The other week I was reminiscing over all of my adventures. It’s funny. For as much as I think I’d like to do with my life, I forget how much I have already done. And although this sounds rationalistic and could potentially excuse the dreams or hopes I might want to become, I feel the thought serves more greatly as a reminder that I have been enjoying living, which should be a point not easily forgetten.
Since being back in New Jersey I have been able to find outlets for the more experiential side of my life, i.e., rock climbing, biking, etc. Somewhere in the processing of transitioning to NJ again I began to revisit the past. This used to be a more normal habit, hanging out with friends, reminiscing about all the crazy adventures we had. These days it seems I have less and less opportunity to laugh about those experiences as life has scattered the paths of those I experienced these adventures with (speaking mainly to the pre-college days). So, in an attempt to (I guess very publicly) tell stories about the past, here begins an account of who I am. I don’t know whether or not I’ll have photographs for everything that comes to mind as I share, so maybe I’ll just write every once in a while.
This first image was definitive for me in my experience of learning aerial moves. Next to water and 3 feet of fresh snow, sand is probably the most forgiving element to land/fall on. I can remember spending afternoons with my friends jumping off sand dunes for hours, and it never seemed to get old. We just got more creative in what we would try. This was peaceful for me, being at the beach, being with community I had been journeying with for a while, being creative, challenged, pumped, floating through the air. It also came in handy later in life when aerial moves saved my life during things such as getting hit by a car while driving on a little moped and flipping over the entire car to land on my feet, layout on my side, and walk immediately away with only two small rips in my jacket. I have always loved the sensation of spinning in the air, it has been a part of who I am for a long time now. I forget his name, but the dude off Chariots of Fire (the movie) said he felt God’s pleasure when he ran. I can definitely say that I have experienced a similar peace while coasting through the air.
I know this is somewhat uncharacteristic of me to write like this, but after posting so many images of what I am photographing I feel I want to shift a bit to include not only my perspective through photographic mediums, but through the medium of my experience. I’ve titled this photo-blog “peace.photo.bock”. I’m not quite sure of the original intent for this title. Besides being a Quaker pacifist, I’ve been called a hippie here in Jersey for eating loca/organic and wearing Chaco’s when it’s way past the season. Maybe that’s partly the “peace” aspect, maybe that’s partly just being Oregonian. Hopefully this run of posts can begin to offer some more light on not only my photographic perspective, but what has brought me peace over the years, and how I hope to bring peace to the places I find myself standing, sitting, eating, skating, surfing, changing diapers, photographing, living, being…
Pictured above: me jumping, my brother, and my close friend from childhood, Jason
Photo credit: Jay Munson
by Joel
show hide 3 comments