March 26 2022 - Is there a turquoise blue colour named Paradise?
I was still considering our notions of Paradise yesterday. The original idea from Wikipedia: "In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness."
After seeing all the places named Paradise, I realize how expanded the notion is today. Today Paradise is here on earth. A dominant notion is the idea of tropical island vacations - visiting Paradise on earth. The explorers in the mid-eighteenth century who tagged Tahiti and other tropical islands as the new paradise set off the notion of a possible paradise here on earth now. An introduction to tropical vacations expresses our longings:
"Dreamy beaches, silky warm seas, lush scenery, and endless sunshine – these are some of the top ingredients of the ideal tropical vacation. But each destination offers its own sultry charms. Some dazzle with their natural beauty. Others add cultural attractions to the mix, with exotic customs, architecture, and mouthwatering cuisine. A few offer eco-adventures and wildlife-rich wilderness, and some sleepy islands seem to take you back in time."
One author says that the Medieval and Renaissance writers believed that Paradise was a findable place on Earth. Another author says that the connection between Captain Bligh in Tahiti and the turquoise waters, lush landscapes, fruit on the trees cemented tropical islands as what religious paradise might be like.
And in comparison to most northern hemisphere waters, turquoise water is transfixing and mezmerizing. Turquoise, the sea-green stone of the ancients, represented wisdom, tranquility, protection, good fortune, and hope. Ancient peoples believed in its profound power to protect, as well as its tranquil energy and its association with enduring love.
So maybe it makes sense that humans seek to create paradise here on earth in place names, vacation destinations, songs, novels, all kinds of things. And that those tropical vacation destinations are the epitome of what we long for and desire. Why else would there be all those pictures of people doing yoga on the tropical beach shores.
The tiny snow crocuses and the iris reticulate are blooming in the garden. Mind you, these are the larger crocuses that haven't come up yet.
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