10/05/2018
An abandoned dumpster has a way of speaking to me. He tells me his pain, his past, his story. I empathize with its secluded nature.
It's filled with trash and treasure that once meant something. Crammed with parts that once belonged to something whole.
It is strong and holds the memory of a home, of a structure. The reminiscence of a place that once secured with forgotten items that are of no use anymore.
Even as an empty metal tank it is sturdy on its own, yet hollow and desolate without holding those deconstructed pieces of the past. It vibrates a need to be charged, to be of purpose; to carry, to hold, to contain the recollection of its story. To give without speaking. Those remains become his identity.
As I walk upon the seemingly deserted staging of its eerie gravesite the dumpster immediately invites me in to observe, and I begin to scale his exterior. The top ground soil spreads softly between my toes as I inch closer to the vibrating decay. He knows why I'm there; to find a story within his suffering and neglect. I am summoned to celebrate the scars and scrapes that are somehow overlooked by everyone else.
He asks, as I respectfully investigate his external layer, "How do you see my beauty?"
"How do you know my pain?"
"I am just a dumpster..."
I lovingly say to the dumpster,
"You are so much more!" As the smell of his decomposing waste becomes more prevalent, the inspiring message of this narrative rises to surface.
You are beautiful in your purpose... Maybe unappealing to most, but understood by me.
Allow me to celebrate your condition, and photograph the state of your existence.
This is unconditional love.
-clw
Written by: Cheryl Lynn Willis
Copyright © 2018