Mother-Day

(Rhys, celebrating a day early)

Mother's day... or Mothers' Day.... 

I've decided to call Rachel "Mother" all day today, just to save the grammar of the event. Likewise, I will not be wishing anybody else a "Happy Mother's Day!" as that would prove me incorrect, and toss me on the misshapen lump of writhing humanity. 

Nope, off to a bad start today already. But, is it a celebration of mothers and motherhood, or of Mother? 

Like most things, the world has gotten it wrong. Or, is it just Americans, in their obsession to assert the individual over the collective? Are they trying to honor the idea, the individual, or the shared? It should come as no surprise that the error is one of possessiveness. 

My mother's name was Stella. Should today be Stella's Day?

Let me try again: we're going to the beach today. 

We need a beach umbrella. It will be a scorcher. I meant to get one yesterday but somehow slipped it. We went for a hike through Jack London's property (above) and to the grocery store (below).

I will bring the new camera with me to the beach today. 

We will see how well it does in very bright light. There is an ND filter built in to it, so I might be able to get fun shots in which the aperture is wide open in full daylight.

Jesus, I'm a freakin' nerd. But honestly... look at how well balanced the image below is. This is in a grocery store.... the glass on the camera is nice, it does well with skin tones in difficult lighting, the overall image seems less "clinical" than with my Nikon, somehow softer and more inviting.

Perhaps soon I will also begin to reflect those qualities. Who knows, maybe by next Fathers' Day.

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