Photo: L. Weikel

Things Look Different

I took the two photos I’m including in tonight’s post within less than a minute of each other. The only change was the use of the zoom on my iPhone. While I do this a lot with a vast majority of the subjects I photograph – zoom in and out to see how much detail I can capture or what the big picture might tell about context – tonight’s two photos really caught my eye. Things look different.

Perhaps it’s just my mind struggling to make sense of the latest revelations billowing across the airwaves. Hearing our president admit, knowing he was being taped, that he was warned back in January of the colossal impact and likely devastation the Coronavirus was going to bring to our country. Hearing him relate to Bob Woodward in an eerily breathy and awestricken voice just how deadly and easily transmissible the virus is. And then recalling him telling us day after day the exact opposite of what he knew to be true.

It’s a lot.

And tonight’s clouds just felt like a darn good metaphor for what’s being revealed.

On the one hand, close up one can almost feel a bit of optimism. There’s some blue sky within the cross-hatch of the clouds, a bit of clarity. But if you look at the clouds a little more carefully, it’s as if they’re at cross purposes. Some seem clearly heading one way in the sky and another patch, almost within the realm of the first patch, seem intent on heading in the opposite direction.

Cross Purposes

One might imagine the view of the sky, if taken from a wider, more expansive perspective, might reveal even more hope; a bit more blue sky. More options.

Usually, when we ‘stop and take a step back’ we find some sense of reassurance or perspective.

I didn’t feel that tonight, especially when I got home and looked more carefully at the two photos. Nor did I feel it when I paid attention for the first time tonight to the latest ‘breaking news’ in what has become a fire hose of ugly revelations. But the thing is, the revelations are not a total surprise. If you were paying attention, the clouds at cross purposes were there all along.

We wanted to focus on the slivers of blue sky, the stark and dramatic outlines of the trees along the horizon.

If we’d adjusted our sights, taken a step back, we just might have caught wind of the blanket of darkness escaping our perception.

Then again, on second thought, perhaps it all looks rather bleak.

Photo: L. Weikel

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