Life and Disjunction

Life and disjunction. Nothing seems to hang together the way it should. Or could. While some of the players remain the same - parents, siblings, peripheral relatives, kids and grandkids - there is a distinctly disjunctive theme to life. My life, at any rate.

I've lived thither and yon, sometimes at the needs of a parental unit - as my daughter now refers to the individuals who give rise to and raise children - and sometimes at my own needs or whims. I'm no longer sure which is which - the need or the whim. Is it wanderlust or the absolute need to relocate for some truly viable reason? A job. An educational institution. A marriage. Career advancement. Running away from home - perhaps this is whimsy, although it might also be survival.

What is disjunctive in life gives rise to that which we end up dwelling upon with intimates, therapists, spiritual counselors, and others. It is what propels me to write, to figure out the why, the what next, the what would have happened if, the how things could have been different.

What is it that brings you to place pen to paper? Fingers to keyboard? Or perhaps an eye to the lens in order to capture some moment in a visual mode? Is it the bits of life that don't fit together easily? Those bits that flow smoothly like a slow moving river? A few years ago I caught this young enjoying the warm July day at Castle Island Park in South Boston. Is there a disjunction between his activities or a smooth flow? We never spoke. I wonder - a cell phone to take a call from a friend, take a photo of his kite, or because he didn't want to fly a kite and is sneaking in a call while a parent isn't looking?

It will always be a mystery and the picture will always be open to interpretation.