SO THAT'S HOW I DO IT?

Once my entries were posted yesterday,

here at The Middlewesterner, I read them straight through as I often do. Dum-de-dum-de-dum, no news there. I read my extended reaction to the book of photographs, Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43; I saw how I painted with broad stroke at first, then narrowed my focus, and ended pointing at the very heart of what I was seeing.

Then I went on to read Part One of my extended reaction to the Mass I attended last January at the church of San Miguel Arcangel, in San Miguel, Cozumel. I saw myself painting with broad stroke, then beginning to narrow my focus, and eventually - my God! - I'm going to be pointing at the heart of what I was seeing.

BAM!! All of a sudden, it was so obvious! This is how I see.

I described the Bound for Glory photographs similar to the way I describe life. I describe life similar to the way I describe photographs.

I could see that I move from description to meaning, from what it looks like to what it tells us. This has always been an intuitive motion for me, not a learned technique. And now, all of a sudden, I can see it as technique; now I think I could diagram what I've been doing all these years.

Apparently I did enough teaching, this past semester, that I've prepared myself for a lesson of my own. The question is: how much can I learn from it?

Comments

[Dave]

Well, now that you recognize the pattern, you can have fun mixing it up a bit.

[Tom Montag]

You betcha. It was a useful recognition, and one that opens possibilities, I see that already.