Photo of the Day: Late Summer Dawn, Lake Chautauqua, NY

It’s hard to believe that I’m back two weeks now from vacationing at Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, but the images and other memories of that time linger—including this picture I took on my last day there, of walking by Lake Chautauqua at dawn. 

Particularly in those last few days there, as the weather cooled, segueing toward fall, it offered a feeling of peace and serenity that I, in turn, present to you, vicariously.

Quote of the Day (Brian Doyle, on ‘The House of the Heart’)

“So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end—not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart. When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child, that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety forevermore, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall. You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant, felled by a woman's second glance, a child's apple breath, the shatter of glass in the road, the words 'I have something to tell you,' a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die, the brush of your mother's papery ancient hand in a thicket of your hair, the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children.”— Spiritual author-editor Brian Doyle (1956-2017), One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder for the Spiritual and Nonspiritual Alike (2019)

I took the image accompanying this post in July 2013 at Lake Chautauqua, in upstate New York. I think it conveys something of the sense of loneliness and wonder that the late Brian Doyle was expressing here.

Photo of the Day: Chautauqua Lake, Late Afternoon

The other day, in a post on Ken Burns, I indicated that the Amphitheater was the heart of the Chautauqua Institution. Upon further reflection, however, I’d have to amend that: it is the intellectual heart of this upstate New York institution (still no mean feat, at that).

In a primal sense, because water is so central to life, Chautauqua Lake—captured in this photograph I took late Sunday—is the heart and soul of the place. The following night, a session was held lakeside on “Contemplative Photography.” I can think of few places of such quiet but real rustic beauty where that art form can be better applied.
This week, as this great American place celebrates its 140^th anniversary, walking or biking by this body of water remains the simplest and most joyous of activities for those of us seeking a break from the noise, haste and waste of urban life.

Photo of the Day: Twilight, Lake Chautauqua

Remember my post from yesterday, headlined “Chautauqua Travel Journal: Wrap-up?” Well, I’m done with the substantive writing part of the trip. But I took all kinds of photos during that part of the vacation (as well as my brief stopover in Pittsburgh), and it seemed a shame to waste the better ones.

So, with your indulgence, I thought I would offer a few more, perhaps spread out over the days ahead, sort of a visual counterpart to that old Beach Boys LP, Keepin’ the Summer Alive.

In this one, I think, you’ll see why so many people keep coming to this lakeside community in upstate New York, dating back to the Victorian Era, year after year, when they could be going to all sorts of trendy beach spots. Among other things, it’s a source of tranquility and beauty, where you can stop, amid the madness and bustle of your normal life, and simply remember the source of what’s important.

Photo of the Day: Guards Against the Sky

The theme of “Water Matters” would not have been the first that would have interested me, but of all the subjects to which entire weeks have been devoted at the Chautauqua Institution, this particular topic from July, when I attended, may be the one that lingers the longest in my mind, given the climate events of this past summer.

I took this particular photo of Lake Chautauqua during the week. It seems to epitomize the threat that weather extremes have posed these past several years—as well as our inadequacy before the imminent storms.

Photo of the Day: Threatening Skies

I took this photo two weeks ago of Lake Chautauqua while on vacation at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York.