The Merits of a Small World

Here's a few shots I took within 12 hours and 1 mile. The beach is the beach that I've been playing on as long as I can remember. The maize field has a wooden gate that's seen better days (I park my derrier on it often) but as far back as I can recall, it was always that way. I've lived in this area nearly my whole life. And although I've left it many times, I've always returned.

I said to my girlfriend last night that, as I get older, I seem to appreciate the merits of my small world more. I never used to. At least not so much. I couldn't get far enough away sometimes, for fear of an insular life not led - Australia was beautiful, New Zealand dramatic, Sri Lanka hot, Los Angeles exciting. And they still are and probably always will be. But with each walk deep through the local woods; each and every bewitching sunset over my wedge of the North Atlantic - I see something slightly different to it. And I'm not just saying that for philosophical effect - I genuinely do. It's a different hue, a persepctive that's new to me - an angle that brings an object out of my periphery and into a clearer focus. Maybe it's just that, with a smaller area to zoom in upon, I'm forced to notice more. But if beauty lies therein, small worlds aren't so bad (until you start marrying family members. Then it's definitely time to leave.) C