While fall is my favorite season and fond memories help my cloud vase with mixed mums be my favorite fall decoration, I don’t let it get stale from being on display all year. Nor do I yearn to see real mums blooming and real leaves turning every day. Must I experience mud season to appreciate fall? No, I just need to experience the other major seasons and their different delights, such as dogwoods in spring or roses in summer.
It’s the same with music. While Brahms’ Intermezzo in A (Opus 118, #2) is among my favorite short piano pieces, I don’t want to hear it 24/7 on my radio.
Must I sometimes hear fingernails on a chalkboard to renew my appreciation for Brahms’ good music? No, I just need variety in the good music I hear. Brahms one day and Brubeck another. Remember this if U hear somebody either shrug off evil (as yin to complement the yang of goodness) or claim to solve the Problem of Evil by saying we “need” evil to appreciate goodness, just as we (supposedly) “need” darkness to appreciate light. Ain’t so easy.
– above post (on phone) or beside it (on desktop). –
Mellow Curmudgeon 
Like food, the weather, possibly anything we can sense — I can’t think of any positive that needs the existence of, or comparison to, a negative to appreciate it. Yet the notion persists. Hm.
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Tho I tend to take breathing freely for granted, a few days of misery from a cold is enough to shake off my complacency. People with cystic fibrosis are in constant danger of being suffocated by their own mucus. While we don’t need diseases like CF in the world to appreciate breathing freely or any other aspect of good health, maybe we do need minor ailments.
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Your floral displays have strong character and presence.
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Thanks. One thing led to another as I was getting familiar with my phone’s camera, which I found is better in some low-light conditions than my older full-size camera.
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Lovely!
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