Monday, December 17, 2012

From Steve Henderson, artist

"It's extraordinarily windy today, and what it's blowing in, I have no idea (the weather service says, 'Nothing').

"Wind fascinates me because it has the potential to make a huge impact on any area -- years ago when we were building our house, the wind picked up 4 x 8 foot sheets of plywood and flung them around like playing cards.

"Wind knocks down power lines, leaving untold people without electricity. It sweeps through and unroots trees. It battens against the house and rattles the windows. It reshapes landscapes simply by blowing so much, so often, and/or so consistently.

"And yet, we never actually see the wind -- just the results of its existence. But just because we can't see it, doesn't make it not real.

"So also with the things we do each day, whatever those things are: a comment we make, a compliment we pass on, an encouraging word during a discouraging time, a note, a visit, a gift, catching someone's eye from across the room.

"These seem like no more than puffs of air, and we continue through our day unaware that something we did or said made a difference -- sometimes a significant difference -- in another person's life.

"While initially it seems that much of what the wind does is bad, imagine life, and this world, without it. Stagnation, stillness, inactivity -- without this unseen force of nature, what would happen to our planet?

"Similarly, without you, without each one of us, doing what we do each day, this world would be a different, and not necessarily a better, place."
                                                                                          - Steve Henderson