MORNING GLORY

In the middle of a bicycle ride this morning I came upon a scattering of morning glories along a hedge row and chain-link fence beside the trolley tracks in Mission Valley. Morning glories are not easy to photograph. Managing light is usually the greatest challenge. What we see when we look at morning glories is not exactly what is there. In these photographs the seductive blue overpowers our eyes and brains, so we ignore the “shine” that strong sunlight paints over the brilliant, deeply saturated colors. The camera isn’t so easy to fool. Ambient, reflected light on the surface of things like shiny leaves and flowers can mute the colors in a photograph. I took these pictures in the early morning. By mid-afternoon the morning glories would be all shine. A polarizing filter would help.

As I was editing the images I couldn’t resist thinking that if I were to be given the job of creating a new religion, I’d definitely work morning glories into it. Coupling morning glories and religion together in my thinking doesn’t have anything to do with my adolescent memories of kids saying they had tried to get high on morning glory seeds. I was much too chicken to try it and don’t recommend it for anybody else. I checked a couple of on-line sources and learned that morning glory seeds contain lysergic acid amide, not to be confused with LSD or lysergic acid diethylamid (but the connection is obvious). I have read that Indians have supposedly identified morning glory seeds as a way to trip out, but that’s also not my reason for working them into a hypothetical religion.

It’s that powerful vortex at the very center of each morning glory blossom. Most religions attempt to ease the fear of dying. I think it might be helpful to imagine that dying is like allowing oneself to move gently toward the mysterious center of a morning glory blossom. When my time comes, I hope I have presence of mind enough to remember this morning’s little reverie and these images.