Glossy Borders
Looking through a lens, a rectangular cut out of what is in front of you is emphasized and imprisons a wandering mind into one narrow set of emotions. This is the conclusion I encountered when I took this photograph. With a squinting eye, I saw nothing more than the landscape contained in the four borders of the semi-glossed paper. The unsheltered tents of weathered wood, vulnerable to a strong and demanding current that could inhabit them with one starved swallow, made me wonder. “Are we all defenseless to the things we cannot control?”
Click. The picture was stored but I didn’t remove the camera from my enticed eye. Instead I stared, hoping that if I could just think harder, if I could only read between the lines, then I would find the answer to my question. I examined the scene. “The sea is calm, enjoying another peaceful evening alone, but it is restless. The rocks seem to be numbed by the constant waves, dulling their sensitivity, but they are not dead. The sand left traces of its earlier history, tracks and footsteps of many, but each grain holds a purpose of its own. The gray sky fighting away the descending sun is simply having a bad night.” And at that moment I realized, I could not control what I saw in front me. All I could do was embrace its presence, become defenseless to its provocative thoughts. “To replace each aged plank of wood, would remove the wisdom it brings to its observers. Should the sea become infuriated and drag them away, it was but their fate.”
“Are we defenseless to what we cannot control?” I opened my eye, placed the camera back into its case and answered, “No. We are but defenseless to what our mind seeks to find, answers.”
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