Okay… On one level this is a slightly out-of-focus shot of a young woman. But look closer. Look really close.(you can click it) There’s something special going on here and before I give you the “punchline” try to figure it out for yourself.
As a background, I am a normal red-blooded American guy. Within six feet of my left foot is a shelf which still contains about fifty pounds of Playboy Magazines from when I was, essentially a little kid. Well, maybe not a little kid, but a kid. And I’ve perused all three hundred or so copies…way back when, but emphasis on way-the-hell-back-when…because there wasn’t a single photo (trust me) in the whole fifty pounds of mags that had the genuine look. THE look. Go back and sneak a peek. It’s still there. It’s an indescribable look of someone who is…vulnerable, extremely proud, a bit sad, a bit funny, and unaware of herself. This person is looking at…you…or in actuality…me. This is a photo of my wife, Pamela, about a decade after we were married. Truth is, this photo has languished in a cardboard box for…good Lord, about 30 years and just fell out of the carton serendipitiously. Please…don’t do the math… Yeah, we’ve been married a long time. From a writer’s standpoint, are you looking to have a reminder of what the real thing looks like?
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote an entire series about John Carter of Mars and……his incomparable Deja Thorus, his queen of Helium on Mars, (Barsoom). This is my own incomparable Pamela Harvey of Earth( Jasoom).
And how the hell does this fit in with a site dedicated to literature? Well… I’m not gonna spell it out for you. You could say…”it’s my football” but more importantly, you could say, I wanted to give you a glimpse of what the real thing actually looks like. It’s rarer than you think. And after 42 years together, I just now put it up on my desktop as the screensaver so I can see “that look” every day. Corny? Yeah sure. Eat your hearts out!!!!!!!