week 38
ronet
Time has no divisions to mark its passing. There is never a thunderstorm to announce the beginning of a new month or year. — Thomas Mann
We’re coming to the end of the year. By that, we mean we’re coming to the point in time designated by the most commonly used Earth calendar as the ending of one orbital period of this planet around the star we refer to as the Sun, and the beginning of a new orbital period. We identify that point in time as midnight on the last day of December. It’s not so much because it’s the end of the last day of December, but because it’s the beginning of the first day of January. January, named for the Roman god Janus, the god of doors and locks and gates and passages, the god of transitions — the god of two faces, one looking back and one looking forward.
There is, of course, no actual universal transition point between 2013 and 2014. It’s what we call a fiducial reference point. Fiducial, from the Latin fido, meaning to trust, to take on faith. We just accept as a matter of trust and faith that on midnight of the 31st day of December something has changed.
And it has. Every moment is a fiducial reference point. Everything changes. Everything is always changing. Now is only ‘now’ now. And then it’s ‘then.’ Except in photography. In photography everything is always now.
Editorial note: This photo was taken now at some point on September 21st, 2013. There was no thunderstorm to mark the occasion.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
