"As for man, his days are as grass:
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it,
and it is gone;
and the place thereof shall know it no more." (excerpted from Psalm 103)
I love reading the Old Testament poets and sages. The use of simple images of observed life convey monumental universal truths. The images came to life in my mind when working with pictures so I added bible texts to emphasize the image as I felt the bible text had impressed on me. The texts are from the KJV in the public domain.
The image above is a simple grass stem that has gone to seed. It was standing on the side of the pond and I imagine will provide food for the ducks at one point in its life here.
The image directly below is the same image as above with the colors inverted and enhanced. When I saw the blue appear I knew something interesting would develop.
While watching the changes occur in the image this passage from the book of Job came to mind. Job is very interesting to read as men understood life at a much more basic level than they do today. These were men who depended on the natural forces to be in order in order for them to survive. It was these natural forces to which Jesus appealed when he referred to the beneficence of his father in providing day to day necessities. He called this providence the basis of faith and trust in God, his 'Father'.
An audio recording of the book of Job is available at the link at LibriVox.org where you can find an entire collection of free audio books which are in the public domain. http://librivox.org/job-king-james-version/
This basic,'mean' way of living was also to be a means of connecting them to God in that they were directly dependent on the natural world to produce what it was they needed.
Today there are intermediaries between man, seed time and harvest. We call them money and supermarkets. They have effectively taken the role that God has traditionally held in the experience of man. I suppose this is the beast spoken of by the mystic John in Revelation. In effect our culture has become an alternative to God.
Original photography the property of David H. Roche Copyright 2011
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