Relics

I went out shooting today. (It just strikes me as I write that how different that phrase is for me as compared to most of the people who live around here.  Hmm.  I guess we're all shooting SOMETHING around here,though...)  I specifically wanted to get the rake we've been using on our family hay fields for as long as I can remember.  Its big wheels make surprisingly lovely patterns as they cross each other.  They're almost lace-like. 

The rake is a piece of equipment that my father and my uncle share, at least on one particular piece of property.  Today, I found it in a pasture near where my grandfather used to come and sit just to rest during a hard day's work or simply to escape.  My grandfather was tough-as-nails.  He farmed, raising cows and cutting hay, and worked on the pipeline all his life.  All my memories of him include overalls in various states of repair, even overall shorts my grandmother made him for the summer when he was home at the end of the day.  Even though he's been gone now almost ten years, the tree he used to lean against and read Westerns or spy novels still has his hard hat and a whiskey jug hanging there as if he were returning soon to sit in the cool near the creek and look out over the sea of green in front of him.

I find something almost overwhelmingly comforting about that.  I suppose some people would say that after a certain amount of time, leaving those relics hanging in the tree is a pointless thing.  To me, though, it's a reminder of family, of the great love he had for his work, for that place, for us.  Just seeing them there made me smile. 

Camera Plans

I haven't had a chance to go out and play with my camera since school started.  As I suspected, all other forms of life ended when school began.  I've intended for the past two weekends to go somewhere and do something with the Nikon, but I've been so exhausted or had other things to do (like beating down the green jungle outside) that have prevented me from being able to go play. 


Yesterday before I left to go to work, I put the battery for the Nikon on charge so whatever I got to do this weekend, I'd be ready to take the camera.  Today wound up being a rainy day of dogs to the vet and then TV and couch, so I didn't get out with it.  Tomorrow, though, I think I'm going to try to go up to our country place and take some photos there.

I'm anxious to try out the new strap I got from an Etsy seller called Phat Straps.  I replaced a Tamrac one I liked with a much longer one that I think will be more comfortable.  The camera should sling across my body now more easily, the way I prefer to carry it when I am not holding it in my hand to shoot.  The Tamrac cut into my neck and it was just a couple of inches too short to maneuver into the cross-body style comfortably.  

Every day I come in and I hang my purse up on the hook where my camera bag also rests.  I run my hand down the strap of my go-bag for the camera, and I touch the little bell/charm I got at the Toyokawa Inari shrine that I keep on it.  I think, "Soon."  I have pictures that I took at the end of summer around Meridian up on my new school laptop as the changing wallpaper in Windows 7 (one of my favorite things about 7), and I get to enjoy them that way, too. 

I want to go somewhere, anywhere, really, that I can just walk around with my camera in hand and get some interesting things "on film."  (How odd that's not the appropriate phrase anymore!)  I can spend a whole day doing that.  It's a shame I don't have better control over that Nikon.  Maybe I can take a class in photography when my pottery class ends.  In the meanwhile, I can just enjoy my little excursions and the simple joy of making the plans to go.

That Question Again

Another thing I'd forgotten about teaching sophomores is the questions.  There are things seniors will ask you and things they won't.  Sophomores acknowledge no boundaries.  Your life is their playground.  I've always been a little amazed by that.  If they want to know, they just ask.  I miss that fearlessness a little.

Being on the receiving end of it again takes some getting used to again, however.  I got asked yesterday if I was married.  Now, that's a question seniors will ask.  Usually, though, when you tell them no, they stop.  They recognize that if a woman of my age says no, there are probably paths they don't want to walk behind there.  For a sophomore, this is merely the opening of an entire irresistible Pandora's Box of other issues....

I got a chance to reevaluate my life thoroughly.  The marriage question led to the children question.  The children question led to a boyfriend question.  The boyfriend question was connected to an age question...  I think I'm going to make a big poster and hang it next to my classroom rules so I don't have to run through that rather depressing list again.  Then I guess all answers to life can be found on my bulletin boards...  Sigh.  Maybe I'll make up some fictional responses that are more interesting than the real ones.  That might be amusing, too.

Hanging On

He conquers who endures.  ~Persius

How is it possible to keep holding on to something that has begun to cut like a razor knife in a bare palm?  Does the blade become a feather again?  Can the sandpaper transform itself into satin silk once more or is that change one-way only?  

I realized this morning that I haven't laughed, truly laughed, in a very long time.  That's not a way to go through life, I think.  And yet, what is there to do about it?  This is one of the darkest personal times I can remember going through, and I'm confused.  Every time I think I've reached the bottom, the lowest level, somehow that bottom drops out again and I fall.  Every time I think it's safe to hope and I allow my heart to unfold tendrils toward the light, I find that the environment is hostile, too hot or too cold, and those tender shoots are burned or frost-bitten and die.  How long is it going to be before I just stop hoping at all?  I don't want to be the person who doesn't hope.

I feel like I'm becoming someone...other...and I'm not comfortable with this.  I feel like a shell of who I used to be.  How do I overcome?  How to I persevere when it feels like little spoonfuls of my soul are being dipped out day-by-day by careless hands?  Who am I going to be when it's all done?


The quote I have put at the top of this post is all about hanging on.  The question facing me now is how to do that when doing that is full of pain.  I need to know how to do it when doing it feels counter to every instinct I have. I need to know how to do it when doing it makes me want to cry.  If endurance leads to conquest, I need to know how to endure. If somebody can show me that, maybe there will be some sort of worthiness at the end of this for me at the end after all.

Tuesdays Are from Hell

Today was another classic example of a day I should have skipped.  Let me rephrase. It was an example of a day I should have peeked out the window at timidly, studied carefully, then ran from, screaming at the top of my lungs.  It was full of drama, revelations, moments of panic, and pure-D hell.

I'm tired of that.  I'm tired of having bad Tuesdays.  I am tired of earth-shattering revelations and casual betrayals happening on a regular basis.  I want a change.  Today's was so great that I almost caused a change myself.  Had I had just slightly less self-control, I would have had that change for better or worse. 

There were a couple of bright spots:  a visit from a precious former student, a moment brought to me courtesy of someone I know.  By and large, though, grim determination and fortitude were the name of the game.  It's a game I'm not sure I can play much longer.  It wears you down after awhile, and I'm all but down to the bare bones as it is.

The Miscellanea of Living

Yesterday, it seems that I mowed grass all day long.  My Husqvarna zero turn has been in the shop for over a month waiting on repair.  Never have a mower go down during the height of the season in the Deep South.  I could practically hear the bahia every night out there growing for the stars.  It had started to take on bamboo-like aspects by the time they finally got mine put back together again.  It needed a new solenoid. 

I had to mow every single blade of the yard twice.  That may not sound like much, but I live on a seven acre lot, and quite a lot of that lot is grass.  Hence the zero-turn.  Hence my frustration at not having said zero turn for so long.  It's working quite well now, though.  It needed every adjustment it got.  It's much faster now, and the steering is much less precocious. 

It's strange to look outside now by the light of the almost full moon and see the yard neatly mowed, though.  I can see the dried trails of grass clippings like windrows waiting to be raked and bailed, slightly silver despite the rain we got today.  In a couple of days, all that will be gone, but just the uniform flatness of it is a little disconcerting.  I got so used to it being wild that now that it's tame again, it looks like somebody else's house. 

It's funny how fast we get used to things, I guess.  It will be nice, regardless, not to have to wade through knee-high stalks when I take the dogs out in the morning.  I know Yelldo will enjoy not having to do his dog-porpoise routine just to be able to see now, too.  It's good to be able to bring some order to something in my life, even if it is just the lawn.

When I'm 35

Around mid-life everyone goes maniac a little bit. ~ Tom Berenger 

I'm contemplating having a midlife crisis here in a few months when I turn 35.  Can you do that?  How type-A is it that I'm planning my crisis....  Anyway, I think I'm about due.  I've been staid and predictable for a very long time now.  Dependable.  Everybody's go-to-girl.  While I don't know how much of that will change in February, sometimes it's fun to turn over a few options I might take up when the auspicious day arrives:

My Midlife Crisis To-Do List:

1. Get Muscle Car -- Preferably Big HEMI Dodge Charger.  Since this is my personal fantasy, let's pretend that for some silly reason I fell into money and don't have to play "who am I paying this month?" with my bills anymore and can buy anything I like.  Let's make that Charger a Super Bee.  Yeah.  Let's.
2. Find Erudite and Lovely Male to Worship Me -- He should be able to cook and give killer backrubs.  If he's never read a freakin' book or will only consume food of the hamburger persuasion, he can just get out.  He should also be able to perceive when it's time to shut up and be useful in other ways, too.
3. Finally Get Tattoo -- Because I will now be ready to throw caution to the wind, I will finally just bite the fear bullet and get the design I have prepared done.  It will be in every way lovely, and I will feel exceedingly empowered by just going.
4. Take Fabulous Trip With Friends -- Don't know where; don't know when.  We will, however, all load up and go somewhere.  It will be a mighty journey that the lucky destination will write tales of for generations.  Husbands and the Lovely Male may not go.  I suppose they may take a trip of their own if they like.
5. Write the Book -- I will stop fiddling about with the eight-pages-at-a-time publication system and I will actually get the courage up to take the storyline I've had in my head for the last ten years and make it a reality.  I try not to think about the fact that just writing this down makes me a cliche.  Sigh...

That's probably enough insanity to be going on with.  I might as well also throw in some frolicking and some insouciance as well. One or two of these things are definitely not going to happen.  I mean, OBVIOUSLY.  A couple of the others might.  I'll leave it to your good intelligence to figure out which ones are which. As I said earlier, this is just me relieving stress by musing in print, playing in pixels. A birthday doesn't have to indicate a crisis, I suppose.  Whatever I manage to come up with, though, I guess it ought to be awfully fun to watch from the sidelines.

Natural Rough Diamond Earrings by artifactum on Etsy

Natural Rough Diamond Earrings by artifactum on Etsy
I finally found a pair of diamond studs that I both really like and can also afford. I know the stones in these aren't super valuable since they're uncut and therefore probably flawed, low-grade, etc., but they appeal to me so much. I always tell my writing students that they are uncut diamonds and that it is my job to help shape them so they shine, and that was the first thing that jumped into my mind when I saw these. I also think of myself as something a bit rough and unpolished, too, so although I have always loved the classic elegance of diamond studs, I don't know if I can pull that look off personally. Let's face it; I have many charming qualities, but "poshness" isn't one of them. Diamonds are a bit like a string of pearls. They're undoubtedly lovely, but they're not quite me, perhaps. These, however, are understated and symbolic, and of course, that appeals to me on almost every level. I'll have these as my "payday splurge" soon. I think they will go with almost everything, just like diamond studs, however one likes hers fashioned, ought to do.

A Very Good Weekend

I was accused of living at the Temple Theater today in jest, and I suppose that statement is increasingly becoming true, especially this weekend.  I don't care, though.  It's a gorgeous place, and this weekend it had everything I wanted to do.

On Friday night, my best friend came in from Jackson and we went to see Friday the 13th IV courtesy of the Watcher's Council film series.  Although that movie is pure crap, we had a great time.  I had forgotten how really and truly bad the Friday the 13th movies were as a whole, and that one is, believe it or not, the high point of the entire series, having as it does Corey Feldman in it.  My friend and I had a blast, though, MST3King the thing along with everybody else in the building.  One of the guys from the Watcher's Council dressed up as Jason and everybody took pictures with him afterward.

Today, the American Theater Organ Society had an organist come in from Atlanta to perform a recital on the Robert Morton organ.  It was great.  I haven't heard that organ play since the time they ATOS had someone accompany the 1929 Phantom of the Opera one Halloween, and I've been longing to hear that wonderful instrument again now that I'm older and am an organist myself.  It was absolutely divine. I sat near one of the walls where the pipes are.  I looked up into the high arches of the architecture and watched the dampers opening so it could pull air into those massive pipes, and the voice of the organ filled the space like the song of a benevolent god. 

The organist's repertoire was very diverse.  He played what he called "American music," a medley of music from old country artists like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, and then a medley of Woody Guthrie.  He played some music that was themed around Georgia, including the theme from Tara from Gone with the Wind.  I must say that the organ handled that piece with especial grace.

He also accompanied a Buster Keaton short film called One Week that I hadn't seen before.  I love Buster Keaton, so it was a lot of fun.  It never ceases to amaze me how versatile that organ is, how all the sound effects it's capable of come from real things in the walls instead of electronic reproductions.  I hope they do more of these shows.

Of course, all that organ wonder made me want to do better with my own playing, and when I practiced I started trying to recover my use of the foot pedals.  I managed some of it.  It felt good.  Maybe if I keep at it, I can get there again.

As I drove home from church tonight, I found myself feeling rested and relaxed despite the fact that I came home from school Friday so exhausted that I literally couldn't form words.  I don't even have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think of work.  That's how I know I had a very good weekend.  There are several more coming up, too, with more great old movies and other things starting to happen here in this area.  If I can keep having things of this nature to look forward to, then I can recharge my soul and endure.

Bridget Jones

I saw the tail-end of Bridget Jones' Diary on BBC America (and yes, I do watch that network an inordinate amount, perhaps.  Sue me. Or send me across the pond.  Anyhoo), and I had forgotten how funny it was.  One of my favorite lines is the last exchange between Bridget and Mark Darcy.  Bridget finally kisses him after who knows how many misunderstanding and squirm-worthy scenes of embarrassment and personal pain, and since it's COLIN FIRTH, a man who I personally would pay good money and lots of it just to listen to him read names from the phone book because I mean Have You Looked At Him????, it's a truly meltable one.  She leans back and says, "Nice boys don't kiss like that."  His reply, delivered in that gorgeous voice of his with the slightest of smiles, is, "Oh yes they f---g do."  Mmm.... 

So maybe this little entry isn't so much about Bridget as it is about Colin Firth, Mark Darcy, Mr. Darcy, and the desire to find a nice guy who understands and can live up to that last statement.  Wonder if there are any of them around?  Sigh.

Something Else

I'm going to go out with my camera tomorrow.  I'm not sure where.  Somewhere that's not here.  Somewhere that's not school.  Somewhere...else.

I'm trying to recover.  I had left-over pizza and a very vintage Dr. Who episode, "The Deadly Assassin", to go with it.  Now, TCM has Casablanca on.  Next, they're showing Notorious.  It's a night designed to soothe. 

I wish it would take.  Instead, I just feel as though someone has gone over and over my nerves with a file.  I suppose it's just change.  Change or the fact that at every moment of the past week, there has been somebody in my room who needed me for something.  I love those people, wanted to see some of them very, very much, but because of my natural introverted wiring, I now feel so overly-sensitive inside that I  feel twitchy.  I don't understand why I get that way, but when I am constantly surrounded with no down time, it happens. 

I need to go back to the school tomorrow, but I don't know that I can stand it.  The big stuff is all in place for Monday, and maybe I can get the details in order for the rest of the week on Monday itself.  I really and truly need a day just to take my camera and be anonymous somewhere. 

Giraffes Make Me Smile

Which is, incidentally, the name of a collection I put together on Etsy.  I wanted to share this guy with you specially, though. Doesn't he have attitude?  I think he's fantastic.  If you read the artist's description, he gets into talking about why giraffes make good fashion models.  It's amusing.  This particular guy's sort of haughty, amused expression reminds me just a little of somebody I know.  Maybe that's why he is particularly appealing to me.  Maybe it's because he's not a "cutsie" raffe.  I'm not altogether sure.  I just thought he was bloggable.  If you like him, click here and go support the artist.

Simple Pleasures

I didn't feel good today. I'm having a sick day, and I started to spend it all on the couch.  This is the last weekend before the rigmarole of school starts, and I haven't had much of a summer to recover in.  However, the theater I love was going to show another classic movie, so I dragged it all together and went to town.

I was so glad that I did.  The movie was fun, Thoroughly Modern Millie.  It was interesting to see the 1960s take on the 1920.  Those two eras colliding was a happy trainwreck.  It was cute, funny, comedic, and mushy romantic with a nice happy ending.  Just exactly what I needed today.  The music was fun, too. 

As always, I loved the theater, and this time, I took my camera with me.  I got a couple of interior shots, but they didn't come out very well.  I will try again next time I go, maybe.  The lighting is really, really bad in there for photography, and I felt exceptionally conspicuous running around with the camera. 

After I got out of the theater, I decided that since I had my camera with me I'd try to get a few of the things in downtown that I hadn't got yet but wanted.  One of the shots required me to get on the pedestrian walkway of an overpass bridge to shoot it.  The access to that walkway is behind a bunch of old mostly empty buildings downtown next to the train tracks.  Going there was not my smartest moment. 

I checked carefully under the overpass for traces of people.  Nobody was living there or hanging out there, and I thought I could get up, get the shot, and get back around the block since there was nobody around.  That was just stupid.  While I was up, some miscellaneous guy walked out of one of the empty buildings about halfway down the block and strolled down under the overpass.  I waited, but he never came out the other side.  He also didn't come up onto the pedestrian path.  I came part of the way down the stairs and looked.  He was just standing under the overpass smoking. 

I got out my cellphone, called somebody and told them where I was and told them what was going on as I headed down.  I figured that even if I had to run for it, I would be able to make it.  It was a short block.  I stayed on the phone, and he just watched me go. 

It was silly of me to do what I did.  I keep thinking every place is safe, when I suppose, almost no place is these days.  I put myself into situations without thought, and then, suddenly, I look around and realize that I probably never should have been there in the first place.  My guardian angel certainly has to work overtime.

On the other hand, that guy may have been perfectly harmless.  Maybe he just liked to hang out under bridges.  I hate this world we live in sometimes, where everybody always has to be thinking all the time of every person around us as a threat. 

Kodachrome

Doesn't this make you want to take it in your hand and capture something?  Isn't there something fundamentally appealing about its shape, its color, the function for which it was designed?  This vintage Kodak Brownie is for sale on Etsy, so if it makes you happy, too, you might go pick it up.  The price is very reasonable. All the others you see in this blog are also from Etsy, too.  If you click their images, you should be able to go to their listing, I think....

These vintage cameras are very cheap right now, most of them costing less than $25, and I'm thinking of collecting a few just for the beauty of them.  I love vintage items, love the stories that cling to them, and cameras somehow seem as though they might have some of the happiest stories to tell, I think.  Maybe it's all the trips and birthdays, weddings and holidays they've seen....  Now, though, they seem a little sad to me sitting and waiting to be purchased, sort of like something waiting to be rescued and reclaimed, slightly scuffed around the edges, but still waiting with that cheerful smile to be picked up again.

So many of them have been abandoned not because they no longer work but because they've become victims of the great march of technology.  While many of them are still functional, the film they were made to use no longer exists.  In fact, the film most of the cameras that use it were designed to use is becoming a historical notation instead of a part of daily life.

I recently upgraded my camera equipment from a film body Nikon to a digital one (which you know if you read this blog very much).  That change was partially one I made because of the ease of dealing with digital images, but it was in no small degree one that was increasingly necessary.  Film is getting hard to find.

It has always been hard to deal with.  Whenever images were shot, I, a person with less control of my camera than I should have, always had to pray that the shot was there.  With the digital, I can more or less know.   Getting the film to the processor and then remembering to pick it up was also a hassle.  Now, I can also be my own photo studio for prints that aren't archival, and that's a wonderful thing, too, since the vast majority of what I do with my photos are use them in digital media anyway.

The change is universal.  Everywhere that film once reigned is slowly becoming digital.  I noticed that even things like x-ray at hospitals and in dentistry that used to produce large film negatives have gone to all digital images instead.  For them, I suppose digital is probably instant, modifiable, electronically archiveable and shareable in a way that hard copy film is not.  I think that is largely good.

And yet, I couldn't help but feel a little sad when I saw the NPR article about the end of Kodak's production of the famous slide film Kodachrome.  It was inevitable with so many people, so many professional photographers even, using only digital cameras.  This is just another step toward an altogether filmless world.  There are already so many little orphans out there like the cameras I'm showing here that no longer have a place as technology advances.  Indeed, my beloved F80 lies with its body cap attached, its strap wrapped neatly, in the bottom of its gear bag, another more recent casualty of the same process.  I guess time has to march on, but it makes me a little sad and nostalgic all the same.  I think a collection of these bright curving cameras would be a nice way to commemorate what's gone before, repurpose and honor them, give them a way to continue to share all those smiles they captured during their years of useful service.

All Is Well

The surgery is done, and Dad is now in the CRU recovering.  We are hopeful that with this, all the pain he's been having with every step is going to disappear, and he can start to return to full activity again.  He's hurting now from the procedure itself, but he already seems better than he did this morning before he went in.  I think it's just the knowing that the actual surgery itself is done now, the part we all feared is over and now the healing can begin. 

For all my fear yesterday, I felt so calm this morning when I woke up.  I just knew somehow that things were going to be okay.  Everyone I met at the hospital today just reinforced that.  I felt blessed.  I still do.  I think I'll sleep tonight and sleep well.  This is the first time I'm saying this in more than a month.  It feels good to say.  It will feel even better to experience.

The Night Before

Stress is winding me up like D.'s guitar strings on that old Martin of his.  Keep turning that tuning key, and sooner or later, even metal snaps....

I went to get lunch for the family today at a local Quizno's.  On the interstate, there was a terrible wreck.  A pickup truck had overturned somehow, completely flipped and crushed the front portion of the cab.  I don't know if the people inside survived or not.  I can't see how they did, if they did.  It was in the eastbound lane and I was headed west.  It had happened not long before I came through.  I cried the whole way to get the food.  Nobody should die on I-20 on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  Or any other time.

I know I'm on edge because of Dad's surgery tomorrow.  Everything has been putting me on the verge of tears:  those poor unknown people in that truck, the last prayer at church tonight when they unexpectedly mentioned Daddy by name, everything. 

I played "I Must Tell Jesus" for my offertory, and every note of it was the truth, every note of it was a prayer.  I cannot bear these burdens alone.  In a few hours, I'll be getting up to start this new day, whatever this new day is going to be.  I'll have to get my mask out, dust it off, and put it on very carefully for the rest of my family and for all the strangers who will be around.  It will be a massive effort of ignoring elephants made of worry standing in the middle of tiny rooms.  It's all I know to do. 

Time to try to sleep.

Typewriter

After being inspired by items on Etsy, I decided that I wanted to try to take some photos of meaningful objects.  I decided to start with my mother's old typewriter.  I found it out in the storage van here at the house.  It's an old Underwood.  Her office was right next to my bedroom when I lived in their house, and the desk she kept that typewriter on was on the wall the two rooms shared. 

If you've ever heard anybody type on an old-fashioned manual typewriter, you know they have a very distinctive sound.  Mom could type very fast on it.  I woke many mornings to the percussion of that Underwood coming through the wall, including the light ding of the bell indicating the carriage return was needed.  She fought the computer revolution a long, long time, not even switching over to an electric typewriter until long after I graduated from high school.

I was fairly happy with the pictures. I left most of them natural, but as you can see, I took one of them and modified the crap out of it just to see what I could make. I may use them as a computer background or on a journal cover or something.  They may not be very artistic, but they satisfy me because I know the backstory.  I think that's the most important thing.

Excuse Me, Please.....

I did try to mow the grass today.  Really.  I ventured out into the oppressive heat, went out and got the Husqvarna ready, and turned and turned the key.  Nothing.  Whatever has been keeping it from starting quickly has graduated to keeping it from starting altogether, and not all my cursing it and futile flailing at what parts of it I knew were safe to wiggle and adjust did any good.  Tomorrow, it will go on the new trailer my parents bought when they got their RTV and it's going to some repair shop somewhere.  I'm tired of playing lawnmower roulette every time I need to mow anyway.

After that fell through, I decided to refill my birdfeeders.  I did that, but it was so hot that I got overwhelmed with it.  Topamax reduces my tolerance to heat dramatically, and I haven't been out in the heat lately much, either, so I went to sit in my lawnchair for awhile after I got all the birdfeeders filled and the big storage container for the leftover seed stored again.  I brought out my red Camelback bottle full of ice water to try to cool down some, and I sat and read for a little while. 

I was sitting there reading, and all of a sudden, a hummingbird came zooming up at my elbow to inspect the Camelback.  He levitated there a minute, kind of stabbed at it lightly with his beak, and gave me a look before flying off.  Well, inasmuch as a hummingbird can be said to give someone a look, anyway.  There was definitely frustration in him.  I had to laugh.  It was funny in a sad way.  My feeders were all empty, and I guess that was his subtle way of trying to tell me to get off my backside and do something about it.  Hummingbirds are so feisty.

After I cooled down, I went in and filled the new feeders I got to replace the ratty, faded, broken old ones.  I had just about enough time to get them up on their hooks and get out of the way before the feathered parade began.  It was good to see.  I'll try to be more careful about that so they have full feeders from now on.  I'm scared to think about what they might do if I don't.  I'm picturing having to run a gauntlet to get to the car in the mornings....

It's as If It Were Made for Me

I need this.  On payday, I think I'll have it.  Especially if you read the description, it sort of sounds like something I'd say/do.  Plus, how can you resist the giraffe?  Too funny.  I love Etsy.

The Amazing Disappearing Past

I went out to take pictures today.  That Nikon calls to me almost constantly.  I had the same issue when I lived in Japan.  Of course there, you could pretty much close your eyes, point the camera in a random direction and push the button and get something interesting on film.  I routinely just got on a train and went on photo trips.  If I also came back with some pottery in my backpack, too, well, that was just a hazard of living in Japan, wasn't it?  I have tons of photos from Japan.  Travel was easy, history was everywhere, and the sorts of things I enjoy photographing, the old, the odd, the rare, and the sacred, abounded.

Here, it's a little trickier.  The South is like Japan in so many ways that it actually becomes frightening after awhile.  That comparison is a whole "nother" blog, though, so I'll leave it alone for now.  Suffice it to say, it should in theory at least be easy to find the sorts of things I appreciate shooting here, too.  But, outside of a few things that I knew I would be able to get because they are "Historic Landmarks" protected by megabucks and the strong, if largely inactive, arm of the Federal government, it hasn't been.  I noticed today that the things I love are disappearing.   Things I should have been able to find, signs, whole buildings even, are gone now.  Even here, in my lovely backwards rural South, everything is becoming homogenized, streamlined, sanitized.  Progress is marching forward with its steel-spiked jackboots.

The town I work in has an absolute embarrassment of history in it.  At one time, it was the largest city in the Southeastern United States.  It was a rival to, and even at certain brief moments in its glory days, surpassed, Atlanta.  I don't think one in five people here know that.  Traces of it, only traces are visible.  Actually, there is a lot of it left, much that could be unearthed, restored, reclaimed, shown off, revitalized as so many places I've been are doing.  Here, though, nobody much except for a local university seems to be interested in that in a big way.  It's puzzling.  What the hell are they planning to do with all that, then? 

The downtown area is chock-full of buildings that should be chock-full of businesses, professionals, restaurants, and so on. Yet, the businesses in the downtown area are ephemeral.  Very few of them manage to stay open long.  Just as one begins to get attached, they disappear.  There are a few foundation businesses down there that have been open forever.  They cling with tenacious determination, but even they are not immune.  I noticed a sign on one of the oldest in town, in business for 185 years, that they are "quitting business," their massive four-story building now going to be another of the blank-eyed ghosts staring out in quiet desperation.

I don't know much about business to be sure.  I will be the first to tell you that I have no head for money at all.  Look at the sad tragedy that is my personal finances.  However, I do know this:  every town that I've ever been in that has been vibrant, active, and pulling itself out of what I loosely term "urban slump" for lack of something more creative has been making the effort to do something with its past. and not just slam a giant wrecking ball through it or leave it to fall down bit by bit.  There has to be some solution.  Otherwise, how are all these other places doing it?

The Japanese valued both progress and tradition.  They might have a 500 year old temple nestled next to a highrise apartment complex that was just put up this year.  They know how to balance both and are interested in the preservation of both, at least as far as physical things go, exceedingly well.  They understand that the past helps to define a people, that it is worth looking at whether it is bad or good.

I don't think we do that as well here.  I don't know if it's because we have so much less history, because we have history that is full of so much strife (although, granted, Japan's has not been a cakewalk), or because we are still trying to figure out what our working definition of ourselves is, something Japan pretty much had nailed down a couple of centuries before we sewed together the first flag that flew over our infant nation on the day of its birth.  We frequently have to have our own history pointed out to us.  Things reach a point of total ruination before somebody sweeps in to "save" it or form some kind of restoration society to preserve it. Meanwhile, everybody sort of sits around going, "Gosh, that old thing was important/valuable/nice?  Who knew?  We were going to put the cows/tractor/hay in it/burn it down." 

I just hope we can find a way to reach that balance here.  Not just for the photographs or the economy, either.  Mostly I hope so because I think that one day, if we keep going the way we are, we're going to wind up wanting some of this stuff back again, and it's going to be gone for good.  Reconstructed history is nice, as far as it goes, but nothing compares to the reality of saving the authentic thing, especially when it's so possible to do if someone will just trouble to take the time and effort to imagine the beauty of it.