A few days ago, my parents were making plans to go to the beach yesterday. I was really excited.
Then yesterday morning, I was told that the beach plan would be replaced with a trip to Luray Caverns.
[expletive]!
It wasn't that we weren't go to the beach (that I was excited about) that made me mad as that we were going to Luray.
I've been there about 20 times already.
I've also been to the museums and monuments in DC more times than that, and I STILL enjoy going to those. So why do I and others not enjoy going to Luray after the first time? It's a beautiful place otherwise....
It doesn't change, and there's nothing new to see.
Every time I go to the museums, monuments, or zoo, there's always something new to see. There's a recent addition or something I haven't seen before, because those places are just too big to ever see completely.
With Luray Caverns, though, one can only go on the guided tour. I've been on that exact path every single time I go, and there's nothing new. I think the growth rate of those stalactites and stalagmites is something like (1 cm)/(120 yr). That explains a lot in terms of it not changing from visit to visit.
But my dad argued that its beauty cannot be diminished. That's true, but there should always also be a point of comparison. I should be able to visit another similar but less beautiful cavern and revisit Luray and appreciate its enduring superior beauty; that's something I would enjoy. Analogously, I can compare the positively stunning Jaguar E-Type to similar cars (say, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage) of today and still appreciate its timeless beauty (even though the Vantage also looks as pretty). However, if all I could see was the E-Type, I would get bored of it too.
What do you think?