when i first learned to pick mushrooms as a child it changed me. i no longer looked *at* the ground. instead i looked *into* it. That is a strange place to find yourself. it is a whole new secret world. you learn to see things that other people don't see. it's both empowering and isolating. when you see something beautiful that other people can't see, it doesn't quite seem real. so you seek out people who you can share the experience with. and maybe you find them but then you find another secret world and it's invisible to them, and you are alone again. Nikos kazantzakis said,"seek not friends, but seek comrades in arms." i used to find comfort in that, and inspiration, when i found myself in lonely worlds. now it just makes me feel a little sad, and i miss my friends. then i see something like this. and i think, other people see the elegance and beauty in this, even if they don't hear
the poetic tale that the oil tells about a moment in the life of this ephemeral urban stream.
