The Blue of Distance “The world is blue at its edges and in its depths. This blue is the light
that got lost. Light at the blue end of the spectrum does not travel the
whole distance from the sun to us. It disperses among the molecules of
the air, it scatters in water. Water is colorless, shallow water appears
to be the color of whatever lies underneath it, but deep water is full
of this scattered light, the purer the water the deeper the blue. The
sky is blue for the same reason, but the blue at the horizon, the blue
of land that seems to be dissolving into the sky, is a deeper, dreamier,
melancholy blue, the blue at the farthest reaches of the places where
you see for miles, the blue of distance. This light does not touch us,
does not travel the whole distance, the light that gets lost, gives us
the beauty of the world, so much of which is in the color blue.
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