Mt. Merapi and the Sublime

It's amazing how something so beautiful can also be so deadly. Indonesia's Mt. Merapi erupts, killing scores and devastating villages surrounding it. And yet, it is beautiful. Last year, I attended an art show at Claremont Graduate School where one of the graduating artists spoke of the "sublime": nature's immense and transcendent beauty and danger, where the observer can, simultaneously, be dwarfed and taken out of himself. Here's a picture which exemplifies that concept...