Human nature is funny. On the one hand, we have the power to shape our world in such a way that fiction writers cannot even dream about it. On the other hand, we have the power to destroy ourselves. But nature itself has the upper hand as she will survive. Think about radiation. Nature will be fine, we humans cannot survive.
In any case, on a recent walk in the mountains close to some massive waterfalls, I saw the moss covering human structural remains and the rocks. It got me thinking about how we will also be forgotten if we do not walk carefully.
In this post, I share with you ten photographs I took of the moss. It came out more artistic and abstract than I thought and planned. It thus looks more like art than photographs in my eyes. It is also very abstract in the sense that it messes with your head. It feels like you are looking at something familiar but it then transforms back into the unfamiliar and strange.
As always, I will intersperse the photographs with musings about the dystopian idea that everything we have done can be covered with moss and become hidden underneath growth and rotten material. The musings are inspired by some recent dystopian ideas I had and a series I watched. Please skip them if you feel like it, they are kind of depressing. But the goal is to showcase how easily we can be forgotten. If you are not the (nihilistic) philosophy type, please gloss over them and focus on the photographs. I hope you enjoy them!
Moss
We have majestic buildings that defy logic. Yet, it only takes one earthquake to destroy it or one catastrophe to topple it. Soon, moss might grow over the rubble and all that might protrude is a rusted bolt.
Today we walk in skyscraper buildings, but tomorrow we might walk over the piece of rubble covered with mossy hairs. We might not even know what we are stepping on. It might look like part of the mountain, but it is part of a building that collapsed due to some dispute between world leaders. Now it harbors countless millions of lives and it holds the seeds of majestic trees that will soon sprout and cover the sky.
All that is left over is the rusted bolts and nuts, but soon this will also wither away.
Abandoned, a cornerstone lies. Underneath the mossy growth, the initials of someone importants remains hidden, forgotten. One moment it was the pillar of that building, that corporation, now it is an abandoned rock with mossy growth on it.
At one point, society could not even imagine its own demise. But that was the biggest mistake. Everything is mortal, even money, even capitalism. In fact, our societal norm of cash and capital and property is only a few rebels away from total collapse. A thin papery contract that can burn or be torn to shreds.
Underneath the cover of moss and rotten leaves, our ambitions for a utopian future now ferments and breaks down, feeding the trees that grow. Dystopian for us, but utopian for the rest of mother nature.
As clear as our minds were, everything seems abstract now. Our once systematic and logical and mathematical system is now merely a chaotic, symbiotic and absurd mess that reproduces disorder and anarchy.
For all human life was merely a bad act written by a drunk playwright. A system that functions on the disarray of a hapless maniac.
Yet again, we abstract the events that seemed to unfold so slowly, but the making of this disaster was foretold by the old: do not rely on paper as you cannot eat a chopped down tree, do not drink the water as the rivers run full of poison from the nearby printing press.
And now we walk in the light of the lantern made from wood and stars. The last tree was chopped down, but at that same moment, the last building collapsed as well. Seeds for the future, new mountains, moss eventually covered everything when the acid rain subsided and mother nature's voice took over the skies.
Postscriptum or Things Can Be Different
This was a rather depressing post, sorry for that! If you read it, all is not lost. I am not of the opinion that everything will turn out bad, nor am I a nihilist. I just had a little fun thought experiment with how we can create our own demise even though we do not always think like that. It turned into a bit of fiction writing!
All of the photographs were taken with my Nikon D300 and 50mm lens. The musings are also my own. Happy photographing and stay safe!