While in Nassau, I heard a radio announcer wish his listeners a Happy Valumtimes Day, a sort of vernacular that inspired me to come up with my own nomenclature; Happy Valium Times Day. As this is the season where the taste of jilted love is all the more bitter, a tranquilizing muscle-relaxant might come as a relief. And not just for the afflicted, but for all those who might be near in space, time or relationship.
While on a date, I got caught in the crossfire of a man who was experiencing some displeasure on Valentine's Day. I don't know his name or story, but a man at Potter's Key Dock, Nassau had a fight with another over, well dignity; that's what we all fight about anyway.
It started at a low grumble but then the sky cracked open and the man, under the influence of his own upset, took a Valentine's Day pie and pressed it in the moosh of another. Then a beer bottle went screaming by, and I made the decision to move. Maybe it was a gut reaction, but I made sure I was out of harms way before I unpacked my camera, and it cost me the shot.
I've learned to stay out of the path of crime, and this often translates into my photojournalism. While I might be right all up in there, still, somehow, at times, I'm just outside of the firing line. Instead, what I come away with are those moments of reconciliation and affection.
So for this Valumtimes Day I've decided to post a photo of a young girl who shows her adoration for kittens on a calender. And when we strip it all down, all we really want, including that man on Potter's Key Dock, is the kind of innocent love that we can put in a frame.
