Day 44/365 - The Temple of Ra

I could list a dozen things that are wrong with this shot, but none of that seems to matter because I love it anyway. I guess that's the nature of love, though -- it's irrational, impractical, exasperating, irrepressible, intoxicating, exhilarating, and a thousand other adjectives both converse and complementary. It's destined to make you whole and destined to break you apart. It's everything we want and everything we dread and... and it's love. In the end I guess that describes it better than anything -- love is love.

Apologies for the somewhat morose note to today's entry. That's what a bottle of wine on a cold Friday night will do to you, and I don't even like wine. Champagne yes, wine no. I took this shot while riding the escalator up from the Metro station next to my office this morning. I love (there's that word again) coming up out of this station. You start out in the dark deep underground and then you see the broad beams of morning sunlight streaming through those square openings high on the wall and then they strike your face and you feel their warmth on your cheeks and it's like a baptism and a rebirth all in one. And it's even better when the guy with the saxophone is playing at the top of the escalator.

The way the morning light pierces the openings in the wall always makes me think of ancient Egyptian temples and the way many of them were designed so that they would be swathed in shadows until at a certain time of day the sun would be at the perfect angle to shoot a ray of light into their darkened hearts that would then strike the innermost shrine, the holy of holies, and bathe it in a golden glow.

That in turn makes me think of the ancient Egyptian solar myth, wherein the sun god Ra descends into the underworld each night to travel on his barge through the caverns of darkness where he wages his eternal war with the evil serpent Apep before re-emerging above ground at dawn, and that then makes me think of my daily commute on the subway train that resembles both a barge and a serpent and that carries me through darkened tunnels before the escalator brings me back up to the surface and the benediction that is the light of day.

It's cold here today. I need to go back to Egypt. It's 80 degrees and sunny there.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 21/365 - Here Comes the Sun

I pass underneath this highway overpass every weekday on my way to and from the subway station near my apartment. It's a much more pleasant walk now that they've installed the mosaics and painted sections of the sidewalk. It used to be pretty grey, drab, and institutional/industrial looking. And then there were the pigeons.

There were hordes of pigeons roosting in the girders that make up the underside of the overpass. Walking through there was a bit like darting past a firing squad. I was pretty lucky and only got hit once, although of course I happened to be wearing my favorite jacket that day. Getting pooped on by a bird is supposed to be lucky, but frankly that's luck I think I could do without.

Before they installed the mosaics they pigeon-proofed the underside of the overpass with these little spiky things that keep the birds from roosting up there and then then they hydroblasted the accumulated guano away. So instead of pigeons, poop, and prison grey concrete we now have a clean, colorful, really cool walkway.

Not all tax expenditures are bad. To quote Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: "I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization."

Okay, maybe 'liking' paying taxes is a bit strong, but sometimes I don't mind paying them so much.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

P.S. - Click here to hear the song from which I stole the title for today's post.

UPDATE: This installation is called "Radiance" and the artist is Valerie Theberge.