Mom's Diner

Mom's Diner, originally uploaded by Bob Jagendorf.

I just joined a group named Vanishing Beauty on Flickr. The name is great. It is all about photos of things, icons that are becoming relics of the past. The attachment to such things is a deeper longing for permanence and also for a Platonic truth or reality (that which is not fleeting):

When the mind's eye rests on objects illuminated by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence. (Plato, 380BC)

While being aware of that which changes, we are also aware of that which does not.

I love to become aware of those institutions that are just on the verge of extinction. Noticing the present turn into the past and disappear causes me to feel - I admit, in one moment, a melancholy longing - but at the same time, a feeling of interconnected deep presence, of being a part of this mysterious movement of events and lives - history - which makes time feel so linear.