‘It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves’
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible
My response to Day 8 of the WordPress Writing 101 course, in which we were asked to write a post as a letter.
I chose to write a letter, the old fashioned way.
To myself when I was eight.
The same age as is my son, today.
Enough said?
WordPress Writing 101 (November 2015): Day 8
This post is a combined response to ‘Day 7: Let social media inspire you’, last Tuesday’s prompt on the WordPress Writing 101 course (which asked us to respond to one from a selection of embedded tweets), and to the Daily Post Weekly photo challenge which this week asked us to share a photo that would make us forget the sad times, ‘this week, it’s all about revelling in a win’.
The prompt ‘Victory’.
I was about to do that.
And then, on Friday 13th things changed.
Again.
Shit, as they say, happens.
So, in responding to both prompts, this post goes a little ‘off piste’, as I used one of my own tweets and, decided to reflect on the concept of Victory in the light of recent events and my own experience.
On the morning of 7 July, 2005, I walked out from the door of my apartment and walked about 200m towards the London Undergound station at Edgware Road. For some reason I had a sudden change of mind, I decided to take the bus. Instead of walking straight on and down into the station to take the tube I normally took, I turned left and jumped aboard a bus. Moments later, well, moments later is now history. My decision to turn left meant I am not (yet) history.
Both of these photos were taken from the balcony of our apartment in London.
For days afterwards, weeks, months, sleep was impossible, the streets were closed, within a few hundred metres lay St Mary’s Hospital, London and Paddington Green Police Station.
That day in London, the day after all of us who lived and worked in London had celebrated the ‘victory’ of being selected as the hosts of the 2012 Olympic Games, turned into a day from hell. A day in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured 700 more. A few days later, an innocent man was gunned down at an underground station because he was thought to be a terrorist.
Who is the victor here? The suicide bombers, who despite the intense security after 9/11 managed to evade the security put in place by a (once) powerful nation? The people of London (and I was one of them) who the next day defiantly boarded tube trains to show we would not be intimidated? The military personnel who guide drones to kill from the skies?
None of us.
There are no victors in this war.
The world will not be at peace until we find a way to resolve our differences.
WordPress Writing 101 (November 2015): Day 7
On Sunday, 14 June 2015, I launched my Project 365.
You can see all the images as they are posted to the mobile | mono | square album on my flickr account.
My plan, let’s see if I can stick to this, is to post a weekly update here each Sunday.
On Sunday, 14 June 2015, I launched my Project 365.
You can see all the images as they are posted to the mobile | mono | square album on my flickr account.
My plan, let’s see if I can stick to this, is to post a weekly update here each Sunday.
‘I tended to worry when there was nothing to worry about. And when there was something to worry about, i got drunk.’
― Charles Bukowski, Pulp
His throat burned, bile rising, tension building, heart racing.
And the dogs howled, snarled.
His feet pounded, blisters rising, legs screaming, ready to quit.
Terror building inside him.
The steps rose ahead of him, his legs ready to fold, his lungs ready to burst. He ran hard up the steps, twisting, turning. The snarling hounds fast behind him.
He reached the top.
Stumbled into the bus shelter. Collapsed on to the bare metal bench. Pulled his coat tight around him. Reached into his pocket.
It was still there.
The list.
Crumpled, tattered, torn.
The list that could save him. He knew it could. It must. It held the answer. The only answer.
He had read it a hundred times. It was all there, every detail. Each step he needed to take to be free.
He began to read, the first line, the first item on the list.
Hot fetid breath filled his nostrils, he felt the fangs slice into his face. The black eyes of the hound.
The last thing, he ever saw.
WordPress Writing 101 (November 2015): Day 2
“And a little of that sadness returned each year to him. It always went away with spring.
But, it was a little different tonight. There was a feeling of autumn coming to last a million years.
There would be no spring”
― Ray Bradbury, Long After Midnight
(for DP weekly photo challenge – treat)
(also for lucile’s photo 101 rehab)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens, in aperture priority mode all at f/1.4 with available light only and light touch edits in lightroom cc, life goes on, even after death, or worse*
“As a lifetime proposition, happiness is a discipline, no doubt; but for moments at a time, it’s a piece of luck. A piece of luck and a clue: a hint, not just of what might be, but of what already exists, in the heart of a man’s heart…”
― John Burnside, A Lie About My Father: A Memoir
happy places exist in spaces we can’t always place
sometimes we don’t have enough, space
and then, there
it is
that, place
(for wordpress weekly photo challenge – happy place)
“There is strong shadow where there is much light”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This post is a piece of *failed* homework.
The intention, to recreate the brilliance of this week’s Imagecraft Bootcamp – Shadow Recovery hosted by Mitch and Lucille.
My first challenge was to find a photo worth recovering – then I found this one, a memorable sunset over the rooftops of Amsterdam, taken on a very happy Photo 101 “meeting” earlier this year. There was alcohol involved hence the very poor quality of the original shot.
The second challenge was to edit the original shot in Lightroom CC following Mitch’s detailed instructions.
Of course, I am hopeless at following instructions, and, in common with many men, rarely ask for directions.
So, I gave up, and cheated by pushing the darkened image through HDR Efex Pro 2.
Not happy with the result particularly but at least my effort is better than the old *the dog ate my homework*.
Will try harder next time.
I promise.
(shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens at ISO200, 1/250s at f/8.0, edited in Lightroom CC and HDR Efex Pro 2)
“When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant we’d be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing.”
― Haruki Murakami
(tree, all low keyed up and waiting for me in a forest near tervuren…)
(for Imagecraft Bootcamp — Low Key Images, by Mitch and Lucile)
(also for Lucile’s photo 101 rehab)
*shot with nikon d700 and nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens at ISO220, 1/125s and f/4, absolutely not a single edit, serendipity*
andy townend 