Shadow Of A Bridge (The Journey), looking out from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, outside of Taos, New Mexico, January 2003, C-41 color film photo © 2003-2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
-related to post: WRITING TOPIC — MARTIN LUTHER KING
I ask this honestly (selfishly?), what is America to you?
Is it a place in time? A place in space?
A mindset? An ideology?
Do you define America by what it is, or what it is *not*?
I often times think, driving along long, curving, beautiful roads in the middle of the night a thousand miles from the ocean, that all our problems, all our pain, all our sorrow, all this disagreement and negativity are just manifestations of a misunderstanding that America is so many things to so many people.
I often times think that the first time I felt true love, or conversely, true sorrow, was the first time I experienced some essence of America.
I don’t mean for this to be US centric. I think the experience is not specific to one’s country, so much as it is specific to one’s home.
That being said, whether you are from America, or a million miles away, when you think of home, how do you think of it?
Is it just memory – that is to say, can you ever get back to where your home once was, or once you ask the question, is it already gone?
I like to think (maybe I reach too far), that the ‘coming home’ you hear mention of is not a journey of completion, but a journey of letting go.
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Hey! I’ve been there! Except I didn’t quite make it out to the overhang, because the cars zipping by where shaking the entire bridge, and I’m not the bravest of souls. Thanks for showing me the view that I missed!
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Me, too! I went there after the writing retreat in December 2006 and I did get to walk across the bridge. I was going to take a picture from the bridge, but couldn’t bring myself to get close enough to the rail. I did get some snaps from different angles on the other side of the bridge (land). Thanks so much for the picture. It reminds of a brave moment in my life when I took a chance, stepped out of my comfort zone and tried something entirely new and different.
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QM,
After 9-11, I was asked to produced a different type of Christmas card for my Company. I was in NYC a week after.
Your Dr King Jr. quote just brought it all back to my mind.
Misunderstanding still lives in the hearts of many.
The shot for the cover of the card was taken at Grand Central, the place where they built temporary walls to allow people to place photos of missing family members. I felt sick walking up and down, aimlessly…until I saw a flag made from a kindergarden class.
It was all red, white and blue, just like the original…but this one was made from impressions of each students’ tiny hand. I stood and stared at it for at least a half hour, so choked up, I could barely see to take the shot.
Back home, I designed the card and on the inside, I place the words I felt most appropriate.
“The ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy.”
They were written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I was not allowed to use them…
To this very day, I still do not understand why…
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QM, the photo is great & the quote perfect. Tonight, the History channel is running a 2 hr. special on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. starting at 8 pm (EST). I hope I don’t miss it!
D
the message is clear
those who still believe will sing
“We shall overcome”…
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Heather, that image sounds so powerful. I would love to see it. You should post it on your blog.
The quote is (was) appropriate to the time, I think, and appropriate to the image, but most companies avoid controversy MKL Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam War — perhaps that was what the company got stuck on. Who knows, though.
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I’m with you, sam and Jackie — that bridge has so much vibration and ultimately feels so thin and narrow over that gorge! It takes all my concentration to cross it. I couldn’t imagine stopping and taking photos. But QM’s is amazing, and I’m glad she doesn’t have a fear of bridges 8) .
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ed, that would be a good set of questions to reflect on and do writing practice on.
There’s so much anger right now — and it will get worse as the year wears on. The labels will come out. Morality and patriotism, who has it and who doesn’t, will be marched about. I’m exhausted by it.
But your questions are, I think, an honest attempt to understand why the divide. Thanks for sharing.
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I love the image and an AMEN to MLK’s quote! “Yes we can!”
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Contemplative comment, ed. Do we define anything by what it is, or by what it is lacking, or what it is not. Thank you for your thoughts.
diddy, did you end up watching the MLK special on the History Channel? I’d be interested in knowing what you thought or any insights you might have had.
heather, you took a risk by designing that card. Good for you. There is a way we can speak up through images and art. It sounds like it was too controversial for them, as yb said. Or maybe people look to more uplifting images at Holidays. I think that’s true. When maybe what we really need to be looking at are those who are hurting and suffering. And offer support.
sam and jackie and gypsy-heart, it’s an amazing bridge, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. My favorite part of this photo is exactly the one that bloomgal pointed out in her note on Flickr — the little blue ribbon of river that shines out of the black shadows. Wow, that color blue – only in New Mexico.
I’m not afraid of bridges. But once Liz and I tried to climb a fire tower in Itasca State Park and neither of us could make it past about 1/3 of the way. The thing was swaying in the wind and we were both unable to go on, looking at the ground under our shoes through the grates in the metal stairs. Yikes!
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I’m glad you pointed out bloomgal’s favorite part of the photo. It is lovely. And it adds symmetry to the composition. Very alive.
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[…] -related to Topic post, WRITING TOPIC – GROWING OLDER and the post, 40 Years […]
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[…] the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge we slow walked to the middle and peered over the railing. Our teacher told us to leap over the […]
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I meant to come back to this post yesterday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.. It was 41 years yesterday that he was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
The MPR News Cut blog had a link to previously unreleased photographs from April 4, 1968, by LIFE photographer Henry Groskinsky. They left me somber. And bring back the horror of that day. I am old enough to remember it like it was yesterday. It’s one of the darker parts of the history of this country; it’s good not to forget.
The day MLK died at MPR News Cut (LINK)
LIFE Presents: Never-Before-Published Photos From Memphis, April 4, 1968 (LINK)
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[…] can heal the gap? lost key dangles from the bridge steady leap of […]
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Dear Martin, 43 years have passed. I remember.
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