird to do. So, they naturally what else? took an ironing board and irons and hiked up an active volcano. I think this was a good venue choice. The 80 mile an hour winds were problematic, but the rocks were hot enough that they could heat their irons on them.
Amazingly, this is a real sport with world championships and everything. Thefactsite.com describes it like this: “Extreme ironing is an outdoor sport that combines the danger and excitement of an “extreme” sport with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.” I really don’t know what more you can ask for.
Lastly, for sheer adorableness are the sea urchins. For some reason sea urchins like to wear hats made of shells or whatever they find lying around on the ocean floor. In January, the Miami Herald ran a story about a large group of urchins who had gathered, all of them wearing hats to the party. Disney, always willing to make happy things even better, has provided the sea urchins at their EPCOT aquarium with a selection. If you get a chance to visit you’ll see the sea urchins wearing top hats and of course, Mickey Ears.
It’s a wonderful, wonderful world.
Humans, of course can’t make anything quite that amazing, but we are pretty good at making and doing things that have a similar quality of just for the fun of it exuberance. Here are a few that fill me with joy.
I’ve loved marble runs ever since my long-suffering aunt Jane let me play with hers after we had both suffered through another dismal piano lesson. Hers was good, but the best has to be the huge marble run that travels through a forest playing “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” as it goes. You can find it on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM8-lChVuJ4
Also, in the spirit of making music in the most difficult way possible, is this incredible machine that uses 2,000 marbles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q
Well technically, that is not the most difficult way to make music. I think the most difficult way has got to be to build a spaceship, send it to Mars and have it make music there. The land rover Curiosity, had its first Martian birthday on August 5. 2023. As I understand it, Curiosity does experiments with soil samples which resonate at different frequencies. Scientists used those frequencies to program it to sing “Happy Birthday” to itself to mark the occasion. I only wish it could somehow have understood how many earthlings were thinking of it on that day and wishing it well.
Far less inspiring, but somehow deeply fulfilling, was the extreme ironing fad of the early 2000’s. In case you missed this one, people began to make the mundane chore of ironing a little more interesting by taking it to the mountain tops, or with them snowboarding or even scuba diving. One of the best, Matthew Battley from New Zealand, got started when he and his friends were looking for something weird to do. So, they naturally what else? took an ironing board and irons and hiked up an active volcano. I think this was a good venue choice. The 80 mile an hour winds were problematic, but the rocks were hot enough that they could heat their irons on them.
Amazingly, this is a real sport with world championships and everything. Thefactsite.com describes it like this: “Extreme ironing is an outdoor sport that combines the danger and excitement of an “extreme” sport with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.” I really don’t know what more you can ask for.
Lastly, for sheer adorableness are the sea urchins. For some reason sea urchins like to wear hats made of shells or whatever they find lying around on the ocean floor. In January, the Miami Herald ran a story about a large group of urchins who had gathered, all of them wearing hats to the party. Disney, always willing to make happy things even better, has provided the sea urchins at their EPCOT aquarium with a selection. If you get a chance to visit you’ll see the sea urchins wearing top hats and of course, Mickey Ears.
It’s a wonderful, wonderful world.