As far back as I can remember, I have loved the beautiful and despised the ugly. The truly ugly, not the “beautiful in the eyes of the beholder” type of stuff, but the bottom-of-the-barrel grotesque. However, this post is not about the ugly. It’s about the beautiful! A clear night sky: Crushed velvet that the stars twinkle from like so many diamonds in a jeweler’s display. The fiery dance of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, a blazing tumult over the sleeping town. A cloth draped over a dome, with pin pricks illuminated by the glory beyond. North Coast Redwoods: The soft sound of moss and damp earth underfoot. Light filtering through a thousand green branches, bathing everything emerald. The scent of a millennium years of death and rebirth, one never present without the other. Waterfalls: The continuous cascade of silver pouring over the wet-blackened rocks. Ferns clinging bravely between the stones. The foaming torrents into a calm, cool pool beneath. I love them! I love stars and re