Day Sixty-Three/Image Sixty-Three

“Afloat” Image. Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show.

This volcano looks happy! Lots of brightly colored dots coming out of its center! Certainly not harmful, destructive gases, lava and fire! But jelly bellies and grapes and bubbles!

These exclamation points above, both in the collage and in my opening paragraph, are not just because I am an exuberant person.

The printed sentence has no inflection. No tone of voice to soften a neutral comment that could be misinterpreted to mean something harsh. No tone of voice to explain something in a compassionate way. We have two options when we text or email someone. We can end the sentence with an exclamation point or a period.

At the risk of sounding a little nutty, I would rather end a sentence in an exclamation point than have someone take my sentence to mean that I am angry, sad, or dismissive. (It has…