Herman Melville, that ol’ 19th century “great white whale” author himself once said, or wrote, or perhaps sang in the bathtub (if he even had a bathtub, that is), “There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.”

Umm….well, I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that there were two very contrasting landscapes being viewed by two different Goodboys yesterday afternoon. Fellow “Founding Father” (say that three times fast!) “Killer” Kowalski lives outside Boston. And here’s a pic he sent to me yesterday afternoon at the height of the Great New England Blizzard of 2015:

A song comes to mind:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Hat tip: Shawn Colvin, In The Bleak Midwinter

Contrast that to what The Great White Shank was looking at on his back patio around the very same time:

Another song comes to mind:

No shoes, no shirt, no problems
Blues what blues hey I forgot them
The sun and the sand and a drink in my hand with no bottom
And no shoes, no shirt, and no problems

Hat tip: Kenny Chesney, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems

Is one better than the other? I’ll let y’all be the judge. I know there are summer folks and winter folks out there. One doesn’t have dibs over the other (that is, of course, if you’re a summer guy living in New England or a winter guy living in the Valley of the Sun). But contrasts are what makes the world go round. Herman didn’t say that – I guess I did.

But looking at these two pics I think the old fella would agree with me.