For the Love of Fall… and Democracy

and why I don’t want the fall OF democracy

(photos by me… approximately .00001% of the photos I’ve taken during my favorite season)

I harbor crazy-mad passion for late-stage autumn.

The crunchy music of sidewalks littered with leaves… how the air thins with the crisp, damp scent of seasonal decay. How sunlight oozes through foliage and bakes the last threads of chlorophyll before we’re left to inhale only “left-over” oxygen for winter.

Fall makes me also lose any shits I might’ve once had to hide my over-zealous enthusiasm for the season’s fleeting aesthetic. I’ll be the one geeking out under a fancy tree as afternoon light turns a rooted network of branches into fractalized art.

Standing in awe is the closest thing I know to prayer.

there I go staring into the sky… again

I become pensive in fall (more than usual). Curious. Grateful. Nostalgic.

And, particularly in the throes of late fall, my love of the democratic process spills over with what I can honestly say is: love of country. Admiration for what we — the increasing majority, despite what gerrymandering and electoral college results may produce — aspire to be.

Vote! Use your voice! Shout FB memories. My photographic archives are also punctuated annually with ballots & fall leaves, political rallies, caucus and voting lines against backdrops painted in that quintessentially late autumn palette of reds, yellows, and the intense blue shade of my political optimism.

‘08… ok, yes, little nostalgic but I like hope & change

Fourteen years ago, Obama was elected in late fall. Our election night meal was a celebration of his background — Hawaiian appetizers, Indonesian dinner and all-American Apple Pie for desert. His win was called far earlier than anyone expected. Fireworks lit up the November sky over Telluride at that exact moment. I cried, overwhelmed with optimism for a brighter future.

He called for hope and change.

CHANGE is what makes fall beautiful. Makes us see the world…