Impression: Landscape

I rode a bike into New Iberia today, Saturday, and the roads coming in were busier with cars than they seem during the weekday. I have begun to notice the landscape less than before. During my first weeks here in Louisiana, often, the cane fields, and woods, and pretty houses, set against the blue sky, white clouds, and whatever trees might be in the distance, would strike me as beautiful. I mentioned to a friend that when I grew up here I did not spend a great deal of time thinking of how beautiful the land is, though when someone would ask me about the south I would mention the land: rather, when I was a boy, the times when the land seemed beautiful were rare revelations of the sublime. Many of the houses are prettier now than they were when I was growing up. And of course, I am even more conscious of different kinds of beauty than I was then (thanks to an immersion in painting and film). I know that others, too, are more conscious of the "beauty" of Louisiana, as it's mentioned in things that are written about the state, and I have thought that the environmental movement and the greater appreciation of folk (and world) culture have led to more appreciation by the locals for the land and culture that are here, not only out of personal or family pride but partly because of the desire for tourist dollars...Sometimes it is wonderful to pass a homestead with a fenced-in area that collects cattle or horses, or to see a small copse of trees along the road, or a even well-kept lawn (and most of the lawns are very well-kept)...