Friday, May 18, 2012


reflections 

          recently i was privileged to come back into possession, photos i thought were long lost and it brought back a flood of memories . a tide of emotions some low, flowing into more feelings until you ebb and reminisce over lost thoughts.  feelings of emptiness, loss of loved one , an old dog , a friend , at varying moments of your life . your paths though intertwined left each other at a crossroads somewhere in the past . and this reflection of that moment in time is all that lingers behind to remind you. how i hate to love and hate at same time. to want for certain past memories of times not so perfect  but ones you wouldn't trade for anything.
        and maybe that is the reason we should grab for all we can while we are here. to be free like these guys showing off for my friend in new york one day as i accompanied her on a photo session as we just pulled over at a waterfalls on a lovely clear creek. things you wont see in a picture is knowing that this first guy had surgery on his heart and he had a scar up his midsection where they had  laid him open. he was real friendly and was quite eager to show the scar off, and tell us his story.  he was young and had spent quite a bit of time sick, but now he is in great shape, compared to where he was.
        he was talking to my friend who also had her own share of problems including major surgery and a loving donation of  a kidney  from her brother to save her life, as both hers was failing. , but now she is fine and her new kidney was placed in her front abdomen , but then you wouldn't know that as a picture doesn't tell you that. that i was a lucky person to have known her in the first place and admire her courage in the face of diversity to move on as this young man did also.  to allow all of us  including  this young man , myself and now you the reader see a little more into this picture and be able to understand how this happened to be.
        how this all reflects a happiness that supersedes all other emotions as you see the water pour down his back as gallons upon gallons of cold clear water pouring over the falls and weighting him down as he tries to stand under the shower .  i secretly wished as my friend did ,that we had the youth's freedom to be there in that spot where he stands and feel for yourself  the sensation he must have been experiencing as we were suffocating from the heat outside and that waterfall looked so refreshing. no matter how hard you look you could never see this in this picture.
      and as i look at other pictures of people and places i haven't been i wonder what it is like to stand in tiananman square in china and watch a protester in a standoff  with a tank , or a girl cradling the head of a student who had just been shot at kent state university . images i will never forget .
       no matter who is taking the picture at the moment it is recorded.  it is unrelenting proof of a moment no one can discount . you have proof this is what it was like at the moment the picture was taken.
      an image on a piece of paper that is not human,  but human designed and is charged with all the power it contains to bring you to the brink of tears, to make you laugh , to make you yearn , to disgust you , is it fair that it should exist as such. such is the power of a picture and hopefully the next time you look at one you might ask yourself a few more questions. and look a little deeper , and find that emotion.

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