They really are beautiful, aren’t they?
The mountains.
Soaring peaks, river cut valleys, tree shaded slopes, peaceful meadows… They represent the power of the earth as it crashes together and thrusts itself skyward. They represent the power of water as it cascades down from the snow capped peaks carving through the stone with ease. They are unblemished, wild, perfect… and a reminder of the world as it used to be.
And they are beautiful. Majestic. Captivating.
From a distance.
From a vantage point where you can see the great swaths of land, see the points of upheaval, see the twists and turns in the layout, take it all in and be in awe of its splendor…
But the mountains are a total Monet.
Up close you can see that the meadows are mostly dried grass over muddy broken soil, waiting to catch your foot and send you sprawling into the muck. Up close you can see that the peaks are just mounds of jagged rocks haphazardly tumbling from their perches, grinding out masses of smaller loose rocks hoping to make you slip. Up close you can see that the sprawling forests are full of overgrown bushes, dead and dying trees littered about the floor, and those still standing are covered by moss. Up close you can see the rivers are clogged with debris and it’s either too cold and too swift to enjoy or it’s stagnant, stale, smelly.
By all means, enjoy the mountains. They are. Truly. Beautiful. But, if you go in for a closer inspection make sure you watch your step because they are a truly beautiful mess.
…..
This bit of silliness brought to you in response to this week’s Prompts for the Promptless provided by Rara:
Wednesday, June 4, 2013“A total Monet” is an expression used to someone or something that looks good from far away, but up close is a total mess.
- This expression comes from the movie, Clueless.
- It refers to the impressionistic styling of Claude Monet
Nicely done!
Thank you!
Very good! I totally got it. And happy early father’s day BTW!
Thanks. Was a weird realization the other day that it was suddenly “my” day too…
haha very apt.
🙂
Dude, this is beautiful. I was so drawn in! Love it!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it… I wasn’t feeling all that great about it. Should I have done more to develop the disconnect between the distant and close-up views? Should I have approached the whole exercise differently – the drive up to the mountains and how everything looks from those great distances vs. slogging up dirty, hot, dusty trail trying to gain a pass before the heat of the day makes the 40 pounds on your back seem like 80… Sometimes I think I’m in too much of a hurry to hit publish and if I’d just be patient a better idea would come to me.
Very well done.
Thank you!
I totally got the ‘ total Monet’ reference! I lo-o-oved that movie! Hahahahaha!
Like, totally, du-uhhhh. 😉
I remembered enjoying it when it first came out. But… it was on TV not too long ago, and after cringing a couple times I changed the channel.
I suppose intelligence ruled it out as a good source of entertainment after a decade.
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Beautiful! You made the total mess part sound almost as lovely as the overall image! I’m not even an outdoorsy person, but I want to take a peek at a mountain. 🙂 Lovely words!
Glad you enjoyed! If I think about it this weekend I’ll upload some pictures to go with the two halves of this piece…
Ill admit I had the more romanticized view of the mountains
I do too… Even when I’m there, and hurting and tired, struggling to scramble over the loose rock shelves and the landscape looks more like a desolate wasteland than the majestic beauties we tend to think of them as, I still have a romanticized view of the mountains.
good 😀
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