Monday, November 9, 2009

You Can't Take a Close-Up of The Horizon



This is something that my father used to say back in the early 1950s when, in his producing days as a televison pioneer, he would tell overly critical sponsors in the then-fledgling medium of live television, "You can't take a close-up of the horizon."

I have always understood the concept. Now, I understand the true meaning behind it.

Like the elusive "Pot of Gold" at the end of the rainbow, one can never truly comprehend, or even encompass, the horizon. Think about it. Horizons continually change and vary depending on your position and what you are looking at during that moment in time. There is no such thing as a close-up. There is only a snapshot - a superficial understanding in the larger picture.

Snapshots simply reflect a viewpoint. They do not depict, or even minimally encompass, the overwhelming enormity of the total picture.
Snapshots have limits.
Snapshots have borders.
In reality, horizons exist outside that pre-ordained box of a snapshot. Taking a moment in time and assigning it the title of "reality"  is discounting all the other critically relevant parts of this ever-changing picture.

No one, and nothing, likes being put in a "box," not even the most beautiful horizon. So I humbly suggest that you stand back and look at the vast expanse of your own horizon. It is made up of a panorama of personal views placed end-to-end. It is an experience  that should exist without borders, and one that ultimately defies cognitive definition.

What does that have to do with skating? Nothing really - and absolutely everything.

It all depends on your point of view.

1 comment:

  1. Skating is very much a journey, isn't it? It's not a destination.

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