Our modern sensibility has little time for entertainments of the natural kind, and even less interest in the metaphysical implications of pebbles. We are consumed on the one hand with the man-made entertainments of the spectacle - the wonders and curiosities of our modern civilization. Yet on the other hand, our attempts to connect with the natural universe proceed with disinterest, as if contemplating through a garden of abstract or unreal phenomena. The non-man-made or "natural world" which surrounds us is important primarily as lightly engaging, pleasurable entertainment. We cherish the frivolous and simple lives of dumb animals, or are calmed by the soothing white noise of endless waves and wind.
