I was talking with a friend about taking pictures of rainbows. He told me he didn't like to, they were too ephemeral he said, not meant to be photographed. I happened to catch this one over the point by Silver Beach on Raquette Lake while sitting on the porch of a cabin I rented. It is faint, barely there, but we all know what it feels like to see a rainbow in the sky. It is so fleeting that we just sit and stare until it goes away, hoping to hang onto that magical feeling it brings for as long as we can.
That fleeting moment may be why photographers chase rainbows, sunsets, full moons, shadows in the woods. It may why artists try to paint these same scenes, or why authors write about them. These moments are why people create; to make something last, a feeling, an experience, a moment in time.
There is a poem called This Too Shall Pass Away, written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox in 1900 which refers to a story about an ancient King who asks his sages to find words of wisdom that would guide him. One of them brought back a ring with the saying 'this too shall pass' inscribed inside (or so various versions of the story go).
The meaning, that all things are temporary, much like the rainbow, is hard to swallow. How can this moment of joy be taken away? Yet, the same goes for those times of sorrow. It is only temporary. If only we could remember this when things seem so bleak.
As I work on my novel about the Durant family I realize this may be what they were striving for, to leave a legacy, even if it wasn't in the form of wealth. The Durant's were creators. William built Great Camps in the Adirondacks, that would withstand the elements of the Northern Woods. Ella Durant published her poetry. Their father, Dr. T.C. Durant built railroads across the country.
I see how all of it, the hard work, the drive to perfection, to discover more about how to turn a vision into reality - all of it - is an attempt to fight that adage that this too shall pass. Maybe, what drives the creator of such works, is an attempt, like Ozymandias, to leave a behind a legacy that fights back at time. Maybe that's why I write.
That fleeting moment may be why photographers chase rainbows, sunsets, full moons, shadows in the woods. It may why artists try to paint these same scenes, or why authors write about them. These moments are why people create; to make something last, a feeling, an experience, a moment in time.
There is a poem called This Too Shall Pass Away, written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox in 1900 which refers to a story about an ancient King who asks his sages to find words of wisdom that would guide him. One of them brought back a ring with the saying 'this too shall pass' inscribed inside (or so various versions of the story go).
The meaning, that all things are temporary, much like the rainbow, is hard to swallow. How can this moment of joy be taken away? Yet, the same goes for those times of sorrow. It is only temporary. If only we could remember this when things seem so bleak.
As I work on my novel about the Durant family I realize this may be what they were striving for, to leave a legacy, even if it wasn't in the form of wealth. The Durant's were creators. William built Great Camps in the Adirondacks, that would withstand the elements of the Northern Woods. Ella Durant published her poetry. Their father, Dr. T.C. Durant built railroads across the country.
I see how all of it, the hard work, the drive to perfection, to discover more about how to turn a vision into reality - all of it - is an attempt to fight that adage that this too shall pass. Maybe, what drives the creator of such works, is an attempt, like Ozymandias, to leave a behind a legacy that fights back at time. Maybe that's why I write.
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