It was seriously dark.
I got to the causeway across Tampa Bay a little more than an hour before sunrise and it was dark.
When you know the area well, darkness is a limiter but not an inhibitor but when you are desperately unfamiliar with where you are, your visual leads are important. And I had none.
I drove across the causeway twice, looking for access to the side beach areas that I knew existed somewhere. But any time I tried to exit to one, there were locked barriers across the exits and I was forced onwards.
On occasion, I have passed by these areas heading to and from Clearwater and seen a wealth of cars and people frolicking on the white sands either side of the causeway.
But in the dark everything looked different and I couldn’t understand why each exit I took was blocked.
It was only my second time across that I noticed that there were signs on one of the barriers saying it was open from 6am to 9pm and I groaned. It wasn’t a big groan because it was 5:50 am when I sat in the car beside the sign and it wouldn’t be long now.
The techie in me imagined that there were timers controlling the gates, but when six o’clock came and went and nothing happened, I realized I was waiting on a person.
It was still dark at 6:10 but I was becoming agitated and aware that the skies would begin their brightening and I would lose what I was trying to shoot.
So, I maneuvered my car off to the side of the exit, grabbed the camera and climbed over the guard rail separating the road from the narrow beach area.
I was in the middle of my first one or two attempts at shots when a police car pulled in around 6:15 and after he determined I was an old white guy with a camera, he muttered something inaudible and returned to open the barrier.
I waited a few minutes for him to leave, rattled off another couple of attempts and then headed to the other access points on the assumption that he would be going from point to point opening them all.
I was wrong, by the way. He only opened one more because he was Clearwater Police and I am guessing the ones on the other side were Tampa Police but the Krispy Kreme sign must have been glowing because none of these were opened.
And so I did what I could and climbed what barriers I could in order to take the shots I got. But the truth is, I was rattled and out of balance and the sun was brightening the wrong part of the sky for me to consider any of these real vantage points.
I attached what I got at the end of this blog but the reality is, the camera was back in the car and I was on my way home, long begore the skies did anything interesting.
I hope you enjoy them and one small footnote by the way. I have no idea what the strange line in the dark sky on picture one is all about. I only noticed that when I got home.
So as I drove home annoyed and frustrated at the lack of solid advance planning that I did, I was thinking about the barriers that were in place and why they were there. They are obviously concerned about illegal or delinquent activities that might take place overnight, so this is their way of deterring such folks.
But the truth is, folks with a will to, could climb the barriers just as I did or find obscure entrances that are unknown to more ignorant folk like me. So, really the main deterrence in place with these barriers was keeping honest-folk like me from being there at irregular hours.
OK OK, I used the word “honest” quite liberally there in describing folks like me, but you get the point.
And I was proud of myself for scaling the barriers even though it didn’t really materialize in prize-winning shots. It wasn’t about the end result, it was about the trying. And these barriers were determined to stop me from even trying.
The miles home saw my mind run with that thought … barriers, gates, ceilings, and fences …. things that are placed in our path in life to try to control our actions.
I don’t know what the real percentage is, but I imagine 99% of people obey these barriers and go meekly through life obeying all the rules and staying between the lines.
When there isn’t a “fence” a much greater percentage become rule-breakers. For example, well over half the people on the highway speed above the limit. Yet, when a police car (a.k.a, “fence”) is in one of the lanes, all of a sudden everyone is driving the limit.
A certain percentage of driver don’t come to a full stop at a stop sign, but when a police car is behind them, they make a perfect full stop. Red lights operating at intersections are normally treated indifferently, until a camera is put in place and everyone starts to see red.
Law enforcement is not the only fence that we experience. Many people of color dutifully sat in the back of the bus until one day some old lady didn’t.
And when they said land-ownership, color of skin, or type of genitalia, was the defining factor in whether you were allowed vote … well that fence had to be dismantled so that folks could move forward on the path.
You see, life is full of people telling you what you can and can’t do, where you can and can’t go, and when you can and when you can’t move.
And dutifully most folk obey.
But before we obey something, we should be clear that we agree with it. If not we should fight it, change it, and climb it.
Change only comes from the folks that climb the fences. Not the folks that obey them. And most certainly not the folks that build them.
… just a thought.
