Scenery that made me wince at its sheer ugliness when I first arrived two months ago is now so ordinary that I don’t even notice it anymore.

I’ve slid into a funk over the last couple of weeks.  The dreariness of the routine and the surroundings has been weighing on me.  So, I told myself to stop tuning out and to look around, pay attention, find something to appreciate and get excited about:

Hmm.  Easier said than done.  Better look somewhere else:

Uhhhh…

Erm….

Ok, what about over there?

Yeaaaaahhhh.  Wow.

Ok, Melissa, try looking through your art gallery glasses…

Note how the masterful draping of sniper screen conceals the fence, and yet, at the same time, reveals it!  The fringe of ancient plastic on the barbed wire stands in strong juxtaposition to the assertive pops of blaze orange and the saucy red stripes on the yellow bollard.  The artist’s fury and hilarity are aggressively in your face, serving to distract the casual viewer from what the contemplative observer discovers upon careful study: despair.  And dust.

Oh, looky!  Sunshine sparkling on concertina wire:

Pretty!

Hey, check out the awesome progress on the construction project in front of the Garrison building:

(Tilting head and squinting)

(More tilt, more squint)

Ok, this isn’t working.  Face it, Bagram Air Field is one very ugly military installation.  But, we’re here to win a war not a beauty contest so I guess I’d better stop hoping for my surroundings to provide inspiration and start finding ways to love the ugly — like people do with those creepy hairless cats.

Cat photo credit: petslittle.com

But I digress…

Ok, ratcheting expectations way down.  Down farther.  Little more… that’s it… keep going…

… and, we’ve arrived here:

See how the port-a-john siding perfectly matches the sky?  Niiiiice.

MM