Flowers for Kafka (Thing #8)

Kafka statue in Prague
Originally uploaded by Helen in Wales

Good gravy, has it really been since Nov. 26 since I've been able to work on this? Yikes. Well, it's looking more and more like I won't be able to finish the 23 Things by the end of January. But I'm not giving up quite yet, anyway.

So, here goes . . . Thing #8: Discover Flickr.

The Online Photo Sharing in Plain English video was very convincing, of course, but creating a Flickr account and adding my photos is the kind of thing I could end up spending a lot, lot, lot of time on. I know me. I'd spend hours and hours writing the descriptions for each photo. And right now, that's just not an option. So to keep this short, I'm afraid I'm going to have to do the first exercise, which is just choosing any photo in Flickr and blogging about it.

Back in 2005, I had the opportunity to visit the Czech Republic for two weeks. It was one of the most exciting and wonderful experiences of my life. I took somewhere between 700 and 800 pictures with my digital camera. (And yes, they are all just rotting on my hard drive. I'll do something about that some other time.) But there was a statue that I remember clearly, which I did not get a picture of. So I searched Flickr for a picture of that statue. And here it is.

This statue honors Franz Kafka. Kafka is forever linked to my Prague vacation in my mind because I read a comprehensive book of his short stories on the way there, not only on the flight, but also during my eight or so cumulative hours sitting in airports. So by the time I actually reached Prague, the absurd writings of Prague's crazy son were well in my mind. So of course I had to check out places where Kafka lived, dined, etc. I even ate at the Franz Kafka restaurant. (Which has excellent food, by the way, if you're ever in Prague.)

Now, there are a lot of pictures in Flickr of this particular Kafka statue, but I chose this one because that bright red bouquet of flowers caught my eye. That is obviously not part of the statue. Did the photographer put it there? Or did she find it that way? If not her, then who thought to place flowers in the empty neck of Kafka's human steed? Why? What was the meaning behind it? It reminds me of when I was on Charles Bridge and found a coral necklace fastened around one of the lamp posts. There's a story there, a mystery. And it is almost assuredly lost to history. However, it can inspire creative minds to craft new stories. A sighting like this is fuel for the imagination.

So that's one use for Flickr--a place to cast around, looking at photos of the familiar which happen to capture some small detail of the unusual--sparks for the imagination.