I have come to love this photo of the ‘Damaged Leaf’.
After I completed this photo, I began to wonder: “Why am I showcasing a damaged leaf? Why didn’t I showcase a ‘perfect leaf’; like so many other photographers would?” I knew the answer immediately. I showcased the leaf because it WAS ‘damaged’. There is nothing in life that is perfect and I realized, I love to showcase things that are especially ‘not perfect’.
Then my mind went into my past, when I was a taxi cab driver to make ends meet. I heard over the radio a broadcast to pick up a fare at the mall and take the fare to a restaurant over on the other side of the mall. I knew I wasn’t the closest cab to the location so I waited, expecting another driver to take the fare. The dispatcher repeated the call, over and over and still no driver would take the call. So I took the call.
I picked up the fare. She was a woman in her mid-thirties, thin as a rail, with way too much makeup on for my tastes.
She was so glad to see me. She said she couldn’t walk very far, because she was dying from cancer and didn’t mind telling me her story. She had no family, that was interested in her troubles; but was one of the brightest spirits I have ever known. We had the best conversation she had had in a while and thanked me profusely when I dropped her off at the bus stop by the restaurant. I still remember that lady to this very day, twenty plus years later. When I think of the makeup, I always smile. She was going ‘down’, but she was going ‘down’ with class, ‘All Flags Flying’. She was beautiful.
The other drivers wouldn’t pick her up, because there was no money in it for them. To me, she was priceless.
We are all ‘Damaged Leaves’.
