(We) Will Survive. Although I probably risk revealing a little too much... (Abou Qamha, Al Janub, Lebanon)
(We) Will Survive. Although I probably risk revealing a little too much about my early life with today’s choice of title and the admission that I remember Ms. Gaynor’s song the first time around, back when she didn’t perform for Nostalgianauts in Ehden, I couldn’t think of a more apt tagline for this photo. I suppose I could have called it The Lovers, but the trees are a bit too far apart for that, unless it’s The Lovers Quarrelling. The Outcasts, then? That’s closer to the mark because there is a large copse of pine behind the camera, so perhaps they have been expelled from the ranks. But they’re too upright and defiant to have been so marginalised, there’s nary a drooping branch or bowed trunk in sight. For a while, I was stumped but then it struck me. There’s a large field of what will be wheat between the two and the parent copse, so probably they were originally one and were marooned when their once connecting brethren were felled to make room for the field. But if so, how did they escape? There is something eye-catching about them, so maybe the axeman took a shine to the plucky pair and chose to leave them standing. That suited my romantic narrative and so in my mind they became The Survivors. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became. So much so that I have the suspicion that if you were to hang a mirrorball from one of the branches, strategically locate a smoke machine and a strobe light amongst the stalks, wait for the night to fall and then play Gloria’s anthem (the 4:35 album remix, of course), I would almost bet my eye teeth that they’ll get down and knock on wood.
by wsinghbartlett / Instagram