Geranium incanum, the risks in beauty

What more aesthetically pleasing spot could a small flying insect find for a moment of reflection or spiritual exaltation after a satisfying drink of nectar down a branch in the neighbourhood? Or for suddenly to be eaten by a prowling member of the ubiquitous hungry of nature?

There won’t even be repercussions and centuries of infamy for killing in a temple as in the case of King Henry II after Becket, or as the Athenian clan of the Alcmaeonidae endured for generations, actually for centuries, so long ago.

Beauty has a way of inspiring the fertile mind. Encounter it in a schizocarp husk of Geranium incanum, in the roof of a pagoda or in a medieval cathedral and the next thought to arrive may be on the meaning of life, a place in eternity, a plan for a crusade or a revolutionary colourant for bubble-gum.

Lateral thinking in humans is fortunately more developed than subsequent regret. For the eyes check out everything, not only the pretty or the good and the minds go racing, ready for choice (Bean and Johns, 2005; Wikipedia).