The Things We Refuse To Lose
FIELD NOTE No. 015There are photographs that document an event.
Then there are photographs that explain people.
Wildfire doesn’t ask what matters to us.
It simply keeps coming.
So people make impossible decisions.
In Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, canoe outfitters sank their wooden canoes beneath the water, hoping to save them from the flames.
It’s a photograph that almost doesn’t make sense.
Boats built to carry people across the water are hidden beneath it instead.
Not because they’re being abandoned.
Because they’re being protected.
Sometimes saving something doesn’t look like holding on.
Sometimes it looks like letting go for a little while.
There is hope in that.
Hope that the fire passes.
Hope that the water keeps its promise.
Hope that one day those canoes are lifted back into the light, dried, repaired, and sent once again toward a quiet shoreline.
Resilience isn’t always standing your ground.
Sometimes it’s trusting the water until it’s safe to come home.
Photograph by Dan Kraker.
— Esker