This Picture Means So Much

We stood there looking down into the water. The weather was cold enough to make the sun's rays a physical reality, like walking in and out of a current of air. My father and I looked down in to the mouths of a thousand fish and shared a moment of amazement as pure as any since I was five.

We were nearing the end of our drive home from Arkansas and had stopped in St. Louis for the night. That morning, before we left the city, we hurried through some tourist stops and found ourselves in Union Station looking down into the mouths of these thousand or more fish that live in the Union Station ponds. We didn't have a lot of time to look around but we took our time nonetheless.

Throughout the trip I was aware of what lost time can do to those you care about most, we were driving south to visit an old friend of my father's who was thirty years distant from a handshake or shared beer. It was also the first time my father had seen his friend, in person, in his wheelchair since they were two young men: one white, one black, discovering a friendship that would carry them through more than just miles in life.

On the drive down to Arkansas I wondered what my father's friend would think of him, how everything would look after thirty years of having not seen each other. Although one had not used his legs in twenty-eight years, it was as if neither had used their eyes in thirty. What would blindness shaken loose from their eyes look like to me?

Like looking down into the mouths of a thousand fish or more.

   [Click on the image to see a slightly larger version of it]

Comments

[chromeeyes]

Yeah, maybe we could venture something of the like in the near future. I've got a line on a cheap ticket to mexico(in exchange for some "services" that is). If you're up I'm down.

Later
Erasmus

[thElizabeth]

I think you're all in the mood for a trip to the PNW. There are roses blooming in my yard.

[chromeeyes]

You're totally right - shit, if I can stay with you for cheap I'll hitchhike my way there on nothing, but a good supply of saliva and my copy of ulysses to keep me busy on the way.

Later,
Erasmus

[thElizabeth]

Deal.