ThirstyFish

I love the serious look on the face. Photographed on South Street, Philadelphia.

Whenever I get a chance, I go for random photo-walks. But I rarely get what I want:

• I climbed upon a plum tree
• To pluck the grapes I found there.
• The owner of the garden called to me,
• "Why are you eating my walnuts?"

Street Photography is like climbing that tree. You rarely end up with what you hope for. The above verse is by the 13th century Turkish Sufi poet Yunus Emre. The name Yunus translates as Jonah. Yunus, like most Sufi poets, was a passionate humanist.

In Sufism, it is believed that one must go through three stages to reach intuitive knowledge of spiritual truth. In the poem, the plum represents entering the path, the grape, treading on the path of self-discipline and constant awareness, and the walnut, a higher level of consciousness that is in harmony with the universe. Needless to say, "the owner of the garden" is God.

Song of the Day: Shine Like it Does - INXS (1985)