As Far as the Eye Can See

I live in Houston. Everywhere look I see a building, home, sign. . . something. Unless I look up -- almost straight up -- I can't see for any distance. There is nowhere to go that is free of people in cars, in lines. . . The effect is to feel constantly hemmed in and confined. The moment this came home was one evening along the Rio Grande in south Texas. My son and I stood in the middle of the desert and watched the sun descend and fall below the horizon. He said something to the effect that that was the first time he had a sense of the earth moving. Literally, nothing stood between us and the horizon to obstruct our view. When I'm out in New Mexico, I get the same feeling -- wide open spaces where "as far as the eye can see" isn't some kind of abstraction. I can't tell you how refreshing and freeing this is.