The surfaces of things...

Thank you for continuing to add to the photo album.

Why is it that Miletus seemed so desolate? It wasn't in a more ruinous state than the other sites; but it seemed sadder somehow. Perhaps it was because the site was so flat & exposed.

I don't know; but the amphitheater is certainly impressive enough. And that glowing wash of light that lit up all the white-washed surfaces as soon as we were driving beside the sea- I don't know how one captures that.

& what beautiful stonecutters' work at Didyma. I'm glad you got closeups of the bases of the columns with those precise & delicate egg & dart & palmetto patterns.

It gives me an aching feeling to see such beautiful craftmanship. I also am reminded of my grandfather & what a meticulous craftsman he was (as were so many men of his generation.) I can look back & see us working together & how he kept one eye on me & would always catch me out when I hammered a nail in crooked & would stop me & make me pull the nail out & hammer it in "true."

Not that I appreciated the lesson I was learning then.

Love,

D.

Reading this letter from my friend, David, I think of the Neruda statement, as translated by D. Maloney (I have it in Windows that Open Inward: Images of Chile:

"It is worthwhile, at certain hours of the day or night, to look closely at objects at rest. Wheels that have crossed long, dusty distances with thier enormous loads of corps or ore, sacks from coal, barrels, baskets, the handles and hafts of carpenters' tools. The contact that these objects have had with the earth serve as a text for all tormented poets. The worn surfaces of things, the wear that hands give to them the air, sometimes tragic, sometimes pathetic, emanating from these objects lends and attractiveness to the reality of the world that should not be scorned."