Cascades Trail, Pembroke, VAOn Friday night I was feeling restless and had no plans, so I decided to take a night hike to the Cascades and take some photos. I had no idea how the photos would turn out using only the built in flash on my camera, but I didn't really care about the results. I just wanted to get out. Silence had pervaded my table, chairs, book cases (even my normally innocuous pewter deer bookends), and they were starting to look menacing. I was having one of those Roquentin staring at the chestnut tree moments, and I didn't feel like spending yet another Friday night dwelling on my own contingency (or absurdity), so I did what hundreds of canonical novels and country songs recommend and hit the road.
It turned out to be a good decision. The fresh smell of the stream braced and refreshed me. In no time I was pulled out of my malaise and into the rhythm of the hike. Part of the idea of taking shots in the dark involved some vague, not fully formed connections to Beckett and Brecht. Mostly, though, I just felt like hiking in the dark and taking some photos.
Kurt Weill "Alabama Song" (far creepier and more amazing than the Door's cover)
1 comment:
I'm glad you undertook the night journey to the waterfall--the image of the roiling foam is especially scary in a primordial chaos kind of way. Oddly, a dream I had Friday night involved running through the woods at night, guided by a great numinous/luminous hound who lit the way forward along the unseen trail. I'm going to have to get you a copy of the I Ching .... Also, glad to see the link to Alabama Song. The way the vocalist sings "Alabama" has such a beauty to it; I'd like to visit that Alabama.
Josh
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