THE BURNING CROSS

From my Christmas Eve walk.

Faith is sometimes frightening and takes a lot of energy to maintain.

 

 

Merry Christmas and thanks for some of the most memorable photos of 2007. Looking forward to 2008!

Thanks to you for your images, your commentary and for indulging me by looking at my images. It is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to seeing many more of your best shots in 2008. Have a wonderful holiday.

Dave: Telling and very well done. Warm regards...

Thanks. Surprised you don't do a few more of these types of shots, given your nocturnal habits. Take care, amigo.

Now don't get me wrong, this is not a comment about religion, but I could have done without the cross. The home in the background, though, with it's fog-shrouded Christmas lights is quite appealing.

Now come on. It wouldn't be much of a picture without the cross. Come to think of it, maybe it isn't much of a picture with it either.

Dave: In my day, I saw many a true burning cross! I thought that time had passed, but within the last 10 years there was a federal prosecution in the next town west of here for a hate crime involving a cross burned on the lawn of a woman of color. The noose and and the cross are making their invevitable comeback in our time. I don't laugh at these images, not a bit. I think you've hit it square on, amigo -- even if the folks in the house depicted had no idea about the historic implication of their decoration. Warm regards, Joe

Thanks for bringing that up. As you can see from the rather lengthy discussion of one of the other semi religious images in this folder, it is easy to stir things up. I really was not trying to do that with these images, but it is a really good lesson in how others interpret things differently from ourselves. The title was meant to suggest only the fact that it was lit up as if on fire, but honestly I had no intention to invoke the images of the racist cross burning which I abhor. While some in this series have evolved into images with some "meat" on them, they were mostly intended as a simple observation of a time, a mood, and a place. At the time I took them I had no other motive. Take care