A Fishing Photo and the Pale Blue Dot

Here’s one of my favorite photos from the river.

In it, a lone angler stands tiny amid the infinity of a river, while a wall of pines in the background soars skyward.

I get contemplative looking at the photo and feel quite small, almost insignificant. The fly fisher is like a grain of sand in a world both towering and dynamic, recalling how the universe, in all its majesty and fullness, surrounds us and dominates us, and yet also makes up our skin and bones. For any one of us, beneath our loves and disappointments, beneath our griefs and hopes and yearnings, we are atoms all, mere elements poured from stars, navigating a planet born the same way.

Sorta brings to mind Carl Sagan. Which, if you aren’t familiar, is a reference to the Pale Blue Dot, one of the greatest odes to our common humanity ever written. If you haven’t already, watch it now! Start at the beginning and watch till 3:40. It’ll stir your soul, I promise.

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To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

Carl Sagan

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Anyway, back to the photo. To me it’s the visual representation of what we all feel when we’re on the river alone. The trees are swaying and the warblers are singing and the water is dancing and flowing, all of it bringing forth a sacred peace that absorbs us. And for a moment, all is well.

Hopefully, more photos like this to come. If this is what my iPhone can do, I can’t wait to see what a big-boy camera will accomplish.