I remeber the first time I went to Seattle: I was overwhelmed the first time I saw Mt. Ranier! But talking to the locals, most of them don’t even notice that spectatcular mountain! The same way with the ocean…people will pay a fortune for a house with an ocean viw…and a few years later, the basically ignore it! Is it something about the human brain? Do you gradually become desensitized by even the most spectacular surroundings? I wonder what it would be like to live in a place like Monument valley-would you gradually tune out that gorgeous scenery?
And for people who live in Manhattan penthouses…do they get tired of looking at the NYC skyline?
Spectacular is subjective. To someone used to living in a mud hut, a double-wide trailer is “spectacular”. Not so much for someone who lives in a 15-room mansion. I don’t think skyscrapers are all that impressive since I’ve lived in big cities my whole life. But for someone who’s lived all their life in small towns, skyscrapers are something to behold. So, yes, I think it has something to do with what you’re used to.
It works in the other direction too. When I first moved to Newark, NJ, I was shocked by the urban blight. After five years, though, it wasn’t such a big deal. I imagine if I’d always lived in Newark–and I was stuck there for the rest of my life–“urban blight” wouldn’t really exist as a concept for me. It would be “normal”.
It’s partly a survival mechanism. Things you see for the first time, it’s in your best interest to be curious about. But if the same thing has been in the same spot for the last 3 years, it’s probably not gonna kill ya.
I live in an intresting town the locals here even ones that have lived here for 30 plus years still marvel over the scenery and the people who live here.
I’ve been living in Killarney, Co. Kerry, in Ireland for the past 12 years and not a day goes by that I don’t hear (in my head 
) Julie Andrews singing ‘The Hills are Alive’ whenever I get a glimpse of my surroundings! The locals don’t take it for granted either. This place is called Beauty’s Home. They got that right.
I have two 14,000 foot peaks pretty much right out my front door. Some mornings, when the sun hits them just right it still takes my breath away.
Or when the wind is blowing all the snow around. The very size of these mountains just gets me.
Related anecdote: My mother-in-law is currently visiting casa rjung, so one thing we did this weekend was a brief-but-obligatory “tour of the city.”
The freeway system was amusing, Hollywood was fun, Beverly Hills was nice, but what really got my MIL into breathtaking wowsville was seeing the Pacific Ocean and the beach for the first time ever.
For me, it was the usual sand + surf + sun + seagulls thing, but for her, it was one of those “I don’t want to leave” moments. Go figure.
I think what would happen is that you wouldn’t necessarily tune out the gorgeous scenery, but it would become secondary as you became consumed by the needs of living and working like you would anywhere else. Just because you live in a place of spectacular beauty doesn’t mean you don’t have to drive an hour to work, fix the porch, go shopping, mow the lawn, scrub the toilet, pay bills, take the trash to the dump, wait around for the plumber, and so on. It wouldn’t be like a permanent vacation with a great view and no worries beyond what the next day’s travel will bring. It would be your daily life with all it’s usual anxieties and joys. And places of remote and desolate beauty usually have remote and desolate economies so it can be a real struggle.
The benefit would be that you could explore every nook and cranny and develop an even greater appreciation for the place you’ve chosen to live, and be around people of more kindred spirits.
Well, after a while, people stop really seeing something that’s always there, if they ever really saw it in the first place. They’re busy, and there’s all that chatter going on in their heads about needing to do the laundry, and what to have for lunch, what exactly did so-and-so mean by that comment by the water cooler, and how much has gas gone up today, and all like that. When you’re distracted by all that chatter, you tend not to take the time to stop and really look at something. It becomes just something that’s there in the background.
For instance, I have this absolutely gorgeous quilt hanging on my living room wall. Beautiful design, remarkable color combination, wonderful execution. It’s one of the first things visitors tend to comment on (once I beat the dogs off them). I barely even notice it most days. Because it’s just part of the backdrop of my life, and I’m too busy thinking about how the furniture needs dusted, or I need to go to the grocery store, or umpteen billion other things, and I don’t stop and look at the quilt. When I do stop and really look at it, though, I’m just boggled by the time and work and love that must have gone into making it.
Most people just walk through life in a daze and never stop to take a breath and look around. I worked in or around the World Trade Center for years, and grew up in NYC, and still marvelled at the scale of those towers from time to time. But it took a conscious effort to stop and look. The same goes for artwork or nice things in your own house. If you are not determined to spend a few seconds once in a while admiring them, there’s no point in ever getting them in the first place.
Of course if you stopped ALL the time to look at everything that was interesting as if it was the first time you saw it, you would never get anything done. A baby seeing a ball for the first time can be awestruck; you wouldn’t want to spend half of every basketball game just checking out how call that bouncy ball is, would you?
Uh, call = cool :smack:
Is there a parallel here with a 10 - 15 year marriage. Based on the posts so far, it seems some marriages may need a boost for the parties, after the heat of the honeymoon dies out over years. So, to keep the thrill of new experiences continue in one’s life, do you suggest some extramarital affairs every couple of years (new scenery? new experience?) as opposed to the same old marriage partners getting used to each other over years?
I recommend people only get married to people that they can like and admire even after the “heat of the passion” cools down. You don’t get tired of your good friends, do you?
I live in San Francisco, and I consider (certain parts) to be the most beautiful place on earth. I regularly go out to the Bay or the Golden Gate Bridge and and marvel at the spectacular scenery. However, I can’t spend every minute marveling. Today I went down to the water to shop at the Farmer’s Market, and because I was in a hurry, I didn’t even look at the view, which is one of my favorites. However, I did take a cable car back to work, and I took some time to enjoy the ride. The views that I love are still beautiful to me, I just don’t always take the time to fully experience them. I wouldn’t say I’m desensitized at all, it’s just that I have other things on which to focus.
Almost anywhere you live, you have access to one of the best views in the world – the night sky. But how often you look at it in wonder depends on what else you have to look at and concentrate on.
Because if you didn’t get blase about the great view you’d end up getting hit by a bus one day as you walked down the street marveling. Or you’d starve to death on account of being unable to hold a job due to your tendency to stop every few seconds and go “Wow.”
It’s still good to keep the parts of you that can do this tucked safely away so you can pull them out once in a while and realize how cool everything is.
Pretty views aren’t magical places, they have problems like anywhere else. I live, quite literally, in the middle of the woods. Many people have remarked on how pretty it is. And it is pretty. But the poplar trees fall down all the time, I can’t grow veggies worth a damn since the whole yard is shaded, the spring peepers will be arriving at the wetland just 15’ from my bedroom window in a few weeks to make a god awful racket, and that long driveway that’s bedecked by trees? Not so cool in the winter when we’ve got to shovel it, and the tree limbs break and bend under the ice to fall on car roofs…
All that aside, I still do go outside a few times a week and realize that it’s a pretty nice view. And seeing pictures of the yard, wow, they look like postcards.
But most of the time it’s just a yard with all the nomal yard issues.
And I fully agree with **rjung’**s statement for a change. There’s amazing for you! 