by G E Barr

Created on: January 09, 2010

Shadows indicate depth.  The second dimension.  That dark shape which validates the material.  A rectangular building will cast a similar shape and coat whatever object or land is shade side.

My shadow is personal.  More personal than my voice.  I have on some occasions been mistaken for someone else on the phone.  But my shadow is mine and I cannot mistake it for someone else's.  Nor could someone else claim my shadow. 

I have, in boring moments, made shadow shows with my hands, lying on my bed.  Without touching the wall, I can touch the wall.  Pretty amazing, those shadows.  I still engage in the art from time to time.  For my own pleasure.

I am, right now, typing this in the dark.  But there is a light on in the next room and it is splashing into the room where I am, creating a shadow from the door across the floor, thereby creating an angle. 

Ulterior motives and sinister plans are often called "shady".  Indicating an angle of sorts.  It helps to be able to see these types of angles.  And that is another reason why I remain single and celibate.  Romantic love is not real.  Being used, abused, manipulated and fornicated is real, and it is no fun.  One less shadow is a good thing.

Were there no shadows, I venture to think that our experience of life would be flatter in emotions.  No contrast, indicates no depth and no depth indicates a lack of real connection.  Kind of like visual autism. No reminders of depth, without shadows.  No validation of the material. 

Shadows are like the material world's way of stating, I know you're there, I will indicate the space with contrast.

Shadows do not have velocity.  When I run, I am moving, my shadow, theoretically, is not.  Shadows do not have lives of their own.  They are merely a dark reflection within the material world.  Angles created by matter and light.  Reminders of the two dimensional reality.

Blind people are proof that shadows do not exist.  If they existed, then blind people could feel, smell or hear them. 

Shadows are for the sighted, and are simple validation of the reality of matter.  But shadows don't really exist.  Light and matter exist.  Shadows are the validation of that truth.

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