MOST Britons spend spring gazing upwards, searching for blue skies. But not all. A growing minority are speaking up in defence of clouds.

Cloud lovers now have a spiritual home, the Cloud Appreciation Society (CAS). The group has a growing membership and a website that recently won Yahoo's Weird and Wonderful Site of the Year award (2005).

The society was launched at an English literary festival in 2004 by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. Nearly 2,000 people signed up within a year.

These cloud lovers are enthusiastic about what American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson called "the ultimate art gallery above". Toni-Marie Hudson, a cloudspotter working at a video store in South Yorkshire, says clouds "create dimension to the sky". David Kitching, who runs a paint business, feels that "regardless of what goes on in the world, or what stresses there are in your life, clouds have a soothing effect. I'm not religious, but I get something spiritual from a dramatic cloudscape. It puts the world into perspective."

Yet clouds are despised in Britain. Complaining about the weather is a major conversational topic. No one wishes to be thought to be "under a cloud". If there is any "cloud on the horizon", there'll be a desperate search for a silver lining. However, CAS commits itself to fighting "the banality of blue-sky thinking" in Britain. They even looks abroad for support. A member offers up the Iraqi phrase for someone lucky or blessed: "His sky is always filled with clouds."

Differences between those who appreciate clouds and those who don't can make for tension. Kitching recalls driving on the road enjoying the beauty of clouds through his car window, while his wife saw only alarming road safety concerns. Kitching says the following debate cemented his impression of their incompatibility. "It was one of those instances when you realize you don't appreciate the same things in life," he said. They have since divorced.

The society has grown so rapidly in part because cloud lovers want to find others with a similar opinion. "When I hear someone else likes clouds, I know they will be one of life's thinkers," he said.

Malcolm Evans from Staffordshire believes the UK's constantly changing cloudscapes have produced "a culture well able to handle change". Painter Dom Ramos, Spanish-born but living in Britain, believes the mild climate that accompanies clouds keeps society members moderate and avoids the extremism that blue-sky monotony and hurricanes can foster.
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banality: 平庸，陈腐
blessed: 受祝福的
cement: 加强，巩固
cloudscape: 云景
cloudspotter: 观云爱好者
hurricane: 飓风
incompatibility: 不和谐
monotony: 单调
soothing: 抚慰的
weird: 怪异的





最后编辑： 21sta 编辑于04/30/2006 06:12