I walked around the lake I live near, a place I've walked hundreds
of times, but I looked at everything with a much more philosophical perspective
than usual. In the last year, I've been thinking a lot about personal identity
and people's perception of myself and others and what that means to me. That
pretty clearly shows itself in my thoughts on the things that I saw. I’m not
really one for taking pictures, so there aren’t that many, but I did think
about each one for a very long time as I walked.
I saw this tree and the first thing I thought of was hope. Even though most of the branches look like they're dying, there's one branch that's holding on. With all the stress I've had in the last few years, I feel a lot like a tree that's supposed to be "evergreen" but is starting to turn brown. However, this made me remember that, no matter how brown and wilted I get, there’s always hope waiting to grow.
This shrub thing makes me laugh whenever I see it because 1) it's
always just a little bit off kilter and 2) it almost always has a rogue branch
growing out of it, which throws the whole look off. It makes me think
about how, no matter what the people around us want us to be, they can never
take away everything. Someway, somehow, one branch of our true form will come
out. God made each person unique, and no one is ever going to fit the pattern
that society has for him or her. However, sometimes (most times) I feel like I
have to fit a certain shape that people think is me, when really their perception
of me comes from remnants of who I used to be when they first met me. I've
changed a great deal over the years, and I wish that I could let it out without
fear, but I usually get too scared to.
This fence was the most recent casualty of the local tavern
letting obviously inebriated people drive. The fence did nothing but its job,
and now it’s a mangled mess. This made me think about how people knock others
down for no apparent reason and how much damage that can do. Just like drunk
driving is one of the most selfish and reckless things a person can do, many
people selfishly tear others down when they don’t feel right so they can feel
better about themselves. I see it happen all the time, and I always want to
yell at the person being hurtful to open their eyes and see how much harm they've
been causing. I don’t think many people stop to truly consider the far reaching
implications of their actions, but it seems that that’s all I ever do.
I’m not quite sure why, but this rock struck me as interesting. It
made me think about the old saying “A rolling stone gathers no moss” which has
several meanings, but which I’ve always taken as a continuation of society’s
love of constant action. People feel like they perpetually have to be doing
SOMETHING in order to make something of themselves. I’ve tried to live like
that, and I can tell you right now that it’s EXHAUSTING. I burned out so
quickly that it was ridiculous and it took me so long to recover from that. I understand
now that sometimes gathering a little moss isn’t the worst thing in the world.
God gave us the Sabbath day for a reason, and I’ve learned the hard way what
happens when you don’t take it.
This last picture is of the lake where I spent countless hours of
my younger years splashing around and feeding the ducks. Then one day I learned
that feeding the ducks is actually really bad for them and even later a drunken
man drowned in the lake. I haven’t been down into the lake since I was about
seven years old because of that. Even though I love the memories I made there
with my family, now it’s just a public boat launch like it always was.
Sometimes when I look at the lake, I wish I could go back to the times where I
could feed the ducks in peace and not think about all the bad things that the
world holds. Unfortunately, I have to grow up and do things like go to college
and get a job- I can’t just be a little kid forever.
