I suspect that all of us, at one time or another, has longed for some material possession that seemed beyond our reach. Such objects of desire blind us with their allure, dazzle us with their perfection, and make us ache for their unattainable virtues. It is human nature. We want what we can not have, reach for what is just beyond our grasp. Whatever it's guise or it's form, we have, all of us, fallen in love with the magical qualities of a Metallic Blue Kustom Kruiser. And had to have it. Dreamed of having it. From Santa Claus, the birthday wish, or the year-end bonus. Because calling a Metallic Blue Kustom Kruiser your very own will make us smarter, better looking and more popular. Just you wait and see.
A Metallic Blue Kustom Kruiser is never more perfect than the first day you ride it. But time passes, you become a little wiser, a little more worldly, and a little less innocent. And as the chrome begins to dull, the sprocket rust and the paint chip, you realize that the Metallic Blue Kustom Kruiser is just another bicycle. One that gets flat tires, catches your pant leg in the chain and is no longer as shiny as this year's new bicycle. Not as perfect. Not like the red one. The one that caught your eye in the store window.
And as time passes, the Metallic Blue Kustom Kruiser no longer has the same pull at your heart strings, the same fascination nor the same power to thrill you like it first thrilled you. We are fickle creature, we humans. With fickle desires. Eventually, perhaps inevitably, the bicycle that once seemed like the center of your world will be relegated to a corner of the basement. Then moved out to the garage, and ultimately, in the manner of the way these things go, the Metallic Blue Kustom Kruiser is wheeled out into the alley. Where it is abandoned to the fates and the dark forces of the universe. Perhaps with a twinge of guilt, maybe a little sadness, but more probably with a callous calculation about the limits of storage space.
The thing is, there's a little Metallic Blue Kustom Kruiser in all of us. And the back alley is not that far away.
Shot with an Apple iPhone 3GS.
- Vince Hemingson
Posts
Great one Vinnie..the blue matallic kruiser is such a parallel for many other possessions and desires, as well. Nicely written..thank u for the obsevation and comment.
ReplyDeleteVince..
ReplyDeleteYa know something...I think you've really found your niche. Your commentary on the bike thing was thrilling.
As a consumer of 'Art', we're supposed to do that sort of thinking ourselves, but who ever does? Perhaps a few flickering thoughts in that direction, but when the image comes packaged with a story or anaylsis or reflection, it becomes 3-D. We can look and look again and look some more. Suddenly we've ridden that bike ourselves, we want it back again. We've done the same thing ourself, thrown out our own history. We've thrown out a piece of art, for god's sake! What have I done! Or, it's just a matter of knowing enough about an image to begin to have a relationship with it. Just enough info so that there's a story behind it. The bike becomes a story. And suddenly it has as much nourishing value as any other story that's much more expensively wrapped up in a film can or between hard covers or on the tube.
We can't get enough 'stories' (a psychological phenomenon that somebody should do a PhD thesis on) and here is a story in one frame. Our gloriously hungry minds fill in all the many blanks. As a consumer of stories, as a man with a hungry heart and soul, I appreciate the economy and the personal participation that comes with such small stories.
Good work!
PJ
http://www.pjreece.ca/blog/wordpress/
Loved it! This is great writing Vince. I really enjoy the stories that you are framing around each new picture. I sent this one along to my Dad and it sparked a good chin wag.
ReplyDeleteRick
I love the bike photo! I had one just like that when I was a girl. I worked all summer delivering phone books in Cranbrook and Kimberley to afford it. I rode that thing till high school. I only gave it up cause it gave out. :( I read your blog and had all kinds of mixed feelings......I am so not someone to move on to the red bike - I love keeping things. I kinda get a high off it. I still have favorite jeans from the 80's . Fav sweaters from my teens......Ahhhh.....love it. Keep on going! I am enjoying your adventures.
ReplyDeleteKatherine
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm crazy about that piece of writing. I liked the photo as well, but it was the writing that knocked my socks off. I am guessing that it flowed when you wrote it. Did it come easily - kind of write itself? I'm still thinking about the last two sentences.
ReplyDeleteK A J