It never ceases to amaze me how much the camera can see while I can’t.
It was about 45 minutes before sunrise and that little corner of Lake Parker is as dark as anywhere, which is why I repeatedly choose it.
You see, they have added light poles in certain places close to my favorite haunts along the shoreline and in so doing, they have completely destroyed early morning photography.
So, I am limited to a single spot down by the place where the boats launch. If they get around to adding a light there, I will have to give up lake parker entirely.
The only light was a 1/8th moon overhead behind some clouds and it did its best to light up the night sky. But to my eyes, the only thing above that I could see was a collection of stars and a completely black sky.
So, I pointed the camera skywards and as you’ll see in the first shot, it looks like I was shooting in daylight.
I hung out at the pier for a while and was joined by a lone guy on a tricycle. I had seen him once before when he was with his significant other who was hooping, but this time he was alone.
He emerged from the darkness and caught me a little by surprise. He set about sorting out his fishing tackle and began to fish, while I moved around and took a few pics with him included.
I made a little small talk but apparently I talked too much because he tuned me out and didn’t even answer the last few things I said. So, I figured it was time to shut up and leave, which I did. By that stage, it was apparent that the clouds were having a party on the horizon and were going nowhere. They completely smothered the sun and not even a hint of sunrise made it into the morning sky.
As I drove home, I could see the sky was brightening. But that was it.
Anyway I have a small few pics worth sharing at the end of the blog. Enjoy!
As I drove home, I was thinking about how this guy arrived alone and chose to stay alone, as the new day dawned. He wasn’t being rude to me. He just stuck with his choice of being alone and I can appreciate that.
Humans are such a social creature that we spend so much of our time in the presence of others. Family, people at work, fellow-inmates, whoever.
I am sure the percentage of alone-time varies to a certain degree from person to person and from one time in our lives to another. But, in general, I suspect that other than sleeping, the average person spends over 90% of our wake time in the company of others.
Often time we spend this with people we love or like. But sometimes we spend it in the company of people we can barely tolerate. Sometimes we spend it in an effort we enjoy and other times in an effort that we are obliged to do.
Sometimes the company is direct and they are physically beside us, other times we are on a phone or online or some other way connected.
So most of our life is spent pushing any feeling of solitude into our bed-time. Maybe even only when we close our eyes and go to sleep.
But what I have discovered in recent years is that we humans do our most creative and functional thinking when we are alone. When we are in the company of others, we do what I call communal thinking… where our thoughts are somewhat fashioned or affected by those around us. We might be using approval or disdain to help hone our thoughts. But however the thought ends up, it isn’t just ours.
Solitude is an important condition for thinkers and for creative people. It allows us to delve deeper into our own mind and pull together some thoughts or analysis that be quite life-affecting.
For those of us who believe in the one life to live approach, solitude is therefore even more important as it means that our life choices become somewhat fashioned more by our own thoughts and plans than others.
Some people are skilled at meditation and find their solitude there. Through breathing and relaxation techniques they can find a mental escape that helps create a feeling of being removed from their current environment.
And while I am not saying that is a bad thing, it doesn’t accomplish the real benefits of being truly alone for a while. Alone to the point where you can gain clarity of thought and focus of wish.
We need to know where we want to go in life and if we don’t give ourselves the chance to decide that in a clear and focused manner, then we run the danger of ending up where someone else wants us to be and not where we would have chosen ourselves.
… just a thought.
