The rains are back in Southern California. This afternoon, I’m lucky enough to be working at home. Glancing out of my window, I noticed this, and scrambled on to the roof via our rickety ladder. I thought of the last (and first, as far as I can remember) time I saw a full rainbow touching down on both sides like this: over Lake Superior last summer, following an intense thunderstorm during my residency on Isle Royale. There I was alone, and the encounter with light felt intensely personal, almost spiritual. Here I got to share this with others, like the couple in raincoats I noticed climbing the stairs on the hillside nearby.
I was reading today about collective experiences as temporary unifications of subjectivities — the subjectivities that constitute our city, for example. In Los Angeles, we’re more starved for these than in other more pedestrian-oriented urban environments. It’s nice to remember that a shared phenomenon doesn’t have to be a car accident, or smoke from a wildfire.
wow! what a magical experience!
makes me think of the importance of “the glance”, looking outside of a narrow range of focus every now and again. seems like thats where so much is happening that we often never notice. guess that seems like a pretty obvious thing to say, but i like the dialectical / dichotomous relationship between the “gaze” and the “glance” …..
I will not post on every entry, I promise. So… awesome cloud shot in the most recent helicopter post. But also I am so interested in this second paragraph here – what were you reading?