GLITTERBALL

View Original

The dog, the rain, and the big and small metaphor

Viaduct at Notre Dame de Briancon

This was an experience of scale.

When you look up and something is big, exciting and inspiring. Tall buildings in the city, mountains in the Alps. You realise how small you are and feel that sense of awe. The childlike WOW!

When you drive the main route, look out of the car window, and see the old roads, abandoned residential areas and factories from an industrial heyday.

So exploring, I stood beneath the viaduct I usually drive. Parked on the old road between the railway and factory. Crossed over, looked up and felt that WOW! That sense of scale. That sense of big!

The dog and I walked up the old track to the village. Despite the rain, he was super interested in the smell of deer. The path leads onto the quarry and has lots of pretty stones ( mica schist & quartz veins) which I picked up and examined.

From up the mountain, the experience changes completely. The wow! viaduct is just a road. The factory becomes square blocks, there’s a smell of sulphur that might be from the nearby spa, and the mountains and valley look beautiful.

The focus changes.

There are some metaphors in here for exploring the path you are taking.

What would it be like to walk uphill and experience a change of scale?

Or downhill for a different wow!

What would it feel like and how would you express that?