Dear Reader, you know by now if you’ve followed these posts, that I view Categories as useful but deceptive fictions, falsifying reality. When I make submissions for juried exhibitions or photo competitions, I always like to include some images that most people would either think did not fit the advertised theme or that push the judge or judges to stretch their notions of it. I’ve taken satisfaction from cases in which a global panel felt that a submission of mine could not be squeezed into the usual demarcations. This year, I received an Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards for a series called “The Friend Who.” Here is one of the submitted photographs from that ongoing series, “The Friend Whose Father Is Space, Whose Mother Is Silence”:

What I loved was that the panel couldn’t even decide that this belonged in one of the general categories, much less which sub-category was appropriate, so that they gave the honor in “Special/Other.”

Here’s where the Christmas Surprise for you comes in. Does the photo I’m about to tell you about qualify for the commonly-used “Found Object” category? I might decide to see if some exhibition juror thinks so, just for my own interest and amusement.

Recently, I was out walking with my camera, as I often do, like the bear in the nursery rhyme who went over the mountain “to see what he could see.”  Passing through the local railroad station, I saw a handwritten paper note taped to one of the train passenger shelters.  The picture that I took of that note is inserted below, but in case you can’t read the text from that, here is what it says:

“YOUR SMILE IS BEAUTIFUL!  IF YOU SEE THIS IT IS A SIGN THAT EVEN THOUGH LIFE CAN BE OVERWHELMING AT TIME, YOU WILL MAKE IT THROUGH.  SMILE  BECAUSE TODAY Y0U ARE HERE, GIVEN THE CHANCE TO CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT.

FROM

YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL                  “

What moved me even more than the message was the thought of the spirit of the person who wrote this out and left it for whatever strangers might happen to see it.  May such selfless generosity of spirit fill your days and animate you, too, throughout the holiday and the coming New Year.

Merry Christmas and “God bless us, every one”!