The best clouds of the day were the ones Joe and I saw when we came out of Wal-Mart where we had gone to find a birthday present for Terry. I didn’t have my camera, but the 365 project tunes your mind to pay attention to the visual world, and I had been taking pictures of clouds all day. So I really noticed the setting sun illuminating a towering bank of clouds. Joe and I stood in the parking lot staring and admiring until we heard a gentle car horn reminding us to clear the passage.
Some of us carry clouds over our heads at all the times, others only sometimes, rare individuals almost never. Those rarities live mostly in continual sunshine, but they can be confused with the stepford people who somehow have removed their internal cloud-producing mechanisms.
Yes, these are images completely rooted in cartoon world. The character walks around and his cloud follows him. It’s easy to develop the image further: clouds expanding to draw other people into their shadows, barriers at the edges of clouds keeping the mood in but others out, compression mechanisms that allow clouds to be carried around in a pocket. Etc.
The region of Switzerland where I lived was subject to a phenomenon they called “stratus.” It was essentially a dense fog that filled in lower areas and could stay for days, weeks, even a month, usually in dreary months such as November or February. If a person went up in altitude high enough, he could escape and look down on the clouds from above. I didn’t think the stratus bothered me one way or the other, but one time, after the stratus had lingered for almost two weeks, suddenly the sun appeared. The effect on my mood was almost physical. Unexpectedly, I felt myself expanding and filling with joy.
Makes you wonder. Just how much of our moods are influenced by the environment? Years ago, as we were passing through the state in the middle of tremendous storms, I read in a local Ohio paper that the region had higher suicide and depression rates than other parts of the country. The psychologists were theorizing that the preponderantly cloudy, rainy weather was to blame. I’ve heard a theory that all emotional reality is actually reaction to the environment (and I don't mean just the weather), a quick chemical flash designed to provide information to the discerning recipient. This theory is so useful to me in handling emotion, that I believe it entirely. But it doesn’t completely explain why clouds can live with us for days, weeks or months.
Lovely clouds, nicely captured. And I believe that mood can very easily be affected by weather conditions, just as seasons can. Thanks for an interesting narrative.
I didn't think I would read all of that Francoise but just one little snippet had me hooked and I had to read the whole thing. I enjoyed it and it's a great theory that I could go along with. Beautiful billowy cloud you found. I can also just stand and stare at clouds some days, it amazes me how beautiful they can be.
I was sitting in my car the other day waiting for a friend and the clouds were amazing so I started shooting through the windshield. No neat read awning to anchor them.
