From the sky the wakes of boats spread out like the long tails of comets.
Ancient Chinese texts refer to comets as broom stars and associate them with the sweeping away of old things and the assimilation of the new. And so here we are faced with massive changes in the world around us. Do we hold tightly onto the old or embrace the new?
I didn't have a choice when my old heart gave out. I had to embrace my new heart and forge a new life for myself. A big part of the new for me has been spreading my wings, camera in hand and making meaning of the world around me from above and beyond.
I've named each of the photos in this essay after particular comets whose tails matched (loosely) to particular boat wakes. I find it fascinating how different cultures place meaning to imagery, for example the Indo-Aryan peoples who lived around 1500 BC associated a comet with a fig tree whose aerial roots have spread out in the sky. Some of these boat wakes could easily fit this imagery too, don't you think.
Questions, or comments? Drop me a line:
:: Rand
Look closely at this last photo. Just off the left hand piece of land, beyond the lighthouse, are a group of surf skis - in keeping with the celestial theme of this essay could these be seen as a meteor shower, which the ancients often associated with comets?