IN A STRANGE PLACE

Here or there? Mending or not? The yellow woman or the blue? Not sure yet. Sometimes the body says: stop! A vicious virus kept me in bed for more than two weeks, divided from thought as much as from action. Recovering, but not yet recovered. Walking around, going to work, but coughing, aching, heavy still and mostly divided still from thought. Few words, few pictures. Not much of anything, except lying down with the radio on, muttering fear and disaster from Iraq, Virginia and the Dover Straits into my left ear. Drifting, spinning in the world's woes without the usual solid, selfish sense of me planted in the foreground of consciousness, keeping them at bay. Badly needing now to reattach the rest of me to that left ear. Coming back to mind and body and routine, unfamiliar and disoriented. Nearly there. Not quite.

Comments

[kurt]

You're within distance! Keep coming.

[marja-leena]

Sorry to hear you've been so very ill - yet you write about it so well, with just the right images. Warm wishes for a return to full health and energy, Jean, I've missed you!

[Stray]

Oh jean! feel better soon I hope - that sounds dreadful, and long enough to stretch anyone's patience.

Be well, take care of yourself.

Sx

[Dave]

The images go so well with this. Good to hear from you.

[Tall Girl]

It is so good to see you back, Jean. I have wondered how you were doing. Sometimes getting sick is the body's way to stop us when we're going too fast...I'm sure you know this, but it didn't seem so surprising to learn that you had been ill. Take the recovery slow and gentle.

[Richard Lawrence Cohen]

If you can write, "Drifting, spinning in the world's woes," you're not doing badly at all. Great to see you back, Jean.

[tamarika]

Hello dear Jean,
How good to read your poetic words and hear from you again. I have been stopping by and wondering, wondering ... was just preparing to drop you a line today. A big strong cyber hug is coming your way. Remember, we have a date! Get better soon and stay well for a good, long, while ...
Smiles.

[L M]

Good to see you surfacing, Jean, even if you're not fully up into the clear yet. I hope these comments help to boist you. Stay away from the news radio! - music??

[zhoen]

Poor dear. It's a long, miserable process. Thinking about you.

[Natalie]

Jean, I agree you chose the perfect images for this post. Sorry you were hit by this vicious bug which has been causing misery all over the place. It got to several people I know and got me earlier this year. Your description exactly fits how it felt, for several weeks. But you're on the mend, your lovely post proves it and the sun is out so I hope you're soaking up its benevolent warmth.

[Brenda]

Sorry to hear you've been 'down under' with a virus, and glad to hear you're 'coming back up' and getting better. That first image, it's so striking. Is it just me or has your photography begun to reach a new level - it's gone past the autobiographical, though that's there, as accompaniment to a post, and is, well, becoming art. I mean to say already is. Composition, lighting, colour, texture, resonances... beautiful work, Jean. The photograph, the mannequins, yellow and blue, the clothing, the mirror, self-portraits, culture, the lighting, the building at the back, and then the post of your difficulties with a bad bout of flu and the violence of the world, conflagrations in the Middle East, the impossibility of uniting the full dream of compassion because such horrendous violence continues, which added other layers to the image. Your photograph of those manniquins just got richer. Our masks. The fashion of ourselves. Posture/posturing. The way we are all faceless as well. Do read Derrida's book on the blind... it's so good. Without tears, we don't see the other as human, as real, and how can we offer compassion if we don't see the other as ourselves?

[Lucy]

'spinning in the world's woes without the usual solid, selfish sense of me planted in the foreground of consciousness,'
that's stunning, Jean. On the one hand I'm inclined to agree with LM perhaps better to take some time out of listening to news, on the other with Richard that if you can think and write like that you're doing well. The time of recovery after illness can be a cherishable one, painful at times, but with sharpened perceptions and sensibilities like no other. But don't push it; tout doucement!

[Zinnia Cyclamen]

Glad you're on the mend.

[Bitterroot]

I'm very glad you're back, Jean. So good to hear that healing is under way and that you're around and about again.

[udge]

Hello Jean, I'm glad to hear that you are recovering. I had no idea you were ill, I thought your silence was "just" thinking about a change of direction. Gute Besserung!

[dale]

xoxoxoxoxo

So good to see you!

[MB]

Be well, dear Jean. You've been missed.