Glass

A new kind of reflection--response to a picture:

Fiddling with new tools and gadgets is always a grand adventure. There are trials and triumphs, challenges to hone courage with. A fancy camera for my mom's business is the latest machine I have been learning to cooperate with. While photographing my new blog header, I also captured this beauty.

I don't think I have ever taken quite such a lovely picture, but I cannot take all the credit. My parents and grandparents, my grandfather especially, have cultivated a fondness for old things, glass in particular. Even more particularly, inkwells.

The fascination with inkwells is rather obvious...writer, feather pen, inkwell. They just simply belong together. The glass is so beautiful and there are so many different shapes. The cobalt blue one, the one I focused on, is one of my favorites, its bubbles seeming almost as though they might rise from the glass and float away in the breeze.

It is a striking color, and among the other blues that I love, it stands out proudly. I adore the deep shadows, the rich mid-tones and bright reflections of light. Altogether it captures a spectrum of light few inkwells or bottles do. It seems to have a depth rarely displayed.

And so 'tis with people. Everyone is deep, whether they dig to find their depth or not. Some stand out, proudly displaying their depth, going against the shallowness so encouraged by society. Others simply remain shallow and colorless, accepting what they are told to accept and rejecting what they are commanded to reject. Still beautiful in their own humanity, but never coming close to the deepest cobalt of a thinker.