Heroes Not Zombies

I am sorting through old photographs just now and came across this one which I took fifteen years ago from a hot air balloon near the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

I suspect I took the photo because I spotted this strange patterning of the ground but I don’t really remember. Looking at it again now I am really struck by a combination of beauty and strangeness. There is undoubtedly something pleasing about these multiple semicircles on the red soil. They are almost like one of those wave paintings you see in traditional Japanese art.

Sure, it provokes my curiosity. I can’t help wondering who made these marks, how they made them, and why? But I only visited Morocco for a few days and I was never closer to these markings than I was in this photo. I’ll never know. But that takes nothing away from them, because I find I’m content to enjoy them. In fact, I find they draw me to them and I time can stand still for a little while as I contemplate them.

There is evidence of human mark making all around us of course. I look out onto this –

Of course, I do know how these patterns are produced and why. But they certainly create a distinctive landscape don’t they?

Another place where I came across strangely beautiful marks is the Kilmartin Valley in Scotland. There are several large stones covered with markings from pre-history in that valley.

Who made these marks? How did they make these marks, and why?

More questions we don’t have answers to, but, again, aren’t they just beautiful in themselves?

But more than that, I realise as I look at these images again, their beauty is enhanced by mystery.

I like to explain things. I like to understand.

But I don’t deny that part of the enchantment of life is just how much mystery there is.

“And not or” – our lives are rich because explanation and mystery are so entwined.