Reflection: Crafting the World in Our Image
As a friend once put it, "What's going on outside of us is a reflection of what's happening within". This simple idea finds itself no more visible than in reflections, which are mere reminders of this mystical principle.
I'm reminded of a quote I saw in the overgrown bushes in the ancient gardens of Suzhou, "Only in the sun of civilization are the trees evergreen". The propped up, 937 year old trees, splintered and reborn from low branches like a phoenix only reminded me that in these we see our own desire for the immortality; when something we care for dies it violates our deep down secretly held belief that we too can live forever. And thus we continue to shape the world in our own image, aiming for the stillness of placid reflection, imbuing symbols with meanings, mythifying the mundane.