The Miracle of Showing Up, Part II

Sometimes, when I’m traveling somewhere distinct from my normal routine — say, Nantucket, or Bray’s Island — I find it difficult to imagine anywhere else.

I think I even remember when it started. I was sixteen-years-old snapping a photo from the double-yellow lines of a traffic-strewn Champs Elysées when I thought, “I can’t believe this was here all along!”

And it gets weirder: in a little corner of my brain somewhere, I still — 21 years later — find it unfathomable that all of those places exist when I’m not there to see them myself, especially wildly exotic places like The Maldives or Roatan.

I suppose there’s a reasonable explanation for this, something to do with the developing mind’s ability to understand that which it can’t see, that tangible evidence of a place isn’t requisite for our understanding of its existence.

Or something.

Either way, there’s an oddly similar dynamic at play with you, Dear Reader. I don’t really know who most of you are. That is, I imagine you’re my friends and family, but with some exception, I don’t really know who reads this blog on the regular, or when you’re reading it. It’s more like whispering into a gaping void. Or shouting to the traffic-strewn Champs Elysées from the double-yellow lines. Who knows who hears?

Which is what makes your comments and emails all the more appreciated, like this one from a sometimes-reader in Texas:

Hi. I check your blog occasionally to see your view what’s going on in your part of the world and your fabulous photos.

I am a former Kindergarten teacher and have moved into a position in which I will impact many more children than I would in the classroom. I have several projects going and one is a textbook for 2nd graders. When I read your “The Miracle of Showing Up” post and saw the pictures showing the changes in the sky I knew I had to ask if you would share your pictures with the second graders of Texas.

So, I’m asking. Would you be willing to allow me to use your pictures in my book? I can’t pay you, but can give you credit and will make sure you get a copy of the book for you or your precious nephews.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and talent of photography and music with the world! I look forward to hearing from you.

Of course I said yes, am grateful the inquiry, and love that the boys — who thought I was crazy for taking the same photo over and over — will see my little exercise manifest somewhere more “official” than my blog (which I don’t know whether they see or not anyway).

So… keep those comments, cards and letters comin’. Sometimes, it’s the only way I know any of this even exists.