Thoughts for Avid Instagrammers (Of which I am One)

Here are some interesting thoughts from the introduction to a new favorite coffee table book called Bird Watching by Paula McCartney.

I saw the book in a shop some time back and have had my eye on it since. I finally recently added it to my collection. The photos are very pretty and I was shocked when, after opening up the packaging and starting to explore its insides, I discovered McCartney's photographed world is a fake! Not a single real bird is depicted, but rather cheap craft store replicas. After a few incredulous moments, I laughed out loud and read the introduction. In it, Karen Irvine, the curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, offers a refreshing and fascinating discourse on how we hope to encounter nature and the role photography plays. She questions our motives and applauds McCartney's work as a tongue-in-cheek and whimsical exploration of our attitudes.

For those of us who love and frequent Instagram, dumping bajillions of pictures of our encounters with the world onto Facebook, I think the below thoughts are incredibly important. Are our expectations of nature honest? Do they need to be in the first place? It's good food for thought, so I'm passing on this paragraph, though I definitely encouraging you to check out the book itself.

"While the pristine natural settings McCartney photographs are already picturesque, she was looking for something more: 'I wanted to make the landscapes more romantic, more idyllic,' she explains. Like many painters throughout history, McCartney creates fictions at will, and uses birds as symbolic, beautiful elements within a controlled composition. And like the doves who repair Cinderella's dress in Walt Disney's movie, her passerines are friendly, feel-good additions to the landscape. McCartney's pictures reveal a strong need for the fulfillment of an ideal. In this respect they call forth broader issues concerning our relationship to nature and wildlife: What are our expectations when we approach the natural landscape? Are we always waiting for certain romantic experiences to punctuate our wandering, such as a deer running by or a perfect snowflake landing on our mittens? To what extent are we trying to satisfy a preexisting image of nature that we carry in our minds? And what role does photography play in fixing these images and desires in our consciousness?"

Continuing the List

This past weekend inspired some more additions to the list of 50 things I like about Boston. Enjoy!

11. Reuniting with old friends from China now living in Boston.

12. Sichuan Gourmet in Brookline. The first restaurant I've visited outside of China's borders that serves LEGIT 川菜, including but not limited to amazing 回锅肉，real 空泡鸡丁，and hold your breath my dear friends... 烧烤!!!!!! Apart from water chestnut and baby corn in the 烧烤, I would not have known I was in Boston.

13. The autumn leaves and beautiful sunny days. Boston in the fall really is great.

14. Our futon (since it has hosted many friends in the short time we've been here!)

15. A job that propels me to worship with my Chinese brothers and sisters at their local churches. 

Cape Ann Photos

Also thought I would share some pictures from the past weekend. Trey's sister came to visit and we had a splendid time driving around Cape Ann and showing her the many nearby small coastal towns.

New Home, New List

I've been recently inspired to restart this blog. It was my primary outlet during my years living in Asia, but upon returning to the United States, my interest in it dwindled (see Carved to Adorn, the blog my sister and I write, for a glimpse of where my creative energies have been channeled).

With my recent marriage and move to the Boston area, however, I've once again transitioned to a new home and once again struggled to connect with my new surroundings. (Noticing a trend... hmmm?) My poor, dear husband has finally grown tired of me complaining about life in New England, so it's time for me to move past the "I-can't-handle-this-place" stage to one of the truly best stages - exploration and discovery.

So as I've done with the last 2 moves, I am going to make a list of 50 things I like about Boston and/or New England. I must confess, it seems a daunting task at the moment, but so did it feel every other time I forced myself to make such a list. It'll grow over the coming weeks and I anticipate, by the time I'm finished, I will truly be able to say "I love this place."

Here it goes...

1. Having a home with my husband
2. Apartment windows that look out onto trees
3. Neighbors who a) own horses, and b) ride their horses around the neighborhood
4. Living this close to the ocean - a first!
5. Mike's Pastry Shop
6. The Boston Public Library
7. Hearing Turkey's gobble out the apartment window
8. The commuter rail and the T
9. Finally having somewhere to hang my art collection
10. Lots and lots of used book stores - seriously could not ask for a city with more of them!

Phoenix or Dragon: Resurrection or Quest?

In celebration of resurrecting my personal blog, I'm posting a question that was asked of me a few days ago.

"Would you rather live in a world where the phoenix or dragons exist?"

I unequivocally answered the phoenix. To start with complete honesty, I have a mild obsession with all things bird, so it was my natural inclination. But a big beautiful bird that has healing powers and represents new life coming out struggle? Yes please! Could anything be better in the mythological world?

Since then, though, I've thought more about dragons. When the question was asked, I was thinking of them as representations of the terrible. Fearful and damage wreaking, they weren't really something I would ever want to exist.

But they really are so much more. Dragons represent a sense of quest. They and their defeat are the end goal towards which so much of the mythological world hurtles. Dragons are the something bigger than self which must be overcome, the thing which gets a man up on his feet to seek good and glory for all. While I might not want a world in which dragons exist, I certainly do want a world in which people live to do something about the dragons.

And who can deny that dragons do really lurk in towering caves over our world?

So, while I still stand by my answer concerning the phoenix, wanting a world in which life and healing are able to be found, I also forsake my dismissal of dragons.  I just might alter the question a bit, for really in the end, what I desire are people who live out and under a sense of sacrificial, and thereby beautiful, quest.

What's your vote?