PROMPT: Tell us about an intellectual experience, project, class, or book that has influenced or inspired you. [500 words max.]
Being a native Seattleite, I love the sky. It is coffee grounds to an earthworm, or bad metaphors to a writer. Whether it's the smattering of constellations I see on summer camping trips or the occasional downpour I listen to on the front porch, the sky, to me, is the ultimate source of beauty in the world. However, the complexity of clouds has always escaped my praise before I read The Cloudspotter's Guide. Gavin Pretor-Pinney put it more precisely in his introduction when he wrote, "nothing in nature rivals their variety and drama" (9).
There's a sort of cloud culture that unfolds from The Cloudspotter's Guide, and it's left me in awe. It covers all aspects of clouds, related to art, myths, music, poetry, daredevil tactics, and the scientific answer to the all-important three-letter question: "why?" I get a vitamin cabinet of subjects: history, literature, science, P.E., and even a little philosophy.
How could something as omnipresent as a cloud have so many facets to it? And if something as simple as a cloud could have so many facets, then something more complicated probably has thousands more. There is still much for me to learn, and the more I learn, the more I know I don't know anything. The more I learn, the more I want to learn.
It's the details that inspire me further. The Cloudspotter's Guide mentions an instrument called the Cloud Harp, which scans the skies and plays music based on how the clouds are arranged and how they move. Upon first reading this, a smile stretched across my face; I didn't know until that point that my love of music and my fondness for the sky could ever relate so directly. Earlier in the book, I had thought that I could be a weathergirl, to connect the sky with acting; this was much better.
While it's fairly unlikely that I could ever become a cloudist (one who configures the Cloud Harp) for the one existing Cloud Harp in Montreal, The Cloudspotter's Guide did provide me with some new perspective. It had never occurred to me to combine my interests for a fuller career. I don't expect to take the weather stations by storm as a weathergirl, and I certainly don't expect to play the skies as a cloudist. However, because of The Cloudspotter's Guide, I know that there are careers out there that are more interesting than just office jobs. If I don't find such a career, then a job more generic and a little time to gaze at clouds would please me just as well.
Please, be critical! Be brutally honest! I'll be sure to return the favor. =)
Thanks!
Being a native Seattleite, I love the sky. It is coffee grounds to an earthworm, or bad metaphors to a writer. Whether it's the smattering of constellations I see on summer camping trips or the occasional downpour I listen to on the front porch, the sky, to me, is the ultimate source of beauty in the world. However, the complexity of clouds has always escaped my praise before I read The Cloudspotter's Guide. Gavin Pretor-Pinney put it more precisely in his introduction when he wrote, "nothing in nature rivals their variety and drama" (9).
There's a sort of cloud culture that unfolds from The Cloudspotter's Guide, and it's left me in awe. It covers all aspects of clouds, related to art, myths, music, poetry, daredevil tactics, and the scientific answer to the all-important three-letter question: "why?" I get a vitamin cabinet of subjects: history, literature, science, P.E., and even a little philosophy.
How could something as omnipresent as a cloud have so many facets to it? And if something as simple as a cloud could have so many facets, then something more complicated probably has thousands more. There is still much for me to learn, and the more I learn, the more I know I don't know anything. The more I learn, the more I want to learn.
It's the details that inspire me further. The Cloudspotter's Guide mentions an instrument called the Cloud Harp, which scans the skies and plays music based on how the clouds are arranged and how they move. Upon first reading this, a smile stretched across my face; I didn't know until that point that my love of music and my fondness for the sky could ever relate so directly. Earlier in the book, I had thought that I could be a weathergirl, to connect the sky with acting; this was much better.
While it's fairly unlikely that I could ever become a cloudist (one who configures the Cloud Harp) for the one existing Cloud Harp in Montreal, The Cloudspotter's Guide did provide me with some new perspective. It had never occurred to me to combine my interests for a fuller career. I don't expect to take the weather stations by storm as a weathergirl, and I certainly don't expect to play the skies as a cloudist. However, because of The Cloudspotter's Guide, I know that there are careers out there that are more interesting than just office jobs. If I don't find such a career, then a job more generic and a little time to gaze at clouds would please me just as well.
Please, be critical! Be brutally honest! I'll be sure to return the favor. =)
Thanks!
