tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14063262.post3111333838432830602..comments2008-09-19T00:02:32.623-04:00Jim Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17315953965470221458noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14063262.post-91669224124774997572008-08-27T17:41:00.000-04:002008-08-27T17:41:00.000-04:00A philosophical poser, indeed. I like "Me's" answer above. This is an excellent question - why is it that we are drawn to certain things we perceive as beautiful, powerful, awe-inspiring? But earth-based phenomena in particular. As for me, I have the same reaction to the ocean as I do to waterfalls - even small lakes, ponds, and rivers to some extent. When I hike, I always seek out the trail with a body of water in some form...but why do I do this? I have no idea - I feel drawn to seek out and observe water, but am not drawn to stand under the fall or play in the lake. The mystery and constancy attract me - in addition to rocks and earth, the water connects me (or any individual) as a human to our interconnected past. We are so dependent on this land and especially water, that dependence likely works its way through our subconscious to become fascination and admiration on the surface. Maybe. :P Or maybe there's an element of fear in our fascination - water, especially waterfalls and the ocean, are uncontrollable by us...anything we can't control fascinates us. Great questions and really enjoyable to read - thanks for sharing! :)American Puzzlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06114805840788111127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14063262.post-57811641615971312262008-08-24T08:17:00.000-04:002008-08-24T08:17:00.000-04:00I think part of what makes a waterfall so beautiful is our primal connection to it, our ancestral memories if you will, which don't work the way normal memories do but pull us towards our beginnings, in a way a carpet does not. Water is in us; we started out in water, first as unicellular life, then in our mother's womb, and then in our very cells. We cannot underestimate where we came from, and the very physical particularities of that connection; it is not a reduction, but a reminder that we are not in a vacuum, that we may have free will, but the umbilical cords of our evolution will call to us like whale songs through the dark oceans of our consciousness. Our appreciation of waterfalls, then, is not a consequence of civilization but a memory, a reminder, to not take ourselves or the processes through which we became ourselves for granted. <BR/><BR/>Love<BR/>MeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com