Alan Weiss on Grandeur

Have you ever been in the middle of the ocean with no land or other vessels in sight? I have, and it’s a wondrous sensation. All around you, to the curvature of the Earth, is water. Do you know that more people have walked on the surface of the moon than have visited the bottom of the Marianas Trench (the deepest spot on Earth, in the Pacific)?

Some of you have seen tornados, majestic in their terror. I’ve experienced hundred-mile-an-hour winds, ripping up trees, while ducks placidly paddled around our pond. I’ve watched snow fall so fast that it quickly covered all attempts to plow it and it was waist-deep to walk through.

Human creations can rival nature in grandeur. When I flew in the Concorde at about 1,400 miles per hour at around 50,000 feet, I could see that actual curvature of the Earth that formed the horizon around my ship at sea. When I visited the Great Wall of China I found a structure far more mind-boggling than any photos or narrative could depict, built thousands of years ago with portions the Chinese feel are too dangerous to try to repair today with even modern technology.

We need a sense of the grand. Remember Carl Sagan’s “millions and millions of stars”? We can see grandeur all around us, for free or in the course of other activities which engage us, IF we take the pains to look around. I’ve seen baby rabbits when a rock was accidentally dislodged. I watched a cormorant surface and eat a fish almost equal in size. I remember the Aurora Borealis once appearing over New York City when I was young (and there was so much less ambient light).

I was once lost in the Norwegian woods (it’s a long story) and, while scared out of my mind, also stopped to watch a sky that had more light than darkness, more stars than space.

These experiences, provide us with perspective. I find that they put the last client meeting, or the fender-bender accident, or the missed luncheon, seem that much more trivial.

I’m watching at the moment a group of crows march around my back yard in the rain because the water will tend to drive worms and other critters to the surface. They are methodical and have a certain swagger. They are grand.

Alan Weiss Phd is a colleague, friend & successful business consultant. ■