2024/01/09
The Earth spins on
I was in Hawaii one day, traveling by car from one side of the island to the other and viewing all kinds of scenery and visiting all kinds of shops. The scenery was almost entirely molten rock, forest, grassland, or sea. The scenery outside the car seemed to go on forever, and no matter where we went, we could see the sun from the car window.
The sun was high in the sky from morning to afternoon, and then it dipped further down. That’s something that’s common sense after we learn about it in childhood, but as someone who lives in a place filled with skyscrapers, it was so refreshing and fascinating to actually be able to see where the sun is in the sky at any point. I felt like I spent the whole day keeping an eye on where it was.
We went to go take a picture of the sunset around dusk. We picked a beach where we’d have a good view of the beautiful sunset, and set up to wait for the time to come as we looked up what angle and direction it would set. Finally, the time had come for the sun to sink into the horizon before us.
Immediately before sinking, the sun suddenly appeared to grow in size and turned bright red. Once it touched the horizon, it slowly disappeared from view a millimeter at a time. Once the top of the sun disappeared from view, the sky along the entire horizon was pink and faded into a deep purple hue.
When the sunset was over, I suddenly felt like I was standing with the soles of my feet on the ground and spinning backwards?or rather, I felt like I was watching an image. Because I’d been watching the sea, land, sky, and sun all day long, I could almost feel in practice?rather than assuming in theory?how it wasn’t the sun that was moving, but the Earth floating through the universe and rotating at an amazing speed as I rode on it.
Even now, from time to time, I’ll randomly experience those mind-boggling sensations and images. And whenever I do, I realize that my worries and problems are utterly microscopic in the grand scheme of things as the Earth continues to spin on its axis. It’s a nice change of pace to be reminded once in a while how extremely small and insignificant my worries actually are.
(Komata)
The sun was high in the sky from morning to afternoon, and then it dipped further down. That’s something that’s common sense after we learn about it in childhood, but as someone who lives in a place filled with skyscrapers, it was so refreshing and fascinating to actually be able to see where the sun is in the sky at any point. I felt like I spent the whole day keeping an eye on where it was.
We went to go take a picture of the sunset around dusk. We picked a beach where we’d have a good view of the beautiful sunset, and set up to wait for the time to come as we looked up what angle and direction it would set. Finally, the time had come for the sun to sink into the horizon before us.
Immediately before sinking, the sun suddenly appeared to grow in size and turned bright red. Once it touched the horizon, it slowly disappeared from view a millimeter at a time. Once the top of the sun disappeared from view, the sky along the entire horizon was pink and faded into a deep purple hue.
When the sunset was over, I suddenly felt like I was standing with the soles of my feet on the ground and spinning backwards?or rather, I felt like I was watching an image. Because I’d been watching the sea, land, sky, and sun all day long, I could almost feel in practice?rather than assuming in theory?how it wasn’t the sun that was moving, but the Earth floating through the universe and rotating at an amazing speed as I rode on it.
Even now, from time to time, I’ll randomly experience those mind-boggling sensations and images. And whenever I do, I realize that my worries and problems are utterly microscopic in the grand scheme of things as the Earth continues to spin on its axis. It’s a nice change of pace to be reminded once in a while how extremely small and insignificant my worries actually are.
(Komata)
I can understand how being in a different environment can change your senses.
Just reading this entry made me think about the universe.