Random Photos

 

The most recent
random tree photo

     Occasionally, I will post a random photo of a tree or the sky on Facebook.  I have gotten to call them random tree photos or random sky photos.  I get some interesting comments when I do this.  Mostly, they’re questions of bewilderment.  They include:

What?
Why?
………………..
Are you OK?
Are you off your meds?
Gripping!
Wow!

Honestly, it is these kinds of comments, in part, that keeps me posting these kinds of photos.  I am amused by them.  I never respond to these comments except for “……………….”  My response was one word:  Exactly!  Another favorite was “This got me motivated to get up and do something meaningful today.”  Knowing the wonderfully positive demeanor of the lady that posted this comment, I took it as a thank for the inspiration.  From others, it could have easily been interpreted as a dig.   

The other reason I take and share such photos is a bit more realistic.  I simply like to gaze upon trees and the sky.  It is reveling in nature.  It is appreciating God’s creations.  I love the symmetry inherent in trees and leaves.  As for the sky, it is the always changing.  Both trees and clouds have a fractalness that is only found in nature.  Poets and artists have used both trees and the skies as subject matter for centuries.  So, I take photos of them.

Most recent
random sky photo

     Trees are beautiful.  They come in all shapes and sizes with a variety foliage.  Around where I have lived, with the exception of the appropriately named evergreens, they are without leaves for about half of the year.  In the spring, they bud.  In autumn, the leaves turn color and fall.  They are beautiful to look at in forests, clumps, groves, and, especially, alone in a yard or field where they can achieve the perfect shape of their species.  Fruit trees full of fragrant blossoms in the spring and laden with fruit in the fall.  When we lived in Connecticut, there were more trees there than anywhere else I have lived.  There were some of the oldest trees I have ever seen, with sturdy massive trunks and great gnarly limbs.  I wrote about the Glory of Fall back in 2007.  That Glory of Fall is mostly due to the glory of trees.  Hence, I post my tree photos.

The sky is truly God’s canvas.  From the pure azure clarity of a cloudless sky to the moving, swirling, clouds that includes the white cirrus wisps and cumulus billows to the dark ominous nimbus storm clouds.  Therefore, I post my sky photos.

People post all kinds of things.  We post photos of our meals just before we dig in.  I have several friends that will post a photo of a cigar, label showing of course, and whatever whisky they have paired with it.  Heck, I do the same.  Other friends post music videos either of them playing or something from YouTube that really grabbed their attention.  We post photos of wherever we may be or just a random selfie.  This is all good, I like to see what others are up to and Facebook keeps a tidy record of what I have been up to for me.

I have a cousin, Levon, who is a brilliant photographer of flowers.  He posts them on Facebook.  I tell him all the time that he should take the best of his work and make a beautiful coffee table book.  They are that good.  I am not the only one to compliment his skills, everyone does.  Being a bit of an amateur photographer myself (who isn’t anymore), I tried my hand at it.  My photos just are not of the same caliber, so I don’t post them.

Yet, I have no issues with posting tree and sky shots.  In fact, I rather enjoy it.  Curious.

Not that I needed vindicating about my random tree and sky photos, but there was a beautifully vindicative article in the June 12, 2021 WSJ a few days after my last random tree photo:  Why a Tree Is the Friend We Need Right Now?  Elizabeth Bernstein eloquently stated my case in this her well-written article.

And trees provoke awe—that emotional response to something vast that expands and challenges the way we see the world. It’s the perfect antidote to the way we’re feeling right now—a pathway to healing. Research shows that awe decreases stress, anxiety and inflammation. It can quiet our mental chatter by deactivating our brain’s default mode network—the area that is active when we’re not doing anything and that can get absorbed by worry and rumination, according to Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and faculty director of the university’s Greater Good Science Center, who studies awe. It can improve our relationships, making us feel more supported by and more likely to help others, more compassionate and less greedy.

I do believe I bait people for the comments I find so amusing simply by using the word random when I post these tree and sky photos.  If I were to say, “Here is a photo of a magnificent tree I saw on a walk” or “As I was leaving the house today, I just had to take a photo of the awesome clouds,” I think folks would be more accepting.  The word random implies that I am willy-nilly taking photos of trees and the sky because I have no life, or I am bored out of my gourd. 

My favorite response of all time was “You’re funny.”  Bingo.  This lady gets it.