don't go chasing

Waterfalls.

Waterfalls are exotic and tropical, symbols of nature’s majesty. They are often surprising, hidden, surrounded by lush vegetation, misted by the spray. Waterfalls are sexy.

We don’t have any waterfalls. This may stem partly from the geology – in order to fall, there must be a height differential. The Plains, in general, lack such things. Chasing waterfalls out here would be quite the adventure in futility.

There should be accolades for the “rivers and the lakes that you’re used to,” because there is beauty in the everyday, in the common place. To be able to find this beauty, appreciate it, should enhance the experience of living, shouldn’t it?

The prairie isn’t my river, though. I was ill-conceived here because even in the flatlands, teenagers have sex, but life has taken my to elsewheres. I see it with un-jaded eyes. Watching a thunderstorm brew 50 miles away. Watching the vast expanses of grass turn green this time of year. Fields of sunflowers. Threshing machines in wheat fields. Moose.

The quotidian is more surprising in its beauty than the exotic.