January 10th, 2017

If someone were to casually rifle through my photographs, they would see one clear theme. Lines.  I seem to be drawn to linear spaces.   I am innately tidy, so perhaps that's it. Or maybe it's the desire to find order in chaos.  Psychologically, I"m not certain what this deeply seated need is, but I cannot deny it.  

Arlene Alda is both writer and photographer.  One of her books, which I used to own and cherished, was an alphabet book. (another passion of mine...alphabet books, again linear).  She found with her camera, every letter of the alphabet each existing naturally.   I don't recall exactly, but for example, the "A" was perhaps the support for a table. The "O" a whorl in a tree.  It was a delightful book and I was sorry to see it go but in the clear out before we moved I donated all of my alphabet books to a children's reading program.

The point here is, that you find what you seek.  I read everyday in the newspaper such awful things.  I am not talking about the factual happening but the opinion pages, the  op-ed pieces.  Everyone slamming everyone else and the horse they rode in on.  I wonder how much of that is seeking the bad.  My Nana, a very wise woman, used to say that if you look for the bad, you will find it. There is plenty of it out there, but if you look for the good, you will find that too. It may be a little harder at first, but it's there.

I'm a "look for the good" person most of the time. The glass half full lady.  When I meet new people for the first time, the vast majority of the time, I start out intending to like them.  If, over time, they prove to be less than stellar individuals, it's disappointing but it doesn't change my approach. Or maybe they are perfectly lovely people, just not someone I have enough in common with.  Most people are nice. The only question really is do you "click" or not.  That's how people become friends, it's chemistry really.  You fit together, or you don't.  You cannot hammer that piece of the puzzle into place and declare it a perfect fit, becaue it's not.  There are usually loads of very nice people around you that just aren't your cup of tea. Doesn't make them bad people. Just not your people.  That's respectful.  Declaring them awful people because you don't especially like them, is not respectful.

I get a little testy when someone says to me, "Don't you just hate X".  X could be an ethnic group, a religious group, an entire gender or any other collection of people that have something in common.  My standard answer is, "I haven't met every single X on the planet. Have you?" And of course they haven't. I do not like being referred to collectively.  I can't imagine anyone else would either.  We are individuals who share things in common with other people.

I'm a woman, like these people. I'm short like those people. I have blue eyes like that group. I wear glasses like these folks. I have some German ancestors, but also some English. I live in Florida but I was born in Illinois. I'm a writer but I'm also a baker.  By the time you group and re-group people they have been shuffled around more times than a deck of cards in Vegas.

So the fact that I like taking pictures of lines is only a teensy part of who I am. 

Look for the good, it's there, I promise.