Account -- Ability, Day 11

I recall posting a photo on FB recently of sunlight coming through the window and striking the counter in my kitchen. Below it I wrote, "I love light!"

When I was in aht school studying photography for an advanced aht degree, instructors, who knew more about the meaning of aht than I did, told me that images of light striking a thing or a place may be attention-getting, but in reality have very little meaning. No value. No lesson to teach the viewer. For a while I went along with them, thinking yeah, well, light is only light, and so what.

But more than 25 years removed from those well-meaning aht gurus, I've changed my mind. I know I said in this space a few days ago that life is running and running is life. I still believe it. But in concurrence with that conviction is my belief that light is life and life is light. What is the worst torture one human can inflict on another (or in some cases inflict on a helpless animal)? Depriving that being of light. Throwing him or her in the darkest dungeon, turning the key, and walking away.

When I see objects suffused with light or checkered with shadows juxtaposed with light, I find profound meaning. Some astronomers say we earthlings are all of us made of stars that exploded eons ago and in their disintegration gave life not only to our world but to all the living beings therein.

The hell with AHT. When I see light that pierces my heart, I try to create an image of it. I try to capture its--dare I say it?--meaning. Even if my work is perceived by those who seem to know better than I do as mere glitz, I see it as a frozen nanosecond of the shifting, somersaulting light that all of us are blessed with in all the days of our lives. If I can freeze this nanosecond of wondrous illumination, I can hold it to my heart. My heart, in fact, demands that I hold it, that I live in the light. No dark dungeons for me.