Most of the photography trips I have taken around Indianapolis have been to state and city parks and other areas that were once wild but have since yielded to the human hand enough to make them easily accessible.  Sally and I went on a different kind of shoot today.  She lives north of the city and we went into the countryside.  Farm land.  Flat land and big sky.  I’ve been wanting to do this for some time.

What becomes immediately apparent is that the governing of this land is bicameral – the farmer brings great skill and talent but still relies to a large extent on luck because there is nature, the other branch which governs this land.  The farmer brings order to the land, planting corn or walnut trees in rows for easier tending.

Nature brings variations in temperature, snow, rain, wind.  Weather is fickle.  Even the best estimates of what is going to happen with the weather (The Old Farmer’s Almanac aside) are made only a few days in advance and then with a probability attached.  Nothing is certain here.  The human proposes and nature, or God, disposes.  All of which adds to the appreciation of what we see when we come here.

It is unlikely that the tree above was intentionally planted.  The one below probably was.

Both are beautiful in their own ways.  All things considered we humans do pretty well producing food and some of the beauty we need and enjoy.  But in the end, nature is the variable and always present factor.  When we are no longer able to work or if there is no one to take over, nature reclaims the land.

Where wheat, corn or grass once was once planted, nature takes over with its own plan.

If we think only within the perimeter of human activity, this might be seen as tragic; entropy has taken over and the chaos of nature has won.  But is it a contest, a war?  If it is, we humans are going to lose.  But if we see ourselves as part of a larger universe, it is all quite beautiful.  I’m thankful to be here, see it and be part of it.