(Above is a photo of the landscape where I used to live taken from Google Earth. The red pin is my old address.)

It seems to me that, in the broad sense, the sublime is something that is able to entrance the viewer and maintain ones full focus. The sublime is an experience. Something that is humbling, breath taking, something you cant look away from even if it strikes fear. If my interpretation is correct, then the sublime lives in ones strongest memories for it is something they cannot forget.

If I look back into my memories, I would find moments in nature that are some of my strongest memories to be my interaction with the sublime and beautiful. When I think back to my outdoorsy childhood in Idaho, I don’t simply remember that there were a lot of trees or that the pond was cold. I remember the grandiose nature of the pine forest which inhabited the mountains around my house.  I would stare at those pine covered hills across the way on a much smaller mountain (possibly large hill)  when I hiked and be in awe of the near immortality of those trees. When I think of the lake I think of caution. I can see the serine waters and bright green grass, but I think of the day I decided to jump into a different side of the lake away from the doc. No one ever swam there and I didn’t realize why. As I started playing in the water I quickly found it hard to move. It was then I noticed the suction engulfing my right leg into a quicksand type of mud. I sunk into the mud until it reached my hips. Luckily only one leg was stuck in the mud and I was able to get out after 10 minutes or so.

These stories might not seem sublime to some, but for me they were. These are moments were you have no other thoughts or distractions then exactly the moment you are experiencing. This is not the same as a when someone is in the moment of buying coffee, but they are also checking their planner and thinking of dinner. To me the sublime are moments that impact and shape a person.