pauses&clicks

When I was in grade school I learned how to draw perspective using the tried and true “railroad tracks lined with telephone poles” method of drawing.

That intrigued me.

None of it actually made sense. My eyes played tricks on me, making me believe that two lines eventually converged and the space between them got narrow, as they receded into the distance, yet I knew that wasn’t reality.  I knew in my rational brain that no matter how far I walked along those tracks, I would never find the point where they converged.

Lines that disappear into the distance have been a fascination ever since, or at least the desire to find that convergence. At the very least, to mess with those lines, to blur them, to pull the viewer in and lead them beyond, to entice them into whatever world waits beyond the place that they can see.

I thought perhaps I’d find the perfect subject this week when I traveled to California with my husband.  I would explore Palo Alto while he worked at Stanford, then the two of us would spend the weekend in San Francisco.  I imagined the perfect convergence of lines as my camera explored an American icon, The Golden Gate Bridge.

A tragic death in our family required us to cut our trip short before it even started so the bridge was out, and then, in the realm of “stupid random things that happen to people,” I popped something behind my knee when I exited my seat on the plane in California.  As they wheeled me to the airport health clinic I feared this image would be my only response to this week’s photo challenge:

I envisioned three days in a hotel room with no walking.

Fortunately, a day of ice, several doses of Ibuprofen, and a really good brace gave me the confidence to explore the area despite the circumstances, so I do have a small gallery to share.  The Stanford campus and Palo Alto did not disappoint.

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Then ultimately, one morning I found the perfect converging lines.

Making true the words in the Rolling Stones song….

“You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime you find
You get what you need.”