Tribute to the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
I want to look at life – at the common places of existence -
as if we had just turned a corner and ran into it on the first time.
- Christopher Fry, 1907-2005
Prague Castle, Czech Republic
I remember a particular business trip to New York early in my career, and being picked up by a car service for the first time at LaGuardia. I breathed in the musky smell of the leather seats, greedily gulped down the proffered bottled water despite not being thirsty, and felt goose bumps of awe rise on my flesh.
For a kid hailing from Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, whose first car had been a Pinto, riding in the back of a chauffeured sedan meant I had arrived. One of my awakenings that I needed to make some changes in my life was the sad realization that I had come to view being whisked around in limos as the drudgery of just another commute, akin to hanging from a strap on the “T.”
My camera has been a portal into seeing life anew, enabling me to examine more closely the passing scenery of my existence. My view finder allows me to apply a filter of wonder to the ordinary I often take for granted. I’ve discovered how pleasing the prosaic can be: a still life of potted plants, keys dangling from a lock, a display of brightly colored scarves, a cat dozing on a window sill, a cluster of autumn leaves floating in the air.
My trusty Nikon has taught me to shift my perspective—when a landscape is too impossibly vast to do it justice, I can instead focus in more depth on a particular aspect of the vista. It doesn’t get much more immense or overwhelming than Prague Castle. Founded around 880, it’s the largest castle complex in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records, with an area of almost 70,000 meters. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it consists of palaces and ecclesiastical buildings of various architectural styles, from Roman-style buildings from the 10th century through Gothic modifications in the 14th century. Its history encompasses aristocrats, courtiers, famous artists, builders, architects, scholars, tradesmen, servants and saints.
The Castle’s Golden Lane, where today’s image was taken, is an ancient, picturesque way, lined with very small and colorful 16th century houses. There are various legends about alchemists who allegedly used to live and work here; writer Franz Kafka resided in house No.22 between 1916 and 1917. Depending on the critique, Kafka’s work is considered either full of futility and anguish, or humor and subversiveness.
British playwright Christopher Fry, quoted today, is said to credit being commissioned to author a play about a saint local to his home of Sussex as validation of his “calling” as a playwright. Fry wrote his plays in verse, saying that poetry was “the language in which man expresses his own amazement” at the complexity both of himself and of a reality which, beneath the surface, was “wildly, perilously, inexplicably fantastic.” A Quaker and pacifist, he gave Richard Burton his first role on Broadway. He said his works were intended to evoke “a world in which we are poised on the edge of eternity, a world which has deeps and shadows of mystery, and God is anything but a sleeping partner.”
The interplay of shadow and light is indeed at the heart of high drama; it is also the very basis on which our perception of the world depends. My life is a little sunnier and more buoyant when I can appreciate the everyday works of art that unveil themselves when I pay attention.
Have you had an unexpected moment of appreciating the arresting in the “ordinary”? Do tell! You would make my day a little less mundane by sharing such an experience!
