Sailing the rainbow...
You're beautiful beyond words | You're beautiful to me | You can make me cry | Never say goodbye.
I've been shooting birds recently. With my camera. I figure the best way to learn to use the thing is to use it as often as possible. And birds offer great opportunity for learning to point, focus, and shoot without thinking.
Using optical zoom poses another challenge, i.e. retaining focus.
In case it's not clear, this shot is of a bird sailing a rainbow. It's a lucky shot, I guess, in that the opportunity to take it will not crop up again anytime soon.
It made me think of Tuesday. On Tuesday, I'll have been married to Wendy for twenty-five years. Yeah... it'll be our silver wedding anniversary. Who'd a' thunk it, eh? It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. She's the other half of what I am.
Love? What is it? How does one love differ from another? Why does it live on, despite us? As long and as hard as I've thought on it, I don't know. I reckon, no matter your religion — or lack thereof, St. Paul says it best.
So, because a bird sailing a rainbow says something I cannot put in words, this picture's for my wife. We've sailed the rainbow together a long time. It ain't always been easy but, hell, it's made us the people we are. And, if truth be told — and despite my many foibles and inadequacies, I'm pretty content with who I've become.
I owe much of that contentment to my parents, my family, my kids (of whom I'm inordinately proud), and my many friends — one or two of whom I really miss — who've helped us through some bloody difficult times.
But most of all, I owe it to Wendy, the bird, and that rainbow in the sky.
Time is all I have to give | You can have it if you choose | With me you can live | Never say goodbye.
Bob Dylan | Never Say Goodbye
