In My Defense...

I cannot help but be defensive when Ruskin aggressively (at least, this is how I read it) states that people move to quickly, they don't appreciate the tree right in front of them. Ruskin is an artist, as my mom explained, we need people like Ruskin to be artists, to sit and draw the details of a tree. I am not an artist. Not an artist, in the typical sense, I like to write, I like to create, but I create in the manner of who I am, someone moved by reason and logic. I do not find reason to sit and stare at a tree for hours on end, it doesn't seem like time well spent (And I am always feeling pressed for time.)

To continue, realize that this rant is coming from a defensive nature. As i've said, I want to see the world, the whole world and to do that, you don't sit and study one thing at a time. You see as much as possible, see everything that you can and take it all in as a whole. This is the way I like it, I like to see everything, my focuses are wide not deep. For me, if you take too long in one place, you'll never see the next. While I am seeing more curiosities in the world, Ruskin is focusing on what details I am not seeing. So, maybe I'll always be this modern traveler, an non-appreciator for detail. He criticizes the different personalities, can he not accept that people are different. I can appreciate small picture people, but the world also needs big picture people, like me.

I want to yell and scream and say what's the point? All in reaction to Ruskin's close mindedness of differences and say while i'm seeing the whole world he hasn't left the lawn of which his drawings come from. But I don't yell, I don't scream, I don't throw a fit. I accept that Ruskin will never understand me, and I will never understand him.

-Jessica Fitzgerald