I'm a redrock critter, at least for this month. The beauty of this place seems all the more compelling for being so completely unnecessary, in the human scheme of things. That's an atheist's view, I suppose. It isn't beautiful because of us, or for us; it just is. What better evidence of a benevolent universe could one ask for?
Which makes me not-an-atheist but rather someone who is comforted by a landscape that pays absolutely no attention to me but whose beauty cracks my heart. It draws out my grief and loss and turns them into stone, into a curve of rock that warms in the sun and lies against my hand. I can touch it. This is a good thing.
The canyons comfort me, the sky hard and bright like a jewel. How much easier it is to live in the moment, when you are surrounded by the accumulated moments of millions of years turned into a landscape of grace.
