Another 52 Weeks — #7

Wanted: More love. Less hurt

I remember the exact moment I took this picture. It was a few days after Valentine’s Day in 2017 and I was driving home from Pittsburgh, where our daughter Emma was going to college.

I had gotten off the Pennsylvania Turnpike to fill up the car with gas, went under the overpass and saw this painted on the wall. My heart sank as I wondered what had happened to the person who decided to leave their feelings for everyone in this small township to see.

Was it a teenager? An adult? Was it a breakup? A divorce? Was it a child talking about a parent, or a parent talking about a child? For some reason, in that moment as I stopped the car on an empty two-lane road, all of those questions flashed in front of me.

In that instant, I thought of the times in my life that I’ve been hurt. I thought of the times I’ve hurt others. Then I took this photo.

We need more love and less hurt. I try to live by that rule every day. Every time I see this photo I’m reminded again of that.

Here’s another photo that’s a reminder of a happy time. This was taken under the George Washington Bridge last August on the night Emma became engaged to Colby.

And now for the rest of the random images from the week.

Walk into the sun — Baltimore, Md., September 2024

Walking around Theodore Roosevelt Island — near Washington, D.C., April 2019

Tuskegee Airmen memorial — Walterboro, S.C., April 2016

The shadow cross — Chicago, December 2016

Wild berries near the Potomac River — Alexandria, Va., May 2021

New Video Preview: Keep Your Distance

Here’s a new video promoting my first photo book — “Keep Your Distance: Walking through the first year of COVID” — that will be released in March. The 64-page hardback book is available for pre-order now for $40 plus $5.95 shipping.

To read more about the book, the reasons I created it, and to see more, click on the “Social Distancing Diary” below.