Remember when you were a kid and used to love flying your kite?
A couple of weeks ago I bought my grownup adult child self a new kite. I have been flying it in the afternoon breeze coming in off the ocean at Morro Rock. Such a simple thing.
So anyway, then this happened.
The annual Kite Festival in Morro Bay CA.
From 75′ long Octopus kites…
to arrays of smaller kites…
to just plain crowded and colorful skies.
Sometimes you even get the feeling they may be watching you.
Benevolently I’m sure.
Morro Rock (aka “The Gibraltar of the Pacific”) is a landmark feature on the central California coast. Formed around 23 million years ago as the plug of a now extinct volcano, it rises 581 feet from sea level. In 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer, named the rock as ‘El Morro’, which means ‘the crown shaped hill’ in Spanish. The rock was an important navigational aid for mariners for over 300 years, and at least two tribes consider it a sacred site. Today it stands guard over the entrance to the sheltered bay of it’s namesake city, Morro Bay (pop. 14,950). Morro Rock was designated a California Historical Landmark in 1968.
Is this the picture of a family having been evicted from their home, possibly a casualty of the ‘great recession’? Have the children been forced to uproot their friendships and attend a new school where they know not a single person yet? Will their pets be allowed to live in the new residence, or must they give them up? Can the marriage survive the strains that financial insecurity and change place upon it? What psychological scars will be etched on both the young and the old from this wretching experience? How long will those scars last before they eventually fade away to the effects of time?
Or maybe this is the portrait of a family moving up the ladder as growth and financial security return to a hopeful and waiting United States? Are they leaving this rented residence on the way to a new house of their own that they were finally able to purchase? Maybe there’s a new car in the budget now too, or even a second car? A bigger back yard, better schools, safer neighborhood, quieter surroundings? Perhaps a little less time available for Dad to be around the house, but then there’s always some price to pay.
There’s a story behind this. I wonder what it is?