Adulthood
No use to run to the camera while crimson lights up a cloud bank on the eastern horizon. It never looks right. Maybe, you wonder, with some enhancement, some manipulation of hue and saturation, you could get it there. “Here, look at this one Jim!” And you could learn to live with that. That bit of sweetening for concealment, just this side of consciousness; a good stones throw from being obvious. Like a bit of padding or cinching under your clothes. A minor fudge on your resume. A few seconds of silence that lends credence to your professor’s falsehood. Sooner be accepted under false pretext than live with rejection — we apprentice personal subterfuge. Nothing overt. Just enough camouflage to escape question, just enough rouge to be let into the club. How refreshing then — adulthood. No matter how old. Content to stay in your morning chair and watch the colours run their course without the need for a filter. How healing then, released from the straining tensions of slightly twisted truths, is learning to live with the ongoing and regular disappointments of life.
Just wanted you to know that this was profound and moving. Thank you.
Thank you so much Kellie!
This piece resonated with simple but soul freeing truth! Thank-you Stephen.
Grateful for your kind words Carol!
Yes, yes, yes!
Though as a photographer, I tweak photos to make them look like what I actually saw. Or was it what I remember seeing? The camera is not as gifted as the eye! Nor can even perfectly tweaked photos sub for the real experience. So these days I’m doing little curating of frozen images and more actual mindful “presence”.
Which is your point, I believe. Thank you.
Yes indeed. Thanks Joyce! And I love your photos.
Thank you. I keep trying to capture that pink in the camera. I mustn’t have quite gained adulthood my friend.
Smiling here! Thanks Ana Lisa.
I reach for the thesaurus to craft a reply and then – well, thank you!
Ha! Thanks Ray!
really just a soft spreading smile,
and a deep
sigh…
of gratitude
Thank you so much Tamara!
Thanks a lot Steve! Just as I thought that maybe, in my advanced and grizzled years, I was getting there, I recognize myself somewhere in the middle of this piece! Why is growing up so hare and why does it take so long??
Thank you! And good questions… why indeed.