Today there was quite a fierce wind whipping around the island, but it didn't stop me from pausing to admire Old Glory as she danced to its tune. There's a singular beauty in the way a flag moves with the breeze, or the breeze moves with the flag--at any rate, they move together, one visible, the other not, in an exotic tarantella whose furling and swirling beauty can arrest one's eye, even when that eye is tearing up and squinting against the cold.
Here, for your consideration, is the collage I put together of a number of shots I took while standing rapt before the flagpole that presides over De La Salle High School's athletic field--just a football's toss from where I live.
I see few other souls venturing abroad on this crisp morning, as I stand and contemplate the flapping folds of our nation's emblem. I guess this would have been an apter post for six days ago, Presidents' Day. But I'm really not making a patriotic statement or attempting to foist a sense of nationalistic fervor on anyone--just admiring what to my eye is simply another element on my island home which can carry and convey beauty when caught at the right time, in the right light.
While thus standing and admiring, I tried capturing the dancing standard in a video--a feature of my camera I have rarely used. As you view the result, you may now conclude that I am indeed issuing a patriotic statement--quite literally, in fact. But the fact is that it just seemed the appropriate sentiment--an audible caption, if you will--to accompany the visual image.
How do I feel about flag waving in general? The assertion of nationalistic sentiments, when done so to serve a political agenda, and when using a star-spangled banner as a catalyst to inflame emotions and spur action, too often has led to too many giving their brief and only lives for no justifiable reason--and justifiable reasons for doing this are few, in my opinion. As an artist and humanitarian, I value life and beauty above all else, and war
Here, for your consideration, is the collage I put together of a number of shots I took while standing rapt before the flagpole that presides over De La Salle High School's athletic field--just a football's toss from where I live.
I see few other souls venturing abroad on this crisp morning, as I stand and contemplate the flapping folds of our nation's emblem. I guess this would have been an apter post for six days ago, Presidents' Day. But I'm really not making a patriotic statement or attempting to foist a sense of nationalistic fervor on anyone--just admiring what to my eye is simply another element on my island home which can carry and convey beauty when caught at the right time, in the right light.While thus standing and admiring, I tried capturing the dancing standard in a video--a feature of my camera I have rarely used. As you view the result, you may now conclude that I am indeed issuing a patriotic statement--quite literally, in fact. But the fact is that it just seemed the appropriate sentiment--an audible caption, if you will--to accompany the visual image.
How do I feel about flag waving in general? The assertion of nationalistic sentiments, when done so to serve a political agenda, and when using a star-spangled banner as a catalyst to inflame emotions and spur action, too often has led to too many giving their brief and only lives for no justifiable reason--and justifiable reasons for doing this are few, in my opinion. As an artist and humanitarian, I value life and beauty above all else, and war
represents death and ugliness. And when a flag, or an idea/ideal, is used to promulgate and perpetuate unjust wars (and few are just), that otherwise attractive article becomes a weapon and its beauty is sacrificed along with the young lives it has stirred to action and whose caskets it is draped upon, as though to try to conceal the bitter fruits of the seeds it has sown.
And that is all I wish to say about that. I prefer to dwell upon the beauty to be found in the world we inhabit and in the lives we lead. And today, here on Nicollet Island, on a cold and blustery day, the American flag is a thing of beauty and nothing more.
Life flows on, in and around us—and the answers it provides, well, as Bob once said, they're blowin' in the wind.
D.E.S.
And that is all I wish to say about that. I prefer to dwell upon the beauty to be found in the world we inhabit and in the lives we lead. And today, here on Nicollet Island, on a cold and blustery day, the American flag is a thing of beauty and nothing more.
Life flows on, in and around us—and the answers it provides, well, as Bob once said, they're blowin' in the wind.
D.E.S.
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