beyond the light

creating play in unexpected places

There used to be a huge light in Parade Square.

It shone on the oldest church in town across from City Hall.

It was placed on the ground, not a post.

In our youth, Dick and I discovered how it would throw massive shadows up the face of the church.

Now, some people resist their shadows. They prefer only what they can find in the light.

Our shadows though?

They weren’t something to be frightened of. They were there to be played with.

Before people would make hearts with their hands and took cleaver pictures for socials to show people how ‘full their lives were’, Dick and I would make eyeballs. Shadow eyeballs.

They were easy to do. We stood in a place that when we held our hands over our heads, our arms created an ‘eye’ shape. Our heads were the pupils. The entrance to the church? That was the nose and mouth.

Together, working with the light, Dick and I would regularly transform this old church into a living creature. We’d make it look to the left. We’d make it look to the right. We’d make th…