When I arrived at the lake yesterday morning, I did so with the intention of taking some glass sphere pics. I wanted to explore some of the light direction a little better and to play with a camera setting or two.
As I set up on the dock to begin my session, I could make out the power plant on the opposite shore, as it plumed its smoke up into the night sky.
I had been probably only shooting about ten minutes, moving my light bars, throwing water at the sphere, and such, but generally not paying attention to my surrounds. When, all of a sudden I noticed that I had become engulfed in fog.
I could barely see the near-end of the pier I was standing on, and the opposite shore was completely gone.
The air around me tasted differently and sounds were heavily muted.
It was a stunning moment of seclusion and it happened in an instant. There was no gradual build-up and it made the moment so magical.
As I looked out into the lake, my eyes were greeted by nothing but a solid sheet of grey and when I looked behind me, I saw the lovely effect of lights cutting through the thick fog. Took a couple of shots and I have them at the end of the blog together with three more from this morning, when the fog was much lighter … hope you enjoy.
Anyway, yesterday as I drove home, I thought about being suddenly engulfed and then I smiled at my use of the word within my mind and how emphatic it was.
And then I thought about how we use words these days and have drifted to the point where so much of our thoughts and expressions rely on words that are over emphasized.
For example, you can tell somebody you “like” them, but they are left wondering why you don’t “love” them. And then when we want to let our special one(s) know how much we love them, we choose “adore” or qualify the love with “really” or “truly”.
And it is no longer enough to say she is a “good looking” girl or “nice looking”. She needs to be “gorgeous” or “stunning”.
Of course, in recent years, social media has made things even worse. Every “acquaintance” is now a “friend” and it’s not enough to acknowledge a comment with an “ok” … we have to “Laugh out Loud” apparently at everything that is being said to us. So, now when things are genuinely funny, we are left apparently “Rolling on the Floor, Laughing My Ass Off”.
I mean, seriously, come on! Where will it all end?
And in the meantime, what has it actually done to our ability to communicate or even express ourselves?
We have effectively narrowed our vocabulary to where many words are no longer satisfactory and this is a shame. Anything that reduces the range of our ability to express our thoughts is actually a negative shift and is in fact counter-evolution.
Think about it, we emerged from caves and began to express ourselves to fellow humans. Then we developed languages to handle our expressions and these languages evolved too over time to include all the new things that began to appear in our lives.
Physical things needed to be captured in words, as did new thoughts and words became expansive as languages and cultures inter-mixed.
But with the narrowing of the vocabulary, we end up returning towards the point and grunt level of expression of our forefathers.
So, I guess what I am trying to say here is that we should watch ourselves and how we express a thought, how we communicate with others. Using our words wisely is not simply choosing words that don’t offend or cause concern. It is about using all the words we have available to us in order to color in our expression as much as we can.
Words and our ability to conjure them up are not just tools of communication. They are in many ways the very essence of humanity.
… just a thought!
