It all depends on your perspective

Taking the time to appreciate the subtleties of language can make the difference between an ordinary moment and an extraordinary one. It may seem overly trivial to dissect the weather report and debate the differences between "sunny with cloudy periods" and "cloudy with sunny periods." But when you get right down to it, someone somewhere probably chose these words rather carefully, and did so for a rather good reason. So it makes absolute sense for us to slow down and let the words do their thing.


Of course, most of us on the consumption end of things don't bother. We rush through the reading process, barely slowing down to read between the lines. Even if we manage to satisfy ourselves that we gleaned enough data to know what's going on - unlikely, but work with me here - we still miss the color and the flavor. We wolfed down the ice cream, so to speak. And in doing so we sort of tasted the vanilla as we gave ourselves an ice cream headache. But we didn't savor the moment.

So as I look at this sky and remember what it felt like to stand on the ground and what it felt like to be remarkably small and humble as I figured out how to shoot this beautifully memorable chunk of meteorology, I'm glad I enjoyed the proverbial ice cream.

Your turn: So which one is it? Sunny with clouds or cloudy with sun? Why does any of this matter?

One more thing: Blue sky...get it? Thematic's blue week continues. Scroll back to Thursday's entry to participate.