Contrast

Rust Hardware No 3
Rust Hardware No 3
These days most of us live in urban areas with access to every possible consumer product. Even if we live outside the city, internet retailers are there 24/7 to meet every need. Most of us in the developed world have the expectation of living a comfortable life.

In the days BD (before digital) expectations of having a comfortable life were similar to today but the scale of consumer choice was somewhat different. For the most part we made do with goods that were available locally. Our choices were fewer in number but more than adequate. So we thought.

Today there is a simultaneous explosion of access and goods that drives us as consumers. Every possible need is met with multiple choices. Novelty drives our shopping experiences as much as need. In some ways we have too many choices available which makes selecting the best goods nearly impossible. Compared with earlier times I’m not sure whether we are actually better off or not. Regardless I’m happy living in a connected world of endless possibilities.

Old Steel

Resting
Resting
Heavy vehicles manufactured in Detroit once dominated roads in every part of the world. A few managed to avoid the wrecking yard and now sleep in pastures or beside rural lanes. They have become a kind of nostalgic industrial sculpture to be photographed and remembered. As someone with personal experience of the mid twentieth century I say let them sleep. We of a certain age often insist that our industrial past was a national high water mark. The tools of the past don’t fit the talented hands of the present. Those hands will shape new tools for their world.

Mountianous

Grapevine Hills - 4
Grapevine Hills – 4
Many of my most vivid memories of living on the earth are about mountains. I was born at five thousand feet at the base of the Wasatch beneath peaks where you could see campfires and snow pack in early summer. As a teenager we dared to swim in the icy water of Pineview on a moonlit winter night. The snowy peaks all around were a magical sight.

Later I rode the Jemez where spirits are strong and mastered the last switchbacks of the Crest road. I visited the Plains of San Agustin where whispers from stars are captured. The back roads between Grass Valley and Truckee are in my memory as are the peaks above Palm Springs.

These days I spend as much time as possible in the Chisos. The drive from hot desert floor to the cool air of the basin is always good. Sometimes the peaks make their own weather. They Appear out of heavy ground fog or with tops obscured by storms or adorned by a halo of lenticular clouds. I feel at home when I can see the dark blue high altitude sky with mountains close by.

Plains of San Agustin
Plains of San Agustin