I remember, as a kid, once going to a Buddhist sand-painting exhibition at an art museum. They made these huge, beautiful mandalas by carefully shaking colored sand into designs. When they were done, they dumped it out into the ocean. I remember – being pretty impressed with it – asking something like “but why would you destroy it”, and the Buddhist monk guy said something like “it reminds us not to be too attached to material things”.

Don’t know if I agreed with the guy, but I think that there is probably a very real perspective out there that ephemerality has intrinsic value.