Dancing in the sunset

Frozen in time
Delray Beach, FL
December 2008

About this photo: We're celebrating sunrises and sunsets as part of this week's Thematic. Click here to share your own.

Beauty is a funny thing. It can flare brilliantly for the most brief moment, then disappear just as quickly as it appeared, never to be seen again except in the minds of those privileged enough to have been there.

It isn't perpetual or guaranteed. It doesn't even exist in the definitive sense of the word: it must be appreciated by those around it. Otherwise, it just...is. Or, more precisely, isn't.

Which is what brought me to this water fountain nestled amid the palm trees just before dusk. It sits at the entranceway to a housing community, directly alongside six lanes of high-speed traffic. It spews water up into the air 24/7 as countless vehicles whip past at ungodly speeds. In doing so, it serves up similarly countless moments like this, amid changing light, that are likely just as uniquely beautiful as this one.

Yet no one stops. No one casts a longish glance. No one ever has the chance to drink in the astonishing scenes repeating themselves endlessly, invisibly. They simply pass on by as the beauty of this dancing fountain plays out, ignored.

I had ignored it for far too long, passing by day after day as the spraying water almost faded into the background, became part of the similarly generic scenery.

Except the scenery wasn't generic at all. And none of this deserved to fade anywhere. So I took a walk and had a closer look.

Your turn: Things you once ignored, then discovered. Please discuss.