Thoughts, tarnished by time, rushed into full awareness. With fingers bitten by frost he used his Canonet QL17 Rangefinder camera to capture vivid wilderness scenes.
See what you made me do! Back when “digital” meant “Of, or like, digits” or referred to the fingers on our hands, cameras were loaded with film. And sometimes protested the cold like someone’s ankles recently. During a winter backpacking trip I kept the camera tucked inside layers of garments to guard against slowed shutters or brittle film that refused to wind. When needed, time outside the garment womb was kept to a minimum for critical shots. I also learned that the cold camera could quickly condense body moisture once back inside. So it had to remain there a good while to give up its condensation.
The ethereal image quality of your shadows on the asphalt was a nice lead to your newsletter today. The “worth a thousand words” easily comes to mind, and what followed came close! As I entered young adulthood (and sometimes still there on any given day) my view of writers was basically that those who babbled on in polysyllabic fashion were “the” writers and the best avoided the pitfalls of excess emotion.
Today? Not so much. I once read a critic commenting on Ernest Hemingway’s approach in his early days. That EH would sometimes labor for hours, even days, to craft five or six one or two syllable words into a sentence with the profound, exact impact on his readers that he sought. Using that approach, The Encyclopedia Brittanica might have become one volume covering everything from A-Z!
And my point? There is a point: the kaleidoscope of ideas and words and images today registered like a Christmas present for me. Sorry for my lump of coal in your stocking…
I came across a quote from Pope Francis this week… “Where there is no work, there is no dignity.”
I discussed the quote with a friend yesterday and commented that we tend to associate work with monetary compensation. What I often wonder about these days is all of the people who are challenged to find joy in the jobs that compensate them financially.
Seth Godin would call it “cog” work. Some can do cog work and find meaning in the value provided because of monetary compensation — able to care for family, able to fund meaningful hobbies.
And perhaps other people have lost a sense of meaning because their only feeling of compensation is about money and not Quality? Lacking dignity?
Thoughts, tarnished by time, rushed into full awareness. With fingers bitten by frost he used his Canonet QL17 Rangefinder camera to capture vivid wilderness scenes.
See what you made me do! Back when “digital” meant “Of, or like, digits” or referred to the fingers on our hands, cameras were loaded with film. And sometimes protested the cold like someone’s ankles recently. During a winter backpacking trip I kept the camera tucked inside layers of garments to guard against slowed shutters or brittle film that refused to wind. When needed, time outside the garment womb was kept to a minimum for critical shots. I also learned that the cold camera could quickly condense body moisture once back inside. So it had to remain there a good while to give up its condensation.
The ethereal image quality of your shadows on the asphalt was a nice lead to your newsletter today. The “worth a thousand words” easily comes to mind, and what followed came close! As I entered young adulthood (and sometimes still there on any given day) my view of writers was basically that those who babbled on in polysyllabic fashion were “the” writers and the best avoided the pitfalls of excess emotion.
Today? Not so much. I once read a critic commenting on Ernest Hemingway’s approach in his early days. That EH would sometimes labor for hours, even days, to craft five or six one or two syllable words into a sentence with the profound, exact impact on his readers that he sought. Using that approach, The Encyclopedia Brittanica might have become one volume covering everything from A-Z!
And my point? There is a point: the kaleidoscope of ideas and words and images today registered like a Christmas present for me. Sorry for my lump of coal in your stocking…
Your opening paragraph! Nicely cobbled!
Thank you for sharing your appreciation.
I came across a quote from Pope Francis this week… “Where there is no work, there is no dignity.”
I discussed the quote with a friend yesterday and commented that we tend to associate work with monetary compensation. What I often wonder about these days is all of the people who are challenged to find joy in the jobs that compensate them financially.
Seth Godin would call it “cog” work. Some can do cog work and find meaning in the value provided because of monetary compensation — able to care for family, able to fund meaningful hobbies.
And perhaps other people have lost a sense of meaning because their only feeling of compensation is about money and not Quality? Lacking dignity?
I’ll keep pondering…