The rainbow and the stairway

I despise having my picture taken! And according to Mary's email the photo just has to be of something important to us, so I present here my first photo. This is a slightly edited, although I assure you real, image from the South Pole station showing a halo phenomenon around the sun (incidentally I assume this is only a camera effect but the description does not say...if Andy sees this perhaps he can clear that up). Nothing in this photograph is significant to me. I chose it, instead, for its caption:

I will make company with creators, with harvesters, with rejoicers; I will show them the rainbow and the stairway to the Superman.

Combined I find the two very captivating. Unsurprisingly the quote is from Nietzsche and when I view the image through the lens of his praise for the heroic in man I fall in love--with the stark contrast of the orange against the white, with the gradient of the sky, with the defiance of this one intrepid man. I love this picture.



In counterpoint I present this photo taken from the top of the Wiley building, one of my favorites from Facebook. To a lesser degree it represents, in me, what I see in the image of the South Pole; the picture was taken after an intimidating climb up several fire escapes and a series of ladders. Like the other picture it represents an overcoming, an overcoming of my fear, my desire to remain on the ground, an extreme effort (even getting to the fire escapes was difficult) to reach a goal. The stairway to the Wiley building is the stairway to one of my greatest efforts.