The Weight of the Current
In the nineteenth century, the great cartographers often left the edges of their maps blank, marking them with the phrase ‘here be dragons.’ It was a way of acknowledging that the known world is merely a small, lit circle surrounded by an infinite, unmapped dark. We spend our lives trying to push that circle outward, building fences and naming rivers, hoping that if we define the space enough, we might finally feel secure. Yet, there is a particular kind of courage found in those who do not look for the shore. To be adrift is not necessarily to be lost; it is, perhaps, to be the only one truly awake to the scale of the water. We are all, in our own quiet ways, navigating currents that were moving long before we arrived and will continue long after we have stepped onto dry land. Is it the destination that defines the traveler, or the simple, stubborn act of keeping the boat pointed forward when the horizon offers no promises?
Tanmoy Saha has captured this quiet persistence in his image titled Fighting Alone… It is a meditation on the scale of our individual efforts against the vastness of the world. Does the water feel heavier when you are the only one pulling the oars?
