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Make time to admire nature's beauty, it's free for hustlers

Enterprise
 Admiring nature equalizes us. [iStockphoto]

Where were you around 8pm last Friday? Did you get a chance to admire the full moon in Nairobi? I guess you were indoors - either watching television, out with buddies or just idling.

In the countryside, you have more freedom, the natural lights usually drown artificial ones at night. When did you last see stars while in the city?

The lights in your house are unlikely to let you see the beautiful moonlight. I did a simple experiment; I asked members of some WhatsApp groups to check the moonlight.

Some are hustlers and others are much better off. The groups have both intellectuals and ordinary citizens. There was only one response, wow. One Kenyan shared a video clip of the moon between Russia and Canada, not what he could see from the window!

That left me surprised. Why are we not fascinated by nature and its beauty? Why are we fascinated by movies but not moonlight, rare after many cloudy days? Sunrise or sunset would be excusable, it's there every day but not moonlight.

It could be that nature is never much of our curriculum. We are used to "dead" sources of information. We can draw the phases of the moon but rarely have time to see the real moon! We come to think that textbooks are a reality.

We fail to connect theory and practice. Nature is 'neglected' for another reason, it does not arouse our emotions like movies or soap operas. Nature songs are monotonous, birds never change their songs, and the same applies to other sounds of nature like wind, thunder, waves and cries of animals.

It, therefore, needs a very high sense of appreciation to see fun and meaning in the moonlight, sunset, and other wonders of nature.

Wait till you see the ice-covered caldera of Mt Kilimanjaro. Just as abstract paintings are hard to decipher, we find nature had to interpret. Yet we never get tired of Mona Lisa and other paintings after hundreds of years. Why would such a painting cost so much? Would nature and its scenes not be costlier but free?

Probably, you wondered why someone would ask you to admire a full moon yet they are not astronomers, astrologers, or mental cases.

But I am sure lots of heads turn when beautiful women pass by. Is that not selective admiration of nature? Don't we even try bringing nature home to admire - buying flowers and now rare aquariums? And leafy suburbs?

Admiring nature equalises us. And reminds us of our place in the universe. Or is destroying nature preferred to admiring it?

Such admiration forces us to attenuate our pride because nature will eventually silence us. Must I say how? When did you last get time to admire nature and its wonders? Talk to us.

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