What is a Sunset?

Jim Mason
May 30, 2020

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Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Sunsets happen every day. They can invoke feelings of beauty and awe in all of us. But what, really, is a sunset?

The sun knows nothing of sunsets. It just keeps shining.

Even the earth knows little about sunsets. It just keeps spinning.

Only things like us, that ride the earth in and out of its shadow, experience sunsets.

Sunsets are utterly reliable. Whatever else happens in our lives, we can count on sunset at the end of every day.

But sunsets are also utterly unique. Each person, bird, flower, and solar panel experiences every sunset in its own way.

The miracle is that we humans can communicate about sunsets.

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Jim Mason

I study language, cognition, and humans as social animals. You can support me by joining Medium at https://jmason37-80878.medium.com/membership