Desiderata

("Things to be desired")

A few days ago, emerging from meditative reverie, I suddenly had the idea that my art should focus on protest.

So I went scratching around in the photo archive for any decent shots that I may have gotten at the handful of marches and demonstrations that I’ve been to over the years. A photographer whose online advice I read recently has said that if you want to take interesting pictures, get in front of interesting things. I haven’t been that strategic about that over the years, but the marches have always been more than interesting. The sketch above is a scene from the Women’s March in New York City, that I photographed on January 20, 2018.

What would the title of such a picture be? Immediately I thought of “Things to Be Desired,” which got me thinking of the poem by Max Ehrmann from the 1920’s entitled Desiderata (Latin for “things to be desired”), which Wikipedia informs me only recently entered the public domain.

The poem is a favorite of calligraphers everywhere. I first came across it in my sister’s bathroom in the 1980’s. I was having a turbulent time in my early twenties, and it was reassuring to me then. About ten years ago, I distributed it to a group of high school seniors at our local church when they were all about to head off to college. I still think it’s good advice, although it doesn’t begin to hint at the end-times-ish experiences we’re all going through now.

Marches and demonstrations are obviously most often, because they must be, against things. Against injustice, against discrimination, against violence at home and abroad, against abuse of the environment, against particular elected officials. What I really loved about the two women’s marches that I’ve attended is that many participants were demonstrating FOR things.

I wish I had met the woman holding the sign that reads, “LIBRARIES & SCHOOLS & PARKS & TRAINS & ART & WILDERNESS &” — it’s one of my all-time favorite signs. I couldn’t help but think that the word “PUBLIC” could or should be prepended to each of those words, but I suppose it is implied. And what about that pregnant ampersand at the end? What more would you add to this list?