(photodiary) Frozen Dunes, the Compelling Contours of the Small

Rick Santorum came to Muskegon a couple days ago. Maybe it was yesterday. Don't know. Seems so long ago. Went there with my 4 year old boy on promise of fruit snacks in exchange for Not Freaking Out at Having to Hear Extra White Christian Man Hate On Americans For Thirty Minutes. My son...he did pretty good. He earned those fruit snacks. EARNED them.

But we all know the guy's a douche. Really. What more could be said? He made the Not So Roundabout point he was against the domestic auto industry. He's basically another Romney.

Anyway, here's some pics of closeup winter dune formations along Lake Michigan.



See those dark outlines? That's magnetite on the sugar sands. Some type of iron based sediment. Naturally occurring. The occasional black striations occur naturally along the sandy beaches of the lakeshore giving contour and texture to the sandy, watery landscape.



But that can be seen any time of year. This time of year the sands are frozen wherever moisture touches them, creating bizarre and interesting sand formations.



and





and




You see...it's not just the water. It's not just the dunes. It's not just the distant birdseye view.

It's the world in microcosm and on the individual scale. It's the contours of the small. The closeups where the differences and beauty of shades and contours are revealed.





I have trouble with the world from a distant view. The small beauties and dramas are too easily overlooked, and understood only in aggregate. Too often the world is understood by taking the whole and divining the parts, rather than taking the time to see the parts as they are and divining the whole. The ugly. The stupid. The noble. The terrifying and the beautiful. The brilliant and the small.