On one of my walks, I discovered an abandoned weather station on the top of a mountain. The views were spectacular but the weather station - which got weathered over time - was really beautiful as well. I took a bunch of photographs with my 50mm Nikkor f/1.8 lens all the whilst philosophical ideas filled my head. Here is the weather station from the outside. It does not look like anything special.

As per usual, scroll down past the photographs if you'd like to read my philosophical musings. As for now, please enjoy the photographs of this very strange but stunning place!

Weathered

Weathered: A Philosophical Essay

Weathered symbolizes the changing of something due to the weather. In my home language, Afrikaans, the word for weathered is verweer. It plays with the same idea. Weer means weather and the prefix ver- symbolizes the verb of being weathered as you would say it in English. But in Afrikaans verweer has another meaning, namely, to defend something or to provide resistance. And this got me thinking:

Are weathered things not then the resistance to change?

That is, wood, for example, will not simply wither away, it will become weathered and give us the symbolic look we are used to. People always want that "weathered" look. But if we keep in mind the Afrikaans double meaning of the word, can we not say that it is the active resistance of withering away?

In our radically changing world, is this not also our predicament? We want to change and life does change us, but if we do not defend enough we might wither away. That is, we are like this building always feeling the weather coming down on us, always weathering us, yet, as in the Afrikaans meaning of the word, we are always defending against the total dissolution or withering away.

With change, we grow stronger, with wind from the front we adapt, and we always resist the temptation to wither away. Yes, there are those who cannot cope with too much weathering. With the slightest wind change, they struggle. And again, is this not the predicament we are in: some people are not up for the challenge of change because our modern era creates an environment that allows people to become used to security. That is, even though our times are changing so quickly and those who do not adapt will be left behind, the left-behind is not like in the olden days left for dead. Today, they just create a new group of fellow "left-behinds".

But we will always try and defend, defer, and prolong the withering away. We will become weathered but not withered. Verweer, defense, resist.

Postscriptum, Or So Long, and Thanks for All the Wind

It is always dangerous to walk in buildings that are weathered and not safe to walk in. I took a chance with some of the photographs as the roof was busy falling in. I hope the photograph is worth it. Like the iron stove, I will also fall sometime soon but let us not wither away.

All of the photographs are my own taken with my Nikon D300. All of the musings are also my own. Happy photographing and stay safe!