The struggle
By * Jeff Boucher
17 Mar 2008
On Saturday, as we enjoyed a little family time with my mother and father we started discussing the "New" 7 Deadly Sins just released from the Vatican. My mother, a devout Catholic, who rasied me the same, decided to "get back into it" with me about what the newer, updated version meant to her as a practicing Catholic. I voiced my opinion, which I know bothers her immensely and we sort of left our conversation undone. I hate to see my mother upset or irritated and I have been looking deep inside for something to let me know to continue on with my feelings about this subject. I have been waiting for something to hit me, and tonight it did, I stopped at a stop sign in a neighborhood I grew up in. I look to my left and the sun is radiating on the top of this church. I struck me to the point I put the car in park, flagged the people around me and as fate (or my quest) would have it my camera was in arms reach. I had total disregard for the horns blowing and I started to shoot this church, the more I shot the more I saw, the shadows lurking at the bottom, the sunshine in the branches and on the peak, and the grand daddy of them all, the padlock on the front door. I knew my turmoil was not wasted, I new my struggle was more for my mother than it was for myself. As I loaded the pictures to my laptop I realized that I was more hung up on my mother being repressed in her own world than I was about the conflict I had with organized religion. I was more concerned that she wasn't allowed to explore her own mind and think for herself. But what I saw was the beauty of a higher power, I saw the moon in the sky, the many families that walked the church and worshiped when life was easier many years ago. I saw the warm sunshine lighting things I had passed a thousand times before but never saw. I finally found what I was looking for and it happend by accident. I will continue to reflect and will most definitley call my mother tonight to tell her I love her.
