Against the Wind

Last night after bridge a couple friends and I stopped at a local wine bar, and enjoyed the quiet older crowd long enough to drink our martinis.

I looked up and a beautiful girl was standing beside me. When I registered no recognition, she asked, “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

It was Erin L–. She was a bit in her cups and a magnificently beautiful woman. I’d not seen her for more than 10 years, since her mother, a dear friend of mine died. Her children are now of an age to be graduating from high school. She’s stayed single after her marriage exploded immediately after her mother died. I went to bed praying for her, and got up praying for her. I saw a fragility that moved me to near tears. I hope I saw something that wasn’t there.

Meanwhile, a camera image. This is the sort of portrait I would like to do a lot of. There are a couple others I took at the same time. The camera doesn’t steal the soul of the person, but a photo taken after the posing is done captures a lot more of the person. JM just exudes the quiet determination that is her hallmark. Even a photo that only shows a small bit of her face, displays the focused attention. We want photos that show us as we wish we were, no signs of aging or wear. But it is the aging that makes people much more interesting to me. A beautiful young person is a gift from God. The aging person is truly becoming the soul that God meant them to be.

I’ve got a half formulated blog/essay coming later. This will have to do for now.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.