Knight of Faith
"The Knight of Faith is the only happy man, the heir to the finite while the knight of resignation is a stranger and an alien." Kierkegaard
Been thinking about the great philosopher Kierkegaard, especially his work about the knight of resignation and the knight of faith. Interesting terms to say the least.
In this instance...to capture this image I had to make many decisions along the way. The first one was to do it in the first place. Then upon arriving to my destination I had to decide where to start looking and then I had to climb a barbed wire fence, get a tear in my jeans, wade through the water and mud, and jump an irrigation ditch. Then I was finally able to observe the landscape and choose where was the best place to capture what I was seeing. Then it was important to me to find the vantage point to get the most effect of the silhouette of the tree and the sunset before I could capture the image at all.
Sounds like a lot of trouble to “just” get an image that may or may not actually work in the end. And then it may not get further than my Facebook or Instagram page. And, who knows if anyone will like it?
That is then the point I’m making about Kierkegaard. There are choices to be made in the creative life, a fulfilled life. One has the choice to resign oneself to a mediocre life and just be like everybody else or take on a growth mindset and live, create and love! In his words be a knight of faith!
I knew that to get the image I had only seen in passing the evening before. I had to make a plan to get back there at the opportune time and “jump through the hoops” to capture what was presented to me. And the joy of capturing the image was worth all the obstacles I had to go through.
I have a choice, to work through the obstacles to get to the prize of living the creative life the fulfilled life. Or resigning myself to circumstances because, frankly, it is just easier to do nothing.
