Deep Thoughts on Seeing Things from the Saddle
Do you ever wish you could take a photo with your eyes and let someone see the world just as you did?
Maybe it was the way a group of birds scattered across the pink sky or a silvery sliver of the moon just making itself seen? Perhaps it was the way the setting sun was captured in the cupping of leaves blowing in the wind? I find very often that I want to pull over and capture what I’m looking at only to discover later on that the breadth and dimension of whatever that thing was – is absent from the photo.
Is that the “soul” that is missing? That intangible thing that breaths the life into something?
Beyond being able to capture the life that you observe in a photo ~ how many times can two people be in the same place at the same time and see things completely differently? Or maybe one of you didn’t see something at all?
This makes me think that seeing things goes way beyond just what you do with your eyes.
Deep thoughts for a Thursday after-dinner ride.
“Seeing things goes way beyond what you do with your eyes.” That nails it perfectly. Who you are also defines what you see. Or whether you see anything at all.
It’s always a treat to come across people who see things the same way that I do.
I love that title!!! Quire often I’ll be on a ride ( in my car…no bike) with my wife and I’ll point out the shadows on a silo and barn or the glow of the clouds. She doesn’t see it… I have come to realize that I see the world differently than she does. I still see it with the curious eyes of a child yet the perceptive mind of an adult.
Those of us blessed to see the world that way can only attempt to capture a part of it through the lens to share with others…and they may not get it.
I count myself blessed and grateful to see the world as I do and those life pictures are emblazoned in my mind never to be truly captured any other way. My personal cornucopia overflowing with a plethora of colorful images.
Thanks for making me think deeply this early Saturday morning!
Your first line really grabbed me. In short, yes, absolutely. I almost find myself deeply saddened that what I see when I’m out and about can’t truly be shared with my loved ones. I take my children out into the world whenever I can but I know they don’t see what I see. Nor do they tend to seek adventure where I would. Having said that, I can’t count the times they have found something I haven’t and been incomprehensibly excited by it. All to often this is as simple as a stick or unusual leaf. The fact that we see the same things and experience them differently is proof of what I was told and I want my children to know, that we are all wonderfully individual.
Great post. Thanks for getting me thinking.
I think that John touched on something essential: In photography and in words written and spoken… Heck, in art in general we have incredible tools for perceiving and interpreting and translating this seemingly absurd experience called life. Yet only each of us wholly is the perfect tool for uniquely perceiving life (You’re a tool!). Perhaps that’s why many of us conclude–sometimes having to repeatedly–that the primely valuable pursuit is to seek meaningful interaction with our fellow creatures. Why, then, can that alone be so blasted difficult to achieve? Curse you, paradox!!!
A thought-provoking post indeed, Fuzzy, and a lovely and fitting pic. Keep perceiving, keep interpreting, keep sharing.