Week 10 — A World of Magic

Week 10/52

I sat around on tuesday, thinking that exhausted as I was, I didn't have a proper theme or setting for this week's photo. I was starting to panic a bit, because by tuesday I usually have a theme and a scheme for the photo, and this week I had nilch. Nada. Zero. So I asked myself what was the most important issue in my mind at the moment, and came up with two things: my little sister's surgery next week, and my novel.

I decided to write a Lent novel as a catharsis. When I allowed myself to go down last fall, I stopped reading, I stopped doing any of the things I normally did. But as I got better, I realized I could measure it by my reading; the more I read, the better i felt. I'm back to a minimum of one novel per week, and I absolutely love it. And I'm back to writing, which is an inefable relief, since I hadn't been able to do it for a while.

Words have been my weapon of wield since long before photography. When I still didn’t know I wanted to be a photographer, I knew I would spend my life writing, even if it was as a hobby. There’s a quality in words, which is almost... other worldly. This is what this shot is about, the magic that comes from a book or a fairytale. Images can stunn you at first, and make you think, and make your stomach bubble with joy or emotion, but words? Words, when properly arranged, can take you out of this reality, and throw you into something so much better. Or so much worse, if that’s your thing. Both things change us, and they’re both important. They complement each other; words go where the image can’t, and when you run out of them, the beauty of a graphic representation steps in.

One thing I ask of God is that He allow me to keep my innocence and my ability to be marveled by art. To be swept off my feet by a simple image, to feel that flutter in my stomach when I read the first paragraph of The End of the Affair, or to get teary eyed when I listen to Vivaldi’s Gloria. That innocence, I think, is what is always going to bring me back, put me back on my feet. Because as long as there’s art, I’m safe.

And don't forget to enter my print giveaway!

Week 9 — A Belief System

What do you believe in? Do you believe in angels? Do you believe in fate? Do you believe that you're destined to do something, that you were put upon this Earth to perform one specific task, to learn one specific skill? Do you believe in God? Do you believe in many gods, or in one alone? Do you believe in Jesus, or Mohammed, or Buda or any other perceived diety? Do you believe in good and evil? Do you believe that life is black and white, or do you stand for the shades of grey? Do you believe in salvation? Do you believe in the religious version of salvation, or the human kind, the kind where people redeem themselves? Do you believe in second chances? Do you believe in fate telling you something when you see someone passing you by on the street? Do you believe in love, or do you believe in the chemistry that goes on in the brain that makes the world go fuzzy and all the songs make sense? Do you believe in passion, and do you think it can be as destructive as obsession? Do you believe in the good in people? Do you believe they can do bad things when they're fundamentally good? Do you believe in sin? Do you believe in forgiveness. Would you forgive? Would you forget? Do you believe in new beginnings? Do you believe in baggage preventing you from getting that new beginning? Do you believe in the goodness of life?

And the most important question of all, do you have faith? Not just in God or religion, but do you have faith in life, in love and in the people around you?

(and yes, I do.)

----