Picture Notes

Consideration: Does anyone know where I took this photograph?

Where are you? Don’t you wonder about this and ask yourself “Where am I?” I do this every so often because I seem to get lost easily; either in my head, in another person’s dreams or caught up in emotion. So when I walk though the National Mall in Washington and I see little signs that tell me where I am, I usually ask myself, “who designed this sign and how did they know that I was coming this way and would need this sign?”

The two rivets holding the sign to the map are nice, they give me a sense of security and the impression that “you are here” will be around for a long time and no one is going to move that little marker and try to trick me.

Optimism

I’ve begun a collection of “you are here” signs and tags from the around the world. They are so optimistic. To read the signs you really must be physically there, it’s a requirement, unless you are looking at a photograph and then you really aren’t there and the signs are likely to be 100% wrong, even if they are made out of metal.

Most of the time my mind is a million miles away. I’d like to be more in the moment and experience the sign and when I see one I try and I ask myself “where am I really?” When I walk away from the sign they remain and then become 100% wrong again, as far as I can tell. I think I’m going to start carrying around a business card with “you are here” as the line under my name.