You Never Know
My thanks to those of you who expressed sorrow for the passing of Mr. Wuss. I think the death of a pet stirs fears we all harbor: For children, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, friends and for ourselves. Some might say, well, he's only a cat and that's true, but the emotions plumbed are tied to the death that comes to us all. So I'm sad about Wuss, but I'm OK about Wuss. Life has these little kickers, it seems, built right into the fabric and a cat hunkered down with his head on his paws staring off into the distance as a vet shaves a spot on his leg for the needle, nothing in the god damned world you can do to help him, is one little kicker I'd just as soon not repeat very often, no real explanation required. So we'll get on with living with an occasional kind thought for a cat (and a father and a cousin and my aunts and my uncles and my grand parents) and leave it at that. Good luck out there Wuss, good luck to all of us.
Now, onward (though the fog). I stumbled onto a jazz concert last Saturday in front of Oakland City Hall thinking I'd drive down near the office and have something nice for lunch and decide, once all of this had come together - where to eat, what to eat - where I should go, once I'd finished, to look for photographs, since I'd lugged along the camera bag with the second camera and enough accessories and film to shoot the allied invasion of Italy. Hitting the cash machine near the City Center I heard music and discovered a jazz concert being given by one of the local FM jazz stations in front of Oakland City Hall. About jazz, in this case "mellow jazz", I know nothing. I watched the public television series on jazz, or Jazz, not sure which, and enjoyed it a whole lot, but of jazz I know nothing. Still, all these people gathered together meant photographs. I was on a roll.
I would like to say they turned out well. A crowd with their backs to you packed together on blankets and lawn chairs around a stage isn't altogether easy to shoot and my results were mixed, but all in all, a good day's shooting, a lucky day's shooting. Wuss, well Wuss happened on Sunday in the early afternoon, and I forgot about Earth Day Saturday and my photography lesson, but summer is coming, the days are warm and the sun is shining and Mr. Wuss is at peace and I, come to think of it, am coming to peace as well, and I think I'll shoot some photographs, some snapshots, and enjoy my time in the sun before my own turn comes on the table staring into the light or into the dark (you never know).
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