A river illustrates what is meaningful about your life, your past and your true identity. I think this ability to speak to deeper, more abstract issues, is one reason that art can be worth contemplation.
Reflect on the Rocky River
The Rocky River is at its best when water levels are low and moving slowly. It gets incredibly clear, and appears to be shallow enough to wade across in many places. Due to its sheltering banks, it is glass smooth in places, especially on still mornings like the one when I took the images that make up this panorama.
Unfortunately, we have trammeled it. Our trash has snagged in its trees, especially plastic bags and fishing line. Our stuff liters its banks: cans, brickbats, broken glass, bits of plastic, shards of ceramic, rusty objects of indeterminate origin.
I remove these digitally and sometimes physically because I want to show what it is underneath what has happened to it. Except when I don’t.
I leave them in when the river has made them beautiful. Glass and ceramic, it accepts as its own shale and makes them rounded and smooth.
Considering our pasts
Are we not also littered with the detritus of life events — things other people tried to cast off? And do we not feel in our bones that it is not who or what we really are? It is true.
You are not what has happened to you. There is someone underneath that.
You are not your past. Though you can make some of it into something beautiful.
May your banks become clean, your water calm and clear. Rise early and go see what the river has to show you. May you find those who can see what you are underneath and appreciate what you’ve made out of your past.
More
Does this work? I’m just kind of thinking out loud about what makes some images compelling… the way that we connect all of these layers of meaning to what we see. The elemental image becomes rich with connotation, nuance, detail, personal and cultural significance.
Let me know what you think in comments or on Twitter.
If you like what I’m doing also check out my galleries here.
And check out my Instagram and Twitter. That’s where I post stuff a little smaller and quite a bit more frequently.