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Contributing Writer Philosophy & the Human Condition

Rashid Noor

Rashid Noor is a writer and essayist whose work spans photography, philosophy, and the study of human restlessness. He has contributed to Light & Composition since 2013. A photograph for Rashid is always a question in disguise — and his Reflections resist easy answers, sitting instead with the productive discomfort that a good question leaves behind.

517 Published Reflections

Reflections by Rashid Noor

Showing 12 of 517 essays
The Weight of Small Shoulders Photo of the Day
February 12, 2016

The Weight of Small Shoulders

Is it possible to inherit the gravity of adulthood before one has even outgrown the lightness of childhood? We often speak of responsibility as a burden that arrives with age, a slow accumulation of duties that settle upon us like dust. Yet, there are those who do not wait for the passage of years to […]
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The Rehearsal of Being Photo of the Day
February 3, 2016

The Rehearsal of Being

Is it possible that we never truly grow up, but merely trade the size of our toys for the weight of our responsibilities? We watch children arrange their small worlds with such gravity, unaware that they are practicing for a life they do not yet understand. They mimic the gestures of their elders—the way we […]
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The Weight of Ancient Stone Photo of the Day
February 1, 2016

The Weight of Ancient Stone

Why do we feel the need to measure our lives against things that do not breathe? We stand before mountains, those silent witnesses to the slow, grinding passage of eons, and we feel a sudden, sharp ache in our chests. It is the recognition of our own brevity. We are flickers of light in a […]
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The Weight of Between Photo of the Day
January 31, 2016

The Weight of Between

Why do we feel most ourselves when we are waiting for something that may never arrive? We spend our lives in the transit of existence, caught in the friction between where we have been and the unknown destination that pulls us forward. There is a peculiar, heavy silence that descends when the world rushes past […]
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The Weight of Yesterday Photo of the Day
January 27, 2016

The Weight of Yesterday

Why do we insist that the new is inherently better than the worn? We spend our lives polishing surfaces, trying to erase the fingerprints of time, as if a life without marks is a life more valuable. Yet, there is a quiet dignity in the frayed edge and the tarnished surface. These are not signs […]
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The Weight of a Promise Photo of the Day
January 24, 2016

The Weight of a Promise

Can a word ever truly hold the weight of an experience? We paint our world in broad strokes of labels—joy, sorrow, peace—as if these static terms could capture the fluid, shifting nature of being alive. We seek out signs and markers, hoping they will lead us to a specific state of mind, yet we often […]
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The Weight of a Name Photo of the Day
January 23, 2016

The Weight of a Name

If a name is carved into stone, does it belong to the person who bore it, or to the silence that eventually claims it? We spend our lives building monuments—some of granite, some of memory—hoping to anchor ourselves against the relentless tide of forgetting. We believe that by etching our existence into the physical world, […]
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The Weight of Unfinished Races Photo of the Day
January 12, 2016

The Weight of Unfinished Races

Why do we feel the need to pursue that which is already fleeing? There is a peculiar human impulse to chase the horizon, to run after the wind, or to follow the path of creatures that have no intention of being caught. Perhaps we do this not because we expect to reach a destination, but […]
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The Weight of the Harvest Photo of the Day
January 7, 2016

The Weight of the Harvest

Why do we feel a sudden, quiet ache when we look upon a field that has already given its life to the scythe? There is a profound rhythm in the act of taking—a cycle that demands we strip the earth bare so that we might continue to exist. We often mistake this emptiness for a […]
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The Weight of Yesterday Photo of the Day
January 5, 2016

The Weight of Yesterday

Why do we insist on preserving the dust of our beginnings? We build museums and archives, hoping that by pinning history to a wall, we might finally understand who we are. Yet, memory is a restless ghost; it refuses to stay where we place it. We look at the artifacts of our collective childhood—the worn […]
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The Geometry of Returning Photo of the Day
December 30, 2015

The Geometry of Returning

Why do we feel the need to carve a line through the wild? We walk upon paths that others have trodden, believing that by following a trail, we are somehow mastering the landscape. Yet, the earth does not recognize our geometry. It grows, it shifts, and it eventually swallows the very tracks we leave behind. […]
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The Currency of Falling Photo of the Day
December 27, 2015

The Currency of Falling

Why do we find beauty in the act of letting go? There is a quiet violence in the way a season turns, a shedding of everything that was once held tight. We spend our lives gathering, building identities like layers of bark, convinced that our permanence is a virtue. Yet, the world around us insists […]
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