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In the early hours of the morning, Kawabata Yasunari once
wrote that he rose at 4 am to find the Chinese flowering crabapple still
awake. The flowering crabapple blossoms day and night, but why does it evoke
such a unique beauty when viewed at 4 am? Perhaps it is because during the
day, the flowering crabapple blends completely into our lives as we bury our
heads in studying or working. The nearby beauty quietly slips away. But when
we take a step back and maintain some distance from the flowering crabapple,
we can appreciate its unique beauty as Kawabata did.
Why does distance produce beauty? Perhaps it is because distance allows us
to view things from a macro perspective, and more importantly, distance
brings an unknown mystery that triggers our imagination.
Before the United States' moon landing, China had long been circulating
beautiful legends about the moon, such as Chang'e flying to the moon.
However, when the astronauts brought back a few cold rocks and sent back
pictures of the "ravaged" moon, these fairy tales and legends disappeared.
Since then, when people talk about the moon, only a barren globe comes to
mind, and no longer the jade rabbit, the Guanghan Palace, or Wu Gang.
Looking at the moon from afar, people imagine a beautiful scene, but upon
closer inspection of the moon, all they get are a few cold rocks. This is
the marvelous effect of distance.
So how can we withdraw from our lives and experience the beauty we often
overlook? It is impossible for people to suddenly move to the moon as a
group and gaze upon our homeland from afar. In this case, distance refers to
the distance in our minds. In a society flooded with materialism, people's
minds are tightly bound by fame, wealth, and fortune, making it impossible
to appreciate the beauty around us. Therefore, we must keep a distance from
these superficialities.
When we stop studying for the sake of grades, we discover how interesting
knowledge can be; when we slow down our pace of work and school, we notice
how lively and green the trees on the street are. Poetry is everywhere in
life. What people lack is an appropriate distance.
When our minds are liberated, and we maintain a suitable distance from
things around us, we discover that the sky is the sky that gives us the
desire to soar, the earth is the earth that carries all things, and the
ocean is the ocean that nurtured the earliest life.
Let us take a step back, maintain a suitable distance, and the beauty around
us will appear one after another. |
