Underrated

This week I have been thinking about things that are underrated. Some things make me happy whenever I stop to look at them, and yet other people seem completely oblivious to them. The thing is, I am a bit idiosyncratic, so sometimes that’s understandable. And by idiosyncratic, I mean weird.

Hilly Cities
I grew up in a flat place. I mean, REALLY FLAT. They had to build a hill just so people doing their driving tests had somewhere to practice hill starts. The thing is, flat cities are boring; you can never see more than a single street at any one time. But in a hilly city the views can be breath taking and at night wherever you looked there were always more illuminations beaming down on you. Landmarks actually mark the skyline. It is a beauty that people who have always lived in hilly places seem to miss.



Scars
However much we all try to be that perfect classical portrait we will fail. In fact, it is a big turn off for me to see someone try too hard. I like the individual, peculiar and unique. Whether this adequately explains why I like scars or not, I don’t know. I remember once I was working with a girl who had a large vertical stripe across one cheek, and two of my work colleagues started making fun of her because of it. I just couldn’t understand why, for the sake of a single scar, they would call her ugly. I reacted very angrily and I don’t think I have reacted the same way before or since. (My girlfriend says I probably snapped because I liked the scar and them denouncing it was a personal attack on my values, rather than any act of chivalry. I’ll let you decide.)
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Glass
We use it almost every day, but we rarely stop to regard it. What were they thinking when 5000-6000 years ago they decided to heat some sand and pot ash to over a thousand degrees? The result is a transparent, smooth material that can take any colour or shape, so long as you know how to work it. When Europeans first got to south America they used to smash vases and sell the fragments for pearls on a one for one basis. To the Aztecs, the idea of capturing light in solid form made it more valuable than gold. One thing it isn’t though, it isn’t a liquid. I cannot say how often I hear that lie. It is a non-crystalline solid with amorphous regions at the molecular level. But I bet you didn’t really care about that anyway.
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Pyrography
This is a little known art form that involves taking a red hot knife and carving images into wood. The name literally means ‘fire writing’. I do some pyrography myself, but I have never become good at it. It requires a surgeon’s skill to keep the knife steady, a great dollop of experience to know how different parts of the wood will react to different heats and the patience of a saint – because if you make a mistake, there is no covering it up. Also, you have to be prepared to get a few burns now and then. (Having said this, the crafter of the wolf picture below says the principals are just the same as inking, and if you understand them it is easy. Not understanding the principals of inking, I couldn’t say).
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So what do you think is underrated and deserving of more attention?