Most of us spend a lot of time censoring everything that we see and hear. Does it fit with our world picture? And if it doesn’t, how can we shut it out, how can we ignore it, how can we challenge it? We are continually threatened in life, it’s true. But once you are alone with a book, and it’s also true with a picture or with music, all those defenses drop and you can enter into a quite different space where you will learn to think differently about yourself.
— Jeanette Winterson
Great photo, as always. And Winterson’s quote works perfectly with your photos in that if I was there in that very unfamiliar terrain, I’d feel threatened and be on the alert for rattlesnakes. But by viewing it safely from Maine, I can see the beauty of the sagebrush and the hills and that limitless sky. And so it is with books – we get to know environments and cultures and perspectives not our own, and feel safe to explore them and be shown a bigger picture.
Well said! I suspect I’d worry about ticks in Maine. 🙂
Ticks are a definite worry in Maine. My nephew, his wife, and his mother all got Lyme in the past year. What I’ve found most helpful is to tuck your pants in your socks, and then find a good book and stay inside.