Monday, November 4, 2013

Broccoli Theory

Those of you who know me well may have heard me refer to something called "Broccoli Theory."  It's my own theory; I call it that because broccoli is sort of like a fractal: the more you look at it, the more complex and interconnected it appears.

My theory -- which came initially from being a photographer --  is this: if you truly pay attention to almost anything you can discover it is infinitely more complex and interesting than you may have thought -- and way more connected to other objects, events and instances in your life than you may have realized.

This image, for example -- one of many taken in and around Iowa over the last week -- was nothing much to speak of as a color photo.  But out of curiosity, I converted it to black and white and now I love it!

... which just goes to show: it's all in how you look at things.  Even a person, who might not strike you initially as worth getting to know, might turn out to have amazing depths if viewed from another perspective. 

Take my husband, for example, whom I disliked intensely on sight:  I didn't like his looks, I didn't like his attitude... But the more I came to know him (thank heaven for his persistence and determination!), the more I found to like -- so much so that marrying him seemed to be an obvious choice.  We've been married almost 30 years now, and I still keep finding new depths to his personality -- a pretty much constant source of joy...

1 comment:

Patricia Turner said...

I love your Broccoli theory Diane! It is so true...what we see with a passing glance is simply the tip of the iceberg. When we sit still and give it our full attention its layers of meaning become more obvious.