A Map of the World

A friend of mine had this tattooed recently- after traveling to China, Israel, and Ireland. Her intent being to chronicle her travels by eventually coloring in all the countries she'd travelled to. A map of the world-with all of it's careful (and sometimes arbitrary) delineations of customs and culture. The entire globe and all of it's people encapsulated on a single persons skin.

But the metaphor expands. I've been thinking about this photo shoot (initially intended as an exercise for Dave and I to figure out how to split the strobes) every time I listen to the news.

Japan, Libya, Egypt. My heart breaks-and soars. Every crisis giving way to hope. A baby found amidst the rubble, a grandfather clinging to a scrap of his  home, a people being heard by their own government and the rest of the world. And this is the human condition; we survive, and we make meaning from what we've survived.