Questionable Signs Around Town


Last year I decided to bring this murti of Kuan Yin outside. I asked my neighbor if it was ok, as her parents came here from China, . My neighbor welcomed this presence in the space between our yards and also appreciated that I asked.

I didn’t buy a coffee mug, but I did take the picture. If only remembering was as easy as buying a souvenir. Memory, though, it much more ephemeral. I’ll remember this day. Sometimes I will deliberately recall it. Sometimes, images will come unbidden as something triggers a memory, just as the solicitation by a friend last week to support an orphanage in Peru brought back the thought of 9/11. I had been in Peru at the retreat center that supports the orphanage when the planes hit the World Trade Center. I hope for news tomorrow of the imminent closing of Guantanamo to start reshaping our relationship to 9/11.
As I was leaving a holiday gathering tonight, my host saw me standing on the front stoop pointing the Blackberry at a somewhat awkward side angle. “What are you taking a picture of?” he asked. “The moon and the lights,” I replied, wishing that I could get the composition more balanced, but the row of houses was in the way.
I did not say, “I am taking a photo of the human yearning for light, for beauty, for control of the environment, shown in tandem with the glory of the moon,” but I am sure that once I showed him the photo, my host knew what I had not put into words.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.