Recollections, reviews, discoveries, and future plans.
ambedo - n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details-raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee. --- All the gorgeous beach and desert footage was shot and contributed by reader Jeff Dotson. Check out more of his work at http://www.andeffects.com or on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/dotson
opia - n. the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable--their pupils glittering, bottomless and opaque--as if you were peering through a hole in the door of a house, able to tell that there's someone standing there, but unable to tell if you're looking in or looking out.
Another day, another week, another year. We've heard this song before. Our lives are built of the same few notes, repeated over and over. It's not a grand symphony, full of surprises. It's a song sung in canon, that simply carries on, until the tune gets stuck in your head.
We take it for granted that life moves forward. But you move as a rower moves, facing backwards-you can see where you've been, but not where you're going. And your boat is steered by a younger version of you. It's hard not to wonder what life would be like facing the other way...
sonder - n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. From "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" (www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com) Narrated, written, directed, edited and coined by John Koenig. ..... "Sonder. You are the main character-the protagonist-the star at the center of your own unfolding story.
vemödalen - n. the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist-the same sunset, the same waterfall, the same curve of a hip, the same closeup of an eye-which can turn a unique subject into something hollow and pulpy and cheap, like a mass-produced piece of furniture you happen to have assembled yourself.
nodus tollens n. the realization that the plot of your life doesn't make sense to you anymore-that although you thought you were following the arc of the story, you keep finding yourself immersed in passages you don't understand, that don't even seem to belong in the same genre-which requires you to go back and reread the chapters you had originally skimmed to get to the good parts, only to learn that all along you were supposed to choose your own adventure.
