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The Last Few Pages
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Every generation has its war, and every man has his own war within himself.
There are days when my own life seems like nothing more than this, just an open book that hasn't been read in many years. At times, it is easy to lose one's self in the struggle for definition; the search for a light of wisdom amidst a world of colorless obscurity.
This particular scene left me with a strange feeling, one that I had as much trouble losing as I had defining. We were homebound on a cold November day, finishing the last leg of a 1,000 mile journey, when an eagle led us to this place.
Sitting open on a dusty kitchen counter, in front of a large broken window was this book; open just as you see it now. I don't know how long it has been sitting there, or how long these last few pages have been waiting to be read.
All I got from it was something about Russia's battle at the Koenigsberg line in East Prussia during the Great War (or world war number one, as we know it now).
For reasons I no longer know, I didn't turn the page to read any more; but instead I stood there for a long time, reading those two open pages over and over, while the tattered remnants of a window curtain flapped gently in the breeze beside me.
But I wasn't really reading as much as I was only staring, reflecting on the hardships of another man's life as I stood in his kitchen with a camera in my hands.
If there were ever such a thing as ghosts, and if I had only one place to choose where I might have ever felt them, it was here in this kitchen; on this empty farmstead tucked away in a quiet little corner of Dakota prairie along Highway 200.
This man, if he was a soldier in the Great War, probably had sons who fought in the Second World War, and their sons probably went to Korea and Vietnam. Today their sons are in the Middle East, and where our own sons will go tomorrow has yet for history to determine.
Night had fallen by the time we got back on the road, and the rest of the journey was spent in strangely contented silence.
www.losthighwayphoto.com |
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Great composition!
Points will come later.
Cheers,
Carla
a wonderful capture...color...and composition as always but this time the points and comments are for the note...i always enjoy reading yours because they not only explain the context of where the photo was taken...but your personal feelings and reflections on it as well...i know that a photo is worth a 1000 words...but often the photographers words with the photo are worth more than that...peace***
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 882 W: 12 N: 494]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-s-g.gif)
(4051)![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 249 W: 4 N: 102]](http://i1.treklens.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
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