Line Dance

It’s Theme Day again for those of us participating in City Daily Photo. Today’s theme? Lines. Lets not get fenced in here, let’s get a little less esoteric with lines…

We love to draw them, hate to wait in them, curse them on our faces and laugh at them when declared by strangers in bars. Lines. They’re everywhere. Those of us who photograph things find myriad ways to capture them. Poets rhyme them. Actors learn them. We pray our children won’t sniff them. We hope our economy won’t lead us to stand in them.

Euclid defined a line as “length without breadth," and I love him for making the mathematical sound so boundlessly poetic. For it’s true: in math a line extends forever in both directions. In two dimensions, two different lines can either be parallel – alas, they never meet -- or they may intersect at one and only one point. Such a fitting metaphor for those singular moments in life that lead to the most memorable, oft-quoted lines. In three or more dimensions, lines may skew – they don’t meet, and they don’t define a plane. And how often our own lines (and lives) skew too. Geometry gives us the line segment, a part of a line that is bounded by two distinct end points – like our own short lives, line segments on some big unknown continuum…

So here’s to the lines: the simple, universal, straight-shooting lines. To all the ways we walk them, tow them and reel them in – but most of all, to coloring outside of them.

And here's to all of my fellow City Daily Photo bloggers posting from around the world. Take a look at some of their wonderful interpretations: Click here to view thumbnails for all participants .