Photo of the Day: The Path Through the Park, Tenafly NJ

Sometimes it takes just a slight shift in where one stands to see in a different light something you’ve taken for granted of your life. So it was for me the other day, when I found myself at the corner of Riveredge Road in Tenafly, a couple of miles from me in northern New Jersey.

Ever since I was a teen, I had been coming to adjacent spots on this 10-acre site: the memorial dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt, a pond, and, next to the local high school, a track where I have taken to walking. I had also driven past the corner on this picture, on my way to somewhere else: relatives’ house a bit north, say, or just across the street and slightly east, the borough’s library.

But the other day when I came to this spot I was on foot, so I took the time to look. That’s when I saw how this path led off into the distance—a kind of photographic illustration of the principle of perspective that I had learned about in art history class more than 40 years ago.

It just goes to show that if you take enough time to look—really look—you can see things that you should have seen before, but now you’re taking them in for the first time.