Play - A Critical Step

Play is a critical step in the synthesis process.

The Gift of the Fireflies

Last night, a friend of mine gave me the gift of the fireflies. "They live in the fields," he said. "At this time of year, they are just covered with them." Well, absent a conveniently located field, I thought I would try a nearby vacant lot filled with tall grass instead. To my intense delight, I encountered hundreds of blinking fireflies, winking off and on, on and off! It was like watching a well-crafted poem in action. The rhythm of their blinks created a percussive background onto which was overlayed a number of other motifs, created by the height and depth of their constantly moving locations in the compositional space (in this case, the grassy
field). It was lovely--particularly when combined with the symphonic accompaniment provided by the sounds of the crickets, the frogs, and the breeze.

I tried to photograph them and learned a lot about the flash settings for nighttime photos on my camera, but I didn't have much luck with the fireflies themselves. I thought that I might be able to capture them using the movie feature on my camera instead . . . but when that also yielded less than satisfactory results, I finally just put the camera away. I stood and watched until I could no longer stand the mosquitoes--laughing at the fact that I had been so much more interested in capturing the experience so that I could share it with others than in actually experiencing it!

Colors

The blue in her had spent her entire life trying to explain the green and the gold in her to the rest of the world.