Sign of the Times
One sign of these times is that often, things get jumbled together. Like this picture, it's hard making sense
of the world. Why are all these strange things happening to us? There is the pandemic, racial strife, and most recently there is the discovery of hundreds of mysterious
burial sites of indigenous children on residential school grounds, to name just but a few. There are a lot of strange factors that come into play in life and it's difficult
to focus on what's important. Similarly, when you look at this picture, it's difficult to determine a focal point. Is it the hydrant, the speed bump sign which
looks like a turtle, the no parking sign, the bricks of the side walk, the nice bricks of the building, the decrepit bricks of the building, or the various windows
and their curtains? Truth be told, I took this picture because all of these things looked interesting to me.
I am not sure why, but this photo is actually my favourite from photography page two of my art and photography website,
partly because it makes no sense, partly because there are multiple focal points and also because there are a myriad of shapes. If you have already noticed, I like
shapes. Mostly, I like this picture because when you take all these things and jumble them together, they represent life. Life is a mix of everything. So I pieced
together several answers by my Facebook friends to make a title, and I then began looking up quotes about art, because I felt that true art is when things are jumbled
together. Interestingly enough, I came across a quote by Jean Luc Godard who felt the exact opposite. He said "one of the most striking signs of the decay of art is
when we see its separate forms jumbled together". I say that's when art, and life truly begin.
Oddly, a jumble of things from this photo have occurred to me over the past several days. I have been seeing turtles
everywhere, on Facebook, Instagram, on television. There was turtle wax in the jumble of paint and chemical cans from my father's house that I have been prepping to
take the the hazardous waste site. Gina's cousin, Hannah mentioned that the small baby pool they used to swim in looked like a turtle. In terms of a water hydrant
and no parking, there was a family of racoons parked underneath our shed in the backyard which I had to chase away with the water hose. The family had been there
for a while, and I had decided to let them be. But yesterday morning when I found a large part of our arduously maintained lawn was dug up, no doubt by the racoons
searching for grubs, it was time to let them know there would be no more parking under our shed. Lastly, it came to me that the kiddy pool that Hannah thought was
shaped like a turtle would be interesting as a focal point for a backyard café, in which people could park themselves at tables with their feet submerged in water,
playing Junkyard Symphony's various Groovy Games and sipping coffee. In the middle of it all would be a pool, full of turtles. It's definitely a jumbled idea, but
possibly well worth exploring
There are ancient indigenous stories that speak of the Earth as a turtle, floating in the ocean of space. Maybe the
turtle/ speed bump in the photo is telling us to slow down and reflect on where we live and who we are in the universe.
Often when we move too fast, things start to fall apart. So let's take it slow. And if we want to make sense of life, we can't just focus on one thing. We have to
take all the strange jumble of puzzle pieces and sort them into one work of art. That is the true sign of the times. And that is life. Let's start sorting!
Story title by: Cindy Scott Paquette
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