Daily Signet
So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and behold this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” He made a conscious decision to turn aside to look. To marvel is to become filled with surprise, wonder or amazed curiosity. To take the time to see is the clear path to encountering a marvelous sight. Objectifying the landscape dumbs down the marvelous into the mundane. Everything is labeled and fixed in space. I remember the message of the book, Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain, that the key to drawing was not in the dexterity of the hands or even in the possession of an artistic gene but in learning to see. Learning to get past the stereotypical objectification that “It is a bush and all bushes have branches,” therefore, no need to stop to look. To stop to see is in opposition to the jaded mind-set, the daily grind, the unappreciated moment. Somehow, we must coach ourselves as Moses did and say to ourselves, “I must turn aside now to see.”
Benjamin Martin
