Moving Right Along: Focus

Boneman brought up gathering rocks in a sack, reminding me of the rock stacks I'd see outside Buddhist temples in Korea. Both achieve the same result, that is, focusing the mind on simple task that has no purpose other than to help us focus, quiet our mind and draw us inward.

I suspect that is why I enjoy cameras. It isn't so much the picture that matters as tinkering with the camera itself. The mechanics cause me to focus closely yet allow part of my mind time for quiet introspection - keeping the wild "monkey mind" that tends to jump quickly from one thing to another, carefully channeled with a motor based task. My version of mindless rock stacking. This coupled with the usual solitude of my location allows me to listen to that inner voice, to find my own way vice rely on the opinions or thoughts of others, my distillation unadulterated by the thoughts of others.

Of course this amounts to a moment here and there, eventually I must stop and press the shutter release, but cling to the moment in time where all is still as long as possible. Mind you this is only possible while taking pictures of a saguaro that has stood in one spot for literally hundreds of years, my grandson is quick and is strictly an auto-focus point and shoot kind of situation. But I envy him the fact he is his own man, relys on his own perceptions, is yet to be tainted by outside opinion and has developed the self-reliance we should all foster in ourselves.