I collect quotations. I started doing it when I was working--I had a wipe board on the door of my office and I'd post a new quote everyday. People would stop by my office, read the quote, and add their unique thoughts. Throughout the day, people would stop to read the board, and sometimes the quote and/or the thoughts would generate a discussion that turned into a nice break and distraction from some of the daily tedium. Now, I try to marry the quotes with pictures that seem to speak to eachother. It took me awhile, but I finally came across the perfect quote for this picture. "Everything is to be viewed as though for the first time . . . the imagination has its eternal naivete." In the context of the article in which Martin Amis quotes Saul Bellow ("'There is Simply Too Much to Think About,' Saul Bellow's Nonfiction", The New York Times, 27 Apr 2015), this refers to the connection that is necessary between artist and viewer/writer and reader. There is no egotism, Amis says, only "reawaken[ing] the childhood perceptions of your 'original eyes' and trust[ing] your 'first heart'." I say, there's something about pelicans. This is a brown pelican that lives year-round in Florida, to be distinguished from a white pelican which migrates in-season. They are literally everywhere (well, everywhere there's water). My inner child sees these interesting creatures and each time it's as if I've never seen one before. Now, if only I can apply this simple approach to my writing.
Crystal River, Florida, March 2021
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