Contemplation

 

Often wonder how you got here,

ponder where you’ve been, what

you’ve done, consider all of that

which got you here?

I myself have photographs I’ve

taken over decades as witness to

prove some of it—many shots of

people I’ve known, some of the

myriad places I have been, taking

me back to certain places in time.

I am then able to either fill the gaps in

between with my best recollections or

fabricate stories connecting the dots of

my existence so to speak. My friends,

honestly, a smattering of truth and

heaping pile of fiction got me here.

There is no denying that life is both a

glorious fairy tale, and the miserable

reality of hell on Earth, which leads

one all that way from birth to here.

In these pictures I have taken, it’s

as if I am following the breadcrumbs

I had scattered along the way in order

to eventually find may way back home.

Good thing I occasionally took what

the young folks today call “selfies” of

myself. Good Lord, I really was young,

naively hopeful and presentable once.

Good thing you can’t use photography

to see into the future. Many would turn

around and go back when halfway there.

My selfies today don’t lie, revealing

where I sit presently— contemplative,

aching, old and gray. I suppose there

is a measure of a self-deprecating

wisdom in that.

And then, of course, today there are

other options available, either outright

denial or a good make-over with Photoshop.

                     -30-

Chris Hanch 10-18-2020