Mariposa

I realized perhaps that this exercise of writing a daily blog entry and posting a photograph has made me a bit introspective. In the words of one of my friends, "you've become quite sappy in your older age ." It's not that I've become sappy in my older age. It's more that I'm less afraid of expressing myself as myself. I feel like society has been suppressing intelligence, openness, creativity, caring, and deep thought. During my youth, there seemed to be more encouragement to be expressive through writing or music or photography or sports, or whatever turns you on. So am I being sappy? Perhaps but… so what. With all the horrible things going on in the world today, a little bit of sappiness may be the very thing we need to get us through these dark times.

Sometimes nature reminds us of this. Despite her ferocious characteristic, she is also full of so much beauty and sappiness, which in this case, are moments that make you stop and say aww. I was walking along a country road when I saw this butterfly sitting on a purple flower. It seemed so beautiful and, at the same time, world-weary that I had to capture it. I guess this process of photography is all about capturing moments in life. I am the photojournalist of my own experiences.