Vintage

June 27

I am thankful for vintage. The word vintage is often associated with antique musical instruments. I love the way they look and the way they sound. When the word vintage is associated with wine, it generally means that most of the grapes used in the making of the wine came from the same season but it is sometimes used to represent quality. A more general defiinition of vintage is classic or ageless quality. I like that term ageless quality.

This is a photo taken in an antique store in Pontchatoula of a musical instrument display, mostly of vintage guitars.

old

they say i am getting on

another way to say that i am old

but i’d rather say i’m vintage

and that they broke the original mold.

© rt tulley

Shutters and Doors

June 26

I am thankful for shutters and doors. Not only can they be good looking but they also have several functions. These items have several things in common: they can be used for privacy, security, to keep out the sunlight, to protect against weather, and for just plain aesthetics to spruce up the looks of houses and buildings. Although I don't have them, I like shutters that have the purpose of protection from the elements, ie., those shutters that can be closed over windows. These come in quite handy in south Louisiana where we get many hurricanes. Just as old shutters and doors have many purposes, so too do the things we dress our personal bodily exterior facades in. The things we wear can be for comfort, aesthetics, serve a function, etc.

This is a photo of an outdoor shop in Pontchatoula, Louisiana, and the assorted old shutters and doors they sell. I liked the way the shutters were arranged on display against the outdoor stairway.

shutters and doors

i’ve got many shutters

and i’ve got many doors

i can hang them up

or leave them on my floors

but unless i use them

they are just like any old thing

they’re useless takers of space

and no advantage do they bring.

© rt tulley

Layers

June 25

I am thankful for layers. As a person who uses photoshop extensively for processing photos, layers have been important to me. Layers allow one to change what is visible in the photo without affecting the original photograph, so you can always go back to the original and start over, or reduce the opacity of certain layers to minimize the effect. Layers build upon one another so that the final version of what you see is a composite of all the layers. From a psychological point of view, layers of personality are added one by one and can be stripped away one by one when changes need to be made. One of my favorite undergraduate teachers at LSU was a professor of psychology named Dr. Edwin Timmons. He spoke of our personality as an onion, with each layer representing new things you add on top of the old. He often said to overcome abnormal behavior that people often have to peel away layers of their onions one by one until they get down to the core and start over.

This is a photo of a large piece of driftwood which has taken on layers. The layers come from the fact that trees add a new ring of growth each year. That is why one is able to tell the age of a tree by the number of rings. Therefore, trees are good examples of things that have layers. 

an old onion

i’m an old onion

that is certainly true

there’s not very much

that this onion can’t do

i’ve built up layers

upon layers of my onion

to built up defenses

and give me superb protection

if you want to see me

and get to the core inside

you’ll have to strip away

the layers in which i hide

but your doing so

will certainly bring a tear

remember i’m an onion

my noxious fumes will appear.

© rt tulley