Rituals & Remembering

Sleepy Mornings

The town where I live for a large part of the year feels like a 1950‘s Mayberry time warp much of the time.  It’s a small shore town in New Jersey with a five mile wooden boardwalk featuring two amusement parks in addition to a main street (called Asbury Avenue here) in the heart of town.  The people at the post office know your name, as they do at the hardware store and in the restaurants and shops.  People are nice -- they take their time -- they’re not overly fond of change.  It's a dry town (no liquor served) due to early Methodist roots.  Every few years some of us hope for just enough change to allow a glass of wine with dinner, but it gets shot down every time which may or may not be a good thing.  It's very much a family sort of place.

Crime here consists mainly of “borrowed” bicycles which usually turn up at the other end of town within a day or so.  People leave their doors unlocked here.  I forgot and left the garage door open one time and was gone for two weeks.  When I returned home, everything was exactly as I’d left it - bicycles, tools, a spare fridge full of beer and wine, half a dozen beach chairs.  Amazing.

It gets a little crazy here in July and August when the vacationing hoards arrive and traffic is wacky with too many sun baked drivers and pedestrians zombified by long days at the beach and too much sugar.  Summertime rituals are savored -- the smell of sunscreen, the sound of the lifeguard’s whistle, the dolphin that swim by about 9:00 a.m. each morning when I remember to pay attention.  Gorilla Golf, the Ferris Wheel, the Log Ride at Wonderland Pier, the peanut-buster parfait at DQ and the daily screaming melt-down of a child on the boardwalk that always makes me smile and wonder what earth-shattering event has just occurred.

There is another daily ritual that takes place here during the high summer season.  This particular tradition began eleven years ago tomorrow and occurs each morning at 9:20 a.m., weather permitting.  It happens at the waterpark.  I don’t completely understand the need for a waterpark in a beach town, given that it’s located approximately 20 yards from a huge, mostly blue ocean with real waves to ride, but here it is and it’s very popular.  Out in front is Jimmy’s Hot Dog Stand and on top of Jimmy’s, two tall flag poles from which two, crisp American flags fly.

Each morning as a few dozen locals begin to gather and chat, a couple of young waterpark employees climb up a ladder to stand at the foot of each flag pole.  Many mornings, a third gentleman stands with them, at attention.  At 9:20 a.m. on the dot, a recording of Proud To Be An American by Lee Greenwood plays and walkers, runners, bicyclists and surrey riders gradually slow and then come to a stop, wondering what’s going on.  The crowd gets bigger and then the National Anthem plays.  It’s the version by LeAnn Rhimes.  The two flags are raised slowly, simultaneously.  Nearly all boardwalk traffic has now come to a halt...hats are removed, hands are held over hearts, war veterans in the crowd salute.  It gets really quiet except for the music and the crashing of waves.  The notes rise sharply near the end of the song at the word “free” and hold for a moment.  The song ends - a rousing cheer goes up and suddenly the boardwalk is all animation and movement.  Life goes on.

If you've had your coffee and aren't too busy with your day, some of you may be doing the math and figuring out that we’re not too far from New York City here in my little town at the Jersey Shore.  You may have had a little "aha" moment and understand the significance of two tall flagpoles as part of this ceremony.  Eleven years is a long time, but remembering is important and they still know how to do things right in a small town when it comes to ritual and remembrance. 

Life Goes On

The daily flag raising ceremonies have ended for this season and the water park has closed - or will close soon I'm sure.  I'm already looking forward to next summer when they begin again.  Wishing you your own special rituals and remembrances.  All the best,


E. England

Here’s a link to the National Anthem sung by LeAnn Rimes -- I think it needs to come with a hanky warning:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBd5PL3ZsRc

Gillian's Island Salutes America's Freedom Ceremony: Join us each morning this summer as our Team raises the American Flag for the day in tribute to America's freedom. This year will mark our 11th Season of performing the Flag Raising ceremony, and we are proud to continue on what has now become a tradition on the Ocean City Boardwalk. All of the details for the ceremony are listed below - if you find yourself up early and heading to the beach, stop by and pay respects to our great country with the Gillian's Water Park and Adventure Golf family! WHEN: Daily from 9:20 am to 9:28 am.* WHERE: Out front of Jimmy's Hot Dogs and Gillian's Island Water Park on the Ocean City Boardwalk.

A Mermaid & An Evening Walk

This is the time of evening when the mermaids come out....I’m certain of it.  

As yet, I haven’t seen one, but I’m hopeful.  Each evening, the beach empties and the sky turns a lovely milky-blue and so does the sea, tinged with gold or, on some evenings, deep shades of lavender and pink.  The wind usually picks up around 4:00-ish and blows for an hour or so whipping up whitecaps in the water and etching  mesmerizing patterns in the sand.

Then...a stillness settles over everything for as far as the eye can see.  As I walk along the water’s edge, I keep a casual look out for what I imagine will be the sudden flash and shimmer of a silvery blue-green forked tail as my conjured mermaid -- or merman -- slaps the surface of the water, showing off just a little for me.  

Everyone knows that a forked tail makes for a swift swimmer.  In fact, the deeper the fork, the faster the swimmer, but my mer-creature has paused mid-swim with a curiosity to match my own.  Eying one another cautiously across the gently lapping waves, we'll nod hello - which is the polite thing to do after all and then continue, alone once more, on our terrestrial and aquatic locomotions.  Each a little shivery with the bit of magic that has occurred; one walking barefooted in the damp, cooling sand leaving a trail of happy footprints, the other slipping smoothly through the water leaving no trace at all.

Here are a few photographs of what I did find this evening as I roamed the quiet beach.  

Photos, from top to bottom:

1. Patterns in the Sand

2. Casting A Long Shadow

3. Seagull

4. Feather in the Sand

5. The Fence

Sign up to receive my none-to-regular blog posts -- I hope you'll share them as well.  Visit my shop at www.ninedragons.etsy.com to see more of my photography.  Wishing you magic wherever life finds you.  E. England  

The Heart of an Artist

The Heart of an Artist

Last week I experienced my first brutal art critic.  Certainly, in the few years since I’ve begun to call myself a photographer, I have been very lucky.   The urging of friends, following a summer trip to China, prompted me to cull, crop and agonize over a few dozen of the hundreds of photos I’d arrived home with.  Once I had a nice presentable portfolio assembled…I couldn’t imagine who might possibly want to buy them.

Thinking rejection might come more gently in the Midwest, I made my first sales attempt in Iowa during a visit to family.  I began with one of my favorite shops specializing in Asian antiques and one-of-a-kind metalwork furniture in the historic, funky, East Village of Des Moines.  Despite being kind of nervous and trying really hard not to show it, I sold five or six of my matted photographs that day which gave me the courage to continue going door-to-door with my portfolio whenever I happened to travel.  As a result, my photographs have been sold around the country in restaurants, shops, galleries and art shows. 

Late last summer I opened a shop on Etsy.  If you’re not familiar with Etsy, it’s an online international marketplace headquartered in Brooklyn, NY.  Sellers are from every corner of the world and their amazing, creative products are all handcrafted or vintage.  It’s fabulously fun and seriously addictive shopping.  You may find yourself wandering through the shops on Etsy for days if you’re not careful. 

In addition to buying and selling, another popular Etsy addiction is creating Treasuries.  Here’s how it works:  select sixteen items from sixteen different shops and arrange them artistically to create a piece of art -- a collage, or mosaic if you will, of the sixteen items.  A treasury may be random, or based on a theme, like the beach perhaps, or a color - pink is always popular - or an event, like Father’s Day.  Treasuries are very popular within the world of Etsy and creative-types may spend hours or days putting together the perfect Treasury.

This is how I learned I have the heart of an artist.  An Etsy member made a Treasury featuring one of my photographs alongside the work of fifteen other potentially tender-hearted photographers and titled it “Not Fine Art Photography”.  Through their comments, this person made it very clear that our work was not up to standard.  Several of my fellow photographers had already posted indignant, upset comments -- one declared their intent to “report” the treasury-maker for breaking the rules.

After my first moment of surprise, I experienced a little burst of fear and maybe just the tiniest hint of shame.  I had finally been found out – here was the confirmation of what I’d always feared: that I couldn’t possibly know what I’m doing.  Then, the moment passed and I chuckled as I discovered that I didn’t much care what my critic thought.  I love my photographs, which is probably the only reason I can offer them for sale.  I love the way they look and feel (I print them on very special paper) -- I love the rich, vibrant, textured color that I capture and painstakingly reproduce and I love the composition of the items in each photograph.

Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime.  Stephen King received thirty rejection letters before his book Carrie was accepted for publication.  Elvis Presley was fired by the manager of the Grand Ole Opry after just one performance.  Now I know why those artists persevered.  They were driven by a personal, unique vision to produce something wonderful and to share that creation with the world – appreciated or not. 

Ahhh, the heart of an artist.

Visit my shop on Etsy:  www.etsy.com/shop/ninedragons

Visit my treasuries:  http://www.etsy.com/people/ninedragons/treasury?sort=creation_date&order=desc