Back in the Dr.Seuss forest I remembered a tree that had grown completely around a barbed wire. I wanted to capture the idea in an image, but after several unsuccessful attempts, I turned my camera elsewhere, thinking,"Gosh, this just isn't all that great looking, why not get a shot of this enormous broken tree"

Beside me was the breaking point of a large dead tree that had recently fallen.

When I got home, I realized that the shot of the dead tree insides was cooler than most of the barbed wire shots.

It seems so obvious to me. Why I am frustrated. I always want the shot of the barbed wire, but the enormous dead tree is staring me in the face! See, Isn't that obvious? I am speaking of the metaphor. If life gives you a dead tree, take a picture!

Perhaps a picture will help illustrate my point.

So, I thought, it's dead trees and textures that are cool! Of course, as soon as you are ready with a camera, most of the interesting things you saw earlier seem to hide.

Since I only took one picture of the tree interior, I thought I might take a few more, you know, frame them nicely. But, this time, in a short period of time, the fresh broken wood had weathered grey.

There's always that barbed wire...

It's kind of a cool image, but what I like about this wire is the essence. The idea that the tree has grown here, enveloping the wire, for perhaps fifty years! My shot does not show this. Some things are just hard to convey.

Music has a similar frustration. There are essences that cannot be put into words or pictures. Harmonic structures that live in ones conscious, exciting when performed, but are so boring to talk about. Math has an elegance that is all but anhilated by textbooks.

The moral might go a little something like this: "Don't use words to describe music" Of course "Quit blabbing about stuff" might be equally fitting.

There are lots of little gems in the forest. I leave you with a particularly colorful grimace from a log.