"Ephphata!" Mk 7:31-37

"Ephphata!" I think it's Latin. More on what that menas later... The image is a close up of an ornate drain cover for a water feature in the poolside area of the lucious Tamaya Resort Hotel, just north of town. The design of a drain cover for a water feature is intersting, as it is intended to be a piece of art on its own. Yet, people walk by it, not noticing it. I loved the weathered and patina look it has aquired over the years. If you look closely, you'll notice how the water is pooling in the nooks and crannies. This is one of the top ten images I've taken in the past few months. But, I was in a quandry as to what to "name" it. Then, during the reading of the gospel at church a few weeks ago, this was the phrase that Jesus uttered when performing a miracle on a deaf and mute man. "Ephphata!" means, "be opened". When I heard this, I realized that this was the perfect title for this piece. When we close our ears and heart to others and the world, nothing can pass through; nothing can be 'heard'. And, what does not pass through becomes static and stagnant. For me, this image starts off as something concrete and common; the ornate drain cover. In taking a close up of just a part of it, it becomes an abstraction. Within that abstraction comes a meaning that transcends day to day life. I'm not that clever, really, but I think in keeping myself open to possibilites, I expand my universe and perhaps my understaning of life. Yet, for me, the quest to understand life remains a perpetual enigma...