COMES THE DAWN

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” 

 ~Haruki Murakami

 “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”

-The maxim was coined by sociologist William Bruce Cameron in his 1963 book Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking

We are all Children of Coincidence

Why are you reading this? Do you believe in chance, probability, conspiracy, serendipity or synchronicity? Theories on coincidence range from “Show me the numbers!” to blind faith in “God’s wink.” As the world gets smaller, the questions around coincidence are getter bigger. And there’s advantage in answering them. As Steve Jobs says “creativity is just connecting things.”  Here’s some current context:

You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner Derek Thompson

COMES THE DAWN

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,

And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security,

And you begin to understand that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises.

And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head held high and your eyes open,

With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
You learn to build your roads

On today because tomorrow’s ground
Is too uncertain for plans, and futures have
A way of falling down in midflight.

After a while you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much.

So you plant your own garden and decorate
Your own soul, instead of waiting

For someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you can really endure,

That you really are strong
And you really do have worth

And you learn and learn … and you learn
With every goodbye you learn.

~Veronica A. Shoftstall

Like something out of a Wes Anderson movie.

Ukrainian Railroad Ladies is a series of portraits of women who work as traffic controllers and safety officers at railroad crossings in Ukraine. The women spend their long shifts in the little houses built specifically for them along the tracks … They are a symbol of certain things in this country that don’t change, standing firm in the present as a defiant nod to the past. They endure, unfazed by the passing of trains and time. 

Photographed by Sasha Maslov, his project was discovered through the LensCulture Exposure Awards 2020.