Another day, another
opportunity to capture the picturesque, awe-inspiring empty streets and open
spaces in and around the Downtown Miami, was spent well. Trying to capture the
perfect picture, I experienced an exhilarating feeling of melancholy and
palpable gloom. I am not trying to romanticize despair or the current
situation, but we rarely get to see nature, and its surrounding architecture in
their true form.
I saw, I felt, I clicked
My clicks revealed how the
trees were a little greener with the lack of polluted air marring their beauty.
The blue of the skies was contrasting well with the grey-white clouds. The
architecturally distinct building stood out of the crowd of hi-tech structural
marvels around it, alone but, proud. The empty streets breathing for the first
time in many years, reminding me of the images I perused once of abandoned
cities and forgotten histories.
People say still waters run
deep, I don't know about that, but the still waters I observed were magnificent
if only a tad bit characteristically enhanced by the docked boats. The arch of
the street lights seemed more refined, more artistic even, I felt they were
underappreciated. Road markings, traffic signals, everything looked
unperturbed, like that of an apocalyptic movie; you would be hypnotized too
without the interruption of the fleeting yet very present small crowds here and
there.
"Closed until further
notice," a common sign hung at several commercial spaces around the area.
Although some spaces would slowly open up, nobody knows when we will find
normalcy again. Empty parking spaces, and closed shuttered echoed the same
concern. The similarities to some dystopian universe I had once read about,
seemed as startling as my changing ideas about Downtown Miami. Today, I can say
that the colors, thoughts, shapes, structures, and sizes of every establishment
and open space in Downtown Miami intrigued me like never before, but the crowd
and the emotion of the space appeared amiss.
The wrap up
Things are changing very
quickly in the country as the Covid-19 or Wuhan virus situation is evolving.
Every day there is a news or two about areas opening or closing off, we don't
know when everything will open up, but, these empty streets and spaces, which
used to be filled to the brim with crowds give us hope and a sign that beauty
exists in all forms, through every disaster, and through it surely resides in
the eye of the beholder.
