JPG Magazine: Photos: "Flood Time: But the Tree Can Swim" by seanie blue

Flood Time: But the Tree Can Swim

By seanie blue

On 18 May 2008

Favorited 87 Times

The guy who comes to plaster my walls has come from Peru, following the coyotes through Mexico and Arizona, and on the border he took an abandoned girl under his wing and screamed for three hours at her mother as they walked through the freezing Sonoran Desert, and when they got to the truck that would take them to a safe house in Phoenix the mother took her daughter back. What did you do then? I kept my mouth shut because I read the Odyssey, he says, and I know life is unpredictable. Not a very good plasterer, I find out, but I pay him $13 an hour anyway, which is five bucks an hour more than he can make from the jobs he gets in the parking lot at the paint store, and of course he is grateful. He invites me to the baptism of his niece. We sit together and drink a beer, two beers, three beers. All I want is to escape, he says, from my life, from my country, from this city and my eight dollars an hour and the police at every 7-Eleven looking at me like wolves. He looks at me. What will I say? “Me, too,” says me, and he has taken it upon himself now to call me and ask what I need because he has dreams at night sometimes that something bad has happened to me, and he wakes up in a sweat, frightened.

And I have been dreaming. I wrote a colleague about a beach in Mexico called the Playa of the Drowned Men. I watched a thirteen-year-old drown here, stood next to my brother-in-law and two dozen other people and a man named Cosmo who kept shouting: “Nobody can help and do not jump in.” That night I met a surfer who told me he’d swum to shore by diving down to the rocks and crawling along the bottom. The next morning I swam out into the waves and tried this trick, though I was wearing flippers as a safety factor, and the trick worked just fine. I will not drown on the beach of the drowned men, I tell my plasterer friend.

I am drowning in my dreams. You can keep the beach.

All my grand plans, phantoms of promises made in eager times, when the Sun was rising, keep me submerged on a riverbed carved of routine and crippled hopes. How do I swim against this current? How do I splash to the surface and where do I drift once I get there?

Or am I facing a purposeful swim, towards a shore I have already imagined and have always known? Or do I just wait for the water to find its natural level and resume breathing normally?

I have not spoken to Eric from Peru for a year or more. He has called me twice and left messages and now his cellphone is disconnected. The wolves hardly notice me in the 7-Eleven, and when I am there late at night the waves ring in my ears.

This picture from last night is of a flood lit by the headlights of my car. Another me in another time would be in that water, still swimming. But not this me.

+ + + +

Water is on my mind, when it should be on my skin.

31 Responses

On 18 May 2008 Laura Boston-Thek gave props:
We MUST keep breathing...and swimming...always keeping our heads JUST above that level. Thank you Blue
On 18 May 2008 Andrew Lorimer gave props:
A Beautiful Capture !!!
On 18 May 2008 Long Vy gave props:
Great ! Love it alot.
On 18 May 2008 John Linton said:
Cool 15X100 site...
I'm a child of the nuclear age,
of "Bomb them back to the stone age."
I have molded the minds and hearts,
becoming one of the old farts.
We are all star stuff spinning through,
Eyes on the undertoe, Seanie Blue.
On 18 May 2008 rory cobbe gave props:
man the colours here and the lighting are just astounding. a step ahead as always Seanie
On 18 May 2008 Long Vy gave props:
brilliant color very nice.
On 18 May 2008 Ronnie Ginnever gave props:
A haunting dream, fantastic tale, a sad reality and a fitting image.
On 18 May 2008 Chris Whitney said:
Seanie-It takes strength to fight the current-your strength is your imagination and your commitment, to life and people.
Great image-the strong blue water pulls me right into the scene, and the story.
On 18 May 2008 ! !! Eton Ziner!! ! gave props:
great scene! excellent reflection! MAGICAL!
On 18 May 2008 Anne McGinn gave props:
Unsettling and beautiful. A fine story.
On 18 May 2008 Gary Fudge gave props:
Hey there Seanie, how you doing mate? Wonderful story that is so easy to relate to. So many people find themselves drowning or struggling against the current. Everyone has their own depth and it's so easy to step out of it. Yet a moments thought and quietness can show 99% of us that one or two strokes back put us in safety. We worry about bills being on time, clothes matching, servicing the car and yet what's that in the scheme. The image with it's deep hues and long exposure really makes the story.....or is the story really makes the image....?
On 18 May 2008 *hector* ortiz gave props:
so poetic scene...
On 18 May 2008 Micci Shannon gave props:
Beautiful photo, and a story to make us think/dream... well done.
On 18 May 2008 claudia luthi gave props:
Blue, this blue knocks me out!
On 19 May 2008 Kiwi ana gave props:
You often bring us a fresh perspective Seanie Blue and here is another we see the strength of the water and the safe still places. Undertow is strong along the West Coast of my country. we are taught to stay in the safe places where guards are. Recently I heard an interesting tip: If you are caught in the strength of the current while swimming and swept out with the tide don't try to swim back, fighting will only expend your energy. Instead, let go and drift with the current and you will find it brings you back to the shore, sometimes even a different beach! To me this is like choosing not to drown in your dreams. By letting them take us we often find ourselves back at the shore. Some would see that as a failure, I beg to differ, If we find ourselves back at the beach we'll have found new perspective while in the arms of our dreams.
On 19 May 2008 judy fouse gave props:
Beautiful words and photo. So, Seanie, you have so much talent. Write great stories to teach the world how to be more....in tune with themselves and nature and those around them. The writing itself seems to feed the soul. If the world does not acknowledge your art by giving you acclaim or lots of money, is that really the objective? Though I don't see how your work could go unrecognized. I have heard that the bleeding heart is the one that speaks the loudest. Perhaps it is your torment that wrings such emotion from you and from those of us who read your words. But we would trade your words and your talent for your happiness. Though I can remember once thinking that it was better to hurt than to feel nothing at all. Is happiness the absence of pain? Maybe. I hope not.I really think happiness is love and giving hope to each other. See, your words make us all think(though I may just be rambling). Thank you. Judy
On 19 May 2008 maria tizon gave props:
gorgeous. love all the color and depth in your image. come to think of it, ditto for your words. amazing stuff.
On 19 May 2008 Steve Hogle gave props:
Awesome all the way round,Both in writing and your capture!
On 20 May 2008 Rain Arnau gave props:
wow! thats all i can say.
On 20 May 2008 Mario Scattoloni gave props:
Ditto 2 all the above of course...What an absolutely stunning image you have burned into my retina & cerebral cortex.... this has such a gorgeous feeling which emotes feelings beyond the frame . Very well done & as always very poetic...
On 20 May 2008 Amy Welborn said:
beautiful.. the picture and the story
On 22 May 2008 Mojca S. gave props:
I just wish I could be able to expess at least half as good as you can, Seanie, to be able to tell you how I really feel about your writing and photos :), not just with usual beautiful, wonderful, georgeous, stunning, love it and great :) Thank you too!
On 22 May 2008 Audrey Kanekoa-Madrid gave props:
The mood and color/lighting of this is fantastic! Love your descriptions too. Thank you for your awesome comments!
On 23 May 2008 Nelson Campbell gave props:
Wrenchingly beautiful all around...
On 24 May 2008 Rogério Freitas said:
Great ligth and capture.
On 24 May 2008 Laurent Chantegros gave props:
excellent shot
On 27 May 2008 paul moore gave props:
my own silent protest over im back to give credit were credit is due,awsome photography Seanie Blue
On 28 May 2008 Sherry Davis Johnson gave props:
Your photos are always beautiful, but I long for the stories.
On 31 May 2008 Alexis Gerard gave props:
This image is a miracle
On 4 June 2008 g anderson gave props:
I couldn't begin to add anything new to what's already been said here. thanks for sharing this. beautiful photo.
On 27 June 2008 Tiphaera Chiara gave props:
a very peaceful energy in this photo...great lighting and texture