This picture was taken in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana on August 6, 2000 by a fire behavior analyst from Fairbanks, Alaska by the name of John McColgan with a Digital camera. Since he was working as a Forest Service firefighter this picture is pulic property and cannot be sold or used for commercial purposes.
I love this picture - the beauty of it, not the reality of the situation. What does this make you feel? How would you feel having been Mr. McColgan? If you were in the same situation as the deer? What do you see when you look at it - the beauty of the fire, the incredible beauty of the land, the water and the deer against their backdrop of flames? Do you see the greenness in the surroundings that you don't normally see in this situation?
Do you feel the fear of the deer? Do you feel sadness for the perceived inevitable or do you feel hope for the survival instincts that have led them this far?
How can such an incredible dichotomy be so perfect - yet so real with such real consequences that will far outlast this one single moment? Isn't that what life is about and made up of - moments like this?
Does every moment have such a drama, yet we don't see it because we are so caught up with our own lives? Do you have to feel fear or dread to realize what every moment before it and forever after holds?
On a personal note, when my father found out his cancer was not survivable - he went on a journey to his favorite places. This park in Montana was one of them - although he was there a few years after this fire.
I wonder if the inspiration for the story I will write from this was provided by my father. I wonder if this is my fathers way of showing me to look at more than his death and his final steps with anguish, fear and regrets - but to see the perfect beauty in his choice to be at his happiest with his final days...
Perhaps that is a place to start changing my perceptions that have been limited by my own experiences or lack there of.
There is beauty in everything if you want to see it and take the time to do so.
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