The only way to possess beauty is to create a work of art from it.

"On an autumn excursion, Sigurd Olson witnessed a stirring sunset from the shore of a river . . . [I]t was all too much beauty for him to capture.  [H]e wrote the next day:

'It was almost more than I could bear.  It hurt me.  I wanted to run away and sob.  It hurts me today.  Why should it - it should make me happy.  Is it because I am over sensitive or that I realize that I can never attain or hold such beauty?  But I must if I am not to go insane.  I must capture some of that somehow - create something durable.' "

David Backes, "A Wilderness Within: The Life of Sigurd F. Olson," p. 96

Photo: Sunset at Vedauwoo Recreation Area, with Mt. Meeker and Long's Peak looming in the distance; November 3, 2012.  Olson DID capture some of the spirit and beauty of the North Country in his amazing writings!