Yesterday morning, Rudi and I drove to the mountains for a day hike and to practice our landscape photography in the Lincoln National Forest. Usually, we have horizon-to-horizon clear skies and intense sunshine. This weekend, however, it has been overcast and cool. As spoiled as I am now with my daily dose of fusion photon therapy, it was nice to have some different weather to photograph in. We came back tired and with lovely atmospheric images of lichen covered boulders and fire scarred trees.

https://www.gtripp.com/portfolio/new-mexico

Rudi printed one of my favorite images from several years ago earlier last week, and today, I finally framed it with a custom mat made with help from a very nice person at the Hobby Lobby here in town. I'd like to hang it in our office suite at the college. If approved, it will be my very first photograph available to view IRL in a public space. Sarah is also on my ass about selling some of my work, so that may become a thing too in the near future.

Like perhaps many people in my culture, I aspire to own things. I also aspire to be as free as is possible. Where I struggle is in the understanding of what that means within the context of a broader view of humanity that I hold. The fact that I will soon be dead kind of means that I can't really "own" anything. I also doubt very much that there is such a thing as unfettered personal liberty or, probably, even free will.