Just Because

We’re driving to Atlanta tomorrow to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. The following photo was taken at a birthday party for that daughter, when she was about three years old. I don’t remember the boy, but he probably was a pre-school classmate of our daughter’s.

But here’s the major serendipity. First, the child’s “zombie” looking eyes. All I did was scan a close to 40 year old slide. Granted, it was back-lit and consequently the main subject was underexposed. I did compensate for that, I admit, which may have combined with “red-eye” to create the gray effect. Point is, that I didn’t deliberately create it.

Second, the ceramic Buddha behind the child’s head. Having retired, I’m in process of cleaning up the parts of our house that my boss allows me to mess with. While working on that today, I barely saved that Buddha from falling and being shattered.

My grandmother painted that plaster-of-paris ceramic and had it glazed at a craft shop when I was a little boy. Is it great art? Not by the usual standards. But I have very few mementos of my grandmother (who at times was a surrogate mother), and that ceramic means a great deal to me. Strange then, to have saved it this morning and then seen it this afternoon in sharp color and focus … the head of the innocent boy with zombie-looking eyes.

Hold on, though, as the late Ron Popeil or Billy Mays would say, “Wait! There’s more.”

While working with graphics or routine housekeeping on my computer, I often listen to documentaries on the television or to audiobooks. This morning, before saving that ceramic Buddha, I had listened carefully and for a third time to a lecture comparing the ethics of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism. (Random order by choice.)