This is my first post and perhaps my last in regards to the project that I plan to do in July. The idea for this project has percolated in my brain for almost a year. It started when my nonconsanguineous brother Esko and I climbed Mount Monadnock in southern New Hampshire on his 60th Birthday. He was visiting me in my summer home in Brattleboro, Vermont and had traveled with his wife to visit us from their home in Finland.
As I write this, I am still here in Israel finishing up my school teaching year. I am a learning specialist working with kids who need an injection of confidence (and some study skills) in order to truly get how wonderfully talented they really are or at least can become.
As Esko and I made our way up the mountain, and despite the fact that each of us was either 60 or almost 60, I realized both of us were still in really good shape due to the emphasis we both put on health. And Esko, well, he's this kind and giving person who kept stopping strangers as we climbed to share with them that it was his 60th birthday and he had chosen the second most climbed mountain in the world to hike and share his joy of making it to 60 and making it to our home in New England. If one could bottle the personality of a person, the Esko brand would be a hit.
I found a pervasive sense of joy on this climb that seemed imbued in those I passed or shared a word or two with as we both ascended and descended. As usual, the ideas, the projects, started swirling in my head. Projects are similar to the plants I am always growing. I run a greenhouse at my work and find that projects, or at least the affiliated ideas that make these projects up, start as a small seed and slowly, slowly begin to grow nurtured by late night musings. This past year I was part of a project in which we were given seeds of some of the most endangered plants in the Middle East. I was entrusted by my friend Ronnie who leads this project. We, his program and mine, were successful. We created an environment for the seeds to grow. Then we transplanted the seedlings back into nature. Though going dormant now with the summer heat approaching, they have seeded and await the long off rain that will come next fall. What if?
What if I went back a year later and climbed this almost most climbed of climbed mountains on X number of consecutive days? My goal would be to do what I love most in this world which is to photograph and create a story. Each day I would take a different trail, and there are many, up this somewhat small mountain, and photograph it from a different angle each time. I would try to depict the landscape as well as the people I encounter each day. I'd even try to interview a few to get their stories, their unique perspectives.
Recently it appears that a window of opportunity has opened. Eva, my wife, will go Florida for a week in order to work on some health issues at a great institute there. She'll be in good hands as she will do this with her sister. I don't want to dwell on my why Florida, especially during the summer, is so difficult for me, but just let's say if there were an Olympic sport for sweating, I would be world class.
So, a window has in fact opened. In my mind, I see this project lasting 5 days. I would go up on 5 different paths (though towards the top I note that trails converge), on 5 consecutive days. As I will have cameras and computer gear with me, I have to figure out if I will stay in a local hotel in the area or camp out and find a safe place to store my expensive gear. That is something I will figure out when I back to the States in late June.
For now, I am going to let this idea continue to grow in my head. Perhaps it will work out. Perhaps not. Not only are there different ways, there are other projects to do as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment