Looking in the Rearview

How come the sunset somehow looks so much prettier when you're looking in the rearview mirror? Or when you're just glancing in the sideview and the clouds are all lit up, the treetops shining golden, but with a darker sky ahead?

And when the sunset is in front of you, it isn't the same at all. The sun's in your eyes because the car shade doesn't quite reach to where the sun is in the sky, and there's just too much to look at. The cars on the road are hard to see because the sky is blinding, and brake lights are harder to distinguish now than any other time of day. Driving into the sunset is not at all what it sounds like in a song. And I'm sure the people driving the other direction have a great view of the sky from their rearview mirror, the same sky I can't see because it's right in front of me but there is far too much going on for me to really see it or find it as beautiful as it is.

But to glance in the mirror and and catch a glimpse of a beautiful ending to a whatever day, it's almost hard to look away-- you wish you could see the whole thing, but it's just a few square inches for a few seconds at a time, and sometimes it just makes you want to turn around and go back.