Meditations I

I . . . illusion.  [I know I skipped “H” and trust you’ll understand in a few days.]  Remember, click on a foto to enlarge it.

Illusion . . . bedevils me . . . and lots of other folks.  I sometimes create pain for myself by believing the “truth” I want rather than what my senses (including hearing) tell me.  Clinging to such illusions might confound lots of people;  illusions might also doom groups of people.  “Group-think” has led more than one vessel–real or metaphorical–onto the rocks.

This post is then intended to have fun with potential illusions of the optical sort.  The tall white chimney directly above the house of Pilot No. 1 New York stands at least 300 feet from the vessel.  I tend not to photoshop my fotos, but if I removed the hint of foliage between vessel and chimney set back on the shore,  I could get SeaBart kind of excited.  By the way, what is that chimney?   And, anyone know the place/date of construction of Pilot No. 1 and 2?

While on the topic of pilot boats, recently I caught Yankee and USCG Wire (WYTL 65612)  milliseconds from what appeared to be collision.

Some Native American myth calls the North America continent “turtle island,” since the “bedrock” of the  continent was in fact a gigantic turtle where a hapless “sky woman” had created a new life for herself.  In the foto below, a clamshell dredge seems to fill a vast barge on which a metropolis with a skyline greatly resembling Manhattan’s also exists.  I guess that could suggest “barge island” as a synonym for that boro.

I’m an admirer of Don Sutherland’s fotos and sense of humor.  Twice in the past year, using the magic (ok . .  illusion) of juxtaposition, he has created fun compositions.  In one, Ruth Reinauer seems to have the Statue of Liberty loaded onto its afterdeck.  In another, an unidentified tug seemed to carry a zigzag ladder on its boatdeck to reach grant access to the Weehawken cliff.  Here’s my version:  a ladder from the top of buoy 13 almost directly to Franklin Reinauer‘s upper house.

Finally, (and NO this blog is not transforming into a pet gallery but if my friend Peter can link to a LOLcats version of Moby Dick, then I feel licensed to proceed) the foto below shows the same green bird that appeared so regal and calm in yesterday’s post.  The image is a video still showing said-bird’s displeasure with a video camera.  Might this illusion give rise to a sixth boro version of the Montauk monster?  Which is the true nature of the bird–this view or yesterday’s.  Or . . . am I my truer self on one of my best–or worst–days?  Maybe the possible choice is just the real illusion.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp except the one of the illusory evil parrot, taken by Elizabeth.