It's a travesty

There is a great travesty in our culture today...

I performed an exercise a long time ago that irritated my friends immensely. Two of my friends and I, Jason and LJ, took a trip to the north shore of Lake Superior. And as we went trail riding, at every interesting bend of the trail, every scenic outlook, and even when we passed a random, spectacular flower, I stopped, pulled out my notepad, and did a rough sketch.

It was frustrating to them, it turned a 2 hour trail ride into an entire morning. stopping every 100 yards for several minutes at a time. But there was method to this madness, motivation behind my quirk -- it forced me to truly observe, to truly see the grandeur of the place around me. The river's path was guided by the rocks, yet the river had cut its path in ages past. And now it's swirls and flows were always changing yet predictable in their pattern. The trees were growing into the crevices, yet their roots both filled the cracks and had formed the cracks. The lichen grew on the bark and the nests were built in the branches. The foliage grew at the roots and the underbrush along the ground.

Now I am in the middle of California. Truly one of the most spectacular places I have been. There are mountains to the east and mountains to the west, formed by ages of erosion. Palm trees grow beneath Redwoods. And my instinct is to take a snapshot on my phone.

This is the travesty of which I write. I observe the world not through my eyes, but through my camera. A glance at the mountains becomes a view through a phone's lens, becomes a picture posted to facebook, and I move on. A passing glance and I think "This will be a great picture."

The travesty is that the picture never captures the grandeur of reality. I have never seen a photo match the spectacle of its subject. I have seen grand photos -- wonderful in color, tone, composition, balance. But they stand amazing as a work in and of themselves, separate from the subject from which they come.

And so I may take a few pictures and post to facebook, but I do so not to show off the beauty around me, but that the pictures be a memento to remind me of the incredible landscape, and a stake in the ground saying "I was here."

And then I found 20 dollars.