Nook Overlook

Sleepwalking 



Nothing has any meaning to me other than the meaning that I give to it.  This is certainly clear about the fake marigolds in the vase in front of me next to the oversized red and white drinking mug half filled with ice to my right and the paper plate containing brownie crumbs to my left on the pie shaped oaken table in our kitchen nook.



When I look up from the table, I see a print of Willem DaFoe enclosed within a rectangle. Willem is semi bare chested and looking to his right. 



Above the rectangle enclosing Willem is written the name ANNIE LEIBOVITZ. When I get closer to the poster, I see that it commemorates a visit by Leibovitz to the Rochester Institute of Technology School of Photography. If I look even closer, I see that the print has been signed and personalized by Annie "to Lynn and Ice". 



I remember when Annie signed the poster, Lynn was carrying our infant daughter in her arms and Annie commented " what a beautiful child she is". 



We liked Annie immediately. We appreciated her sense of beauty. A couple of days later we had the poster framed. We've moved twice since that day but in all three of our homes, the poster has been prominently displayed as it is here in our empty nest from which Mary has flown. 



Many, many days I walk by this poster and never even notice it. 



Today I realized once again that it, like everything else, has no meaning other than the meaning that I attach to it. 



Obviously it has great meaning to me when I decide to appreciate it, which is rare.

Most of the time, it has no meaning at all.

The poster has become organic and thus  it is as invisible as it is essential in the meaningless world of somnambulistic routine.