As screens—movies, TV, video games—present a world far more colorful and energetic than the created world itself, they not only ratchet up our expectations for what is significant and entertaining; they also undermine our ability to enjoy what we could call the abundance of the ordinary. Even when there is no cardinal in my backyard, it is full of varied colors, shapes, and sounds: the rustle of the breeze in the bushes, the subtly different leaves and bark of oak and maple, the infinite varieties of green against the changing sky. Even when there is no meteor shower, the night sky’s stars and
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