I heard several people say in online chatter before a meeting that the autumn of 2020 was the most beautiful that they had ever remembered. Several people commented about the colors of the leaves, the extended warm weather, and the beauty of the October light. I could hardly disagree with them; I did wonder, though, if it had, in fact, been an extraordinarily dazzling fall or whether they had just taken time to notice it due to the constraining circumstances of semi-lockdown during the pandemic. I suspect that it was the latter. Though most of us experienced many kinds of loss and grief during the long ordeal, it also had the odd effect of helping us to slow down and pay attention to small and ordinary beauty all around. Almost like van Gogh’s paintings of grass, undergrowth, or a vaseful of flowers, the ordeal through which the world has passed since early 2020 provided occasion to look, listen, and reflect on small, ordinary things. Despite all the losses and the waiting, I now have an appreciation for foxes, foliage, and all manner of flittering things in my neighborhood. I suspect that many around the globe have had a similar awakening to small beauties that in “normal” times would have been ignored or passed by on the way to something deemed to be much more important. As Alexandra Horowitz writes in her fascinating book about learning to attend to the complexity and beauty of her neighborhood in New York City, On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation, “Sometimes we see least the things we see most.”¹ Somehow, noticing small, beautiful things afforded moments of respite and poignancy for millions of us in recent months. These moments of attending to taken-for-granted realities did not solve our problems or obliterate our suffering, but they did make such hardships more bearable.

中文翻译：

---

记住小巧的事物

我在会议前的网上闲聊中听到几个人说，2020年秋天是他们所记得的最美丽的秋天。几个人评论了树叶的颜色，持续的温暖天气以及十月的阳光。我几乎不同意他们的看法。但是，我确实想知道，这是否实际上是一次令人眼花fall乱的坠落，还是由于大流行期间半锁定的严峻形势，他们是否只是花时间注意到这一点。我怀疑是后者。尽管我们大多数人在长期的磨难中经历了种种失落和悲伤，但这也起到了奇怪的作用，可以帮助我们放慢速度，并注意周围所有普通的小美人。几乎就像梵高的草，灌木丛或一束鲜花的画，自2020年初以来，世界所经历的磨难为人们提供了观看，聆听和反思小而普通的事物的机会。尽管有种种损失和等待，但我现在对附近的狐狸，树叶和各种繁华的事物表示赞赏。我怀疑全球许多人对小美人有类似的觉醒，以至于在“正常”时期，这些美人可能会被忽略或遗忘，而转嫁到被认为更为重要的事物上。正如亚历山德拉·霍洛维茨（Alexandra Horowitz）在她的一本有趣的书中所写的那样，它是关于学习如何参加纽约市附近社区的复杂性和美感的，我怀疑全球许多人对小美人有类似的觉醒，以至于在“正常”时期，这些美人可能会被忽略或遗忘，而转嫁到被认为更为重要的事物上。正如亚历山德拉·霍洛维茨（Alexandra Horowitz）在她的一本有趣的书中所写的，关于学习如何去体验纽约市附近的复杂和美丽，我怀疑全球许多人对小美人有类似的觉醒，以至于在“正常”时期，这些美人可能会被忽略或遗忘，而转嫁到被认为更为重要的事物上。正如亚历山德拉·霍洛维茨（Alexandra Horowitz）在她的一本有趣的书中所写的那样，它是关于学习如何参加纽约市附近社区的复杂性和美感的，关于观察：《沃克观察艺术指南》，“有时我们看到的东西最少，我们看到的最多。” ¹不知何故，近几个月来，注意到细小而美丽的事物为我们中的数百万人提供了喘息和痛苦的时刻。这些时刻要考虑的现实并不能解决我们的问题或消除我们的苦难，但确实使这种困难更加可以忍受。