uprooted

my two boys went and watched the movie dunkirk today. i did not join them because i don’t do war movies very well anymore. i sometimes wonder if not having a tv and not seeing many movies has, in a funny way, re-sensitized me in a way that is opposite to the de-sensitizing effect of endless violence and horror on screens these days. i also wonder if my re-sensitization, which is something of a handicap for living in the real world–especially the current one–is actually an asset when it comes to making art. i don’t know. in any case, the movie is about a few hundred thousand british men and boys stranded on a beach in france, yearning for home, and with that in mind, even just looking at this plant, and the effects on it of being uprooted and unable to return to where it grew up, has my eyes shining. i would have been a mess in the theater.

dried jack in the pulpit