Chaos, Joy, Ecstasy, Pain?

This is certainly one of the more extraordinary trees that I saw on my visit to Dartmoor this week. But there were many more. It has, however, been the one that has really stuck in my mind and I have been trying to work out why.

I can't quite make up my mind what emotion it evokes or suggests. Does it look like it is writhing in pain? Or is it the chaotic expression of a wild exuberant dance? Or is it just a stunted tree!

Of course, I shouldn't be too quick to attempt to impart human emotions and feelings upon a tree! But nonetheless, many of the images that I take do prompt some kind of emotional response. I find this to be especially the case with my images of the night sky.

We are emotional beings. Every minute of every day we are reacting and responding to the things that we see and hear and touch and feel. Or at least we ought to be. That is a part of our humanity. When we see something beautiful or an act of compassion or someone triumphing over adversity, it prompts a reaction within us; and when we see something ugly, intrusive, cruel or wasted, our hearts cry out.

Sometimes, as in this case it can be difficult to discern the difference. And so we go with our "gut". Instinct kicks in, or we go with whatever the person who shouts loudest has to say. It seems to me that this is a problem for our times. We do not stop to really take a look, to be informed, to look from different perspectives and we make up our minds without really understanding a situation. And when opposing sides do this, conflict and adversity become the inevitable outcome; even among those who would otherwise be friends.

And so - even as I write this - even as I have taken the time to consider it more deeply, I have come to see this particular tree quite differently. It is not about anger, or pain or even joy. It is a picture of "Confusion". That state in which our minds are left when we simply no longer know which way to turn.