Most people think of the word sublime as meaning to inspire awe, but one of the original connotations was that something sublime was the manifestation of god on earth. I'm not a particularly religious person, but yesterday I could understand why some people defined the word that way.
Wen had a Saturday morning class; I went to meet her at Columbia for lunch. Around 1pm or so we headed out for a walk and I asked if she wanted to go inside St John the Divine Cathedral; I'd walked past the place before, but never been in. (If you've never heard of the cathedral, it matches anything Europe has to offer; you could fit the Statue of Liberty in it, lengthwise)
We walked around and on the way out we were awestruck by the light shining in through the stained glass. The winter sun in New York hangs low in the sky, the cathedral sits on a hill and is surrounded by no obstructions plus we were there on a sunny day. Here's what we saw (my iPhone's camera does not do it justice):
