emily awed

I recently completed a project to determine what my core values are, which ideals I believe in most.  One of the eight I ended up choosing was awe.  I believe in being in awe of something.  I believe in feeling small and insignificant while looking at something so bigger than myself.  I believe in noticing small things and admiring them for their simple worth.

Being in Germany has completely warped my sense of awe.  I walk down cobblestone streets that were built 800+ years ago next to buildings that are nearly as old.  I see sculpture in stone and wood and paintings on ceilings 30 feet tall.  The first week I was in Lüneburg, I was in awe of these things.  And I still am, but only when I force myself to pay attention.

But today, I found something small of which to be in awe.

This jungle/waterfall/sky scene was done in chalk on a sidewalk in Hamburg.  There are about 15 signatures around it (also written in chalk), indicating that it was a group effort.  It's pretty impressive for a chalk drawing; this photograph doesn't really do it much justice.  But the part that awes me is the artistic medium: chalk.

Now, for those of you who have yet to hear my half-hearted griping, Northern Germany has this obnoxious habit of raining.  Usually about six days a week.  Or more.  Rarely a day goes by that doesn't include at least a drizzle.  My host mom, Ilke, keeps three umbrellas in her car.

So, to make a chalk drawing such as this in a city such as Hamburg is to do so for the sheer joy of doing so.  The artists got pleasure out of making it, and the people of the city got pleasure out of it for, I'm assuming, only a few hours.  Since it rained yesterday, I can only assume it was drawn this morning,  And about a half hour after I walked past this square, it started raining again.  By the time I left Hamburg this evening, it was pouring.  There's no way said drawing is still there.  As a piece of art, its value lasted only the day.

Whoever drew it probably knew the weather forecast.  It doesn't change much day to day.  And they drew it anyway.

I'm in awe.