Category: Photographs and Memories
A place to find all sorts of digital images including photos, document scans, maps, and screen snags.
In the big scheme of things, I am just one person, one set of feet walking across the National Mall and into the National Gallery. I am just one camera capturing light and shadow, positive space and negative line.
However “only” I am, I do have a vision of a just and safe space for every human being.
And in the big scheme of things that vision, that art, remains visible, discoverable, actionable.
Monarch butterflies come through northeastern Pennsylvania every year, finding our cone flowers tempting way stations. This year a specimen stayed focused on the nectar hunt long enough for me to snap dozens of photos from a variety of angles. I like these three perspectives for the detail that I could observe and research.
The first photo distinctly shows the black dot on the vein in each hind wing, a field mark that identifies this beauty is a male.
In this second photo, I am struck by the Monarch’s thorax, perfectly coordinated with the black and white polka dot wing trim.
In this final shot, the Monarch wings held in the vertical plane, I get a clear glimpse of the feet searching for nectar among the cone flower’s nectaries.
What a delight to get reacquainted with this lovely symbol of hope and transformation.
I am going to feel mixed up all week. Monday holidays scramble time frames and Tuesday will be Monday all week long. So I head out into this week, a bit off kilter, but hopeful that the path will lead to people and ideas that nourish hope.
My reading list includes Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II’s The Third Reconstruction. His words “Forward Together, Not One Step Back” are looping like a melody. Andi Cuomo-Lloyd’s Discover Your Writing Self guides my journaling, which slowly and surely is chipping away at my writer’s block.
I have settled into a routine (ish) for writing steadily on “That Damn Dodson Project” and built in time to mindfully watch birds decide spring is arriving six weeks early.
I am grateful for friends, IRL and in FB silos, and for my family, with and without fur.
So, on this Monday-Tuesday I take one step, one breath in, one breath out, and begin.
