Yes, she is jumping rope, but the real game, if you look closely, is between her and her shadow. They are seeing how far apart they can get before gravity brings them back together. She jumps up and her shadow jumps away from her, only to return. It’s not like she is trying to escape from her shadow. She is not trying to get away. She is playing with it. Carl Jung talked a lot about our spiritual shadows, how we fear them and vainly flee from them when we should instead recognize and even embrace what we fear. Maybe he should have suggested jumping rope with them!
Photo of a girl jumping rope on North Shipley Street in Wilmington, Delaware at SsAM’s Community Fun Fest.
Photo and text copyright 2018 by Danny N. Schweers.
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Comments
Rosemary wrote:
Perfection in observation. Love the poetic greys with jots of fuschia. Karl Jung would see something new via your observation of liberated shadows with this Photo Prayer.
Marina wrote:
After we read Peter Pan, my daughter (pre-K age) would play a similar game with her shadow. Cool action pic!
Holly wrote:
Beautiful how the colors of her outfit and rope echo the colors of the chalk!
Nina wrote:
Lovely, I would very much like to meet my spiritual shadow.
Hugh wrote:
Insightful.
Bill wrote:
Good. Reminds me of my favorite excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke: “Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something that needs our love.”
Tom wrote:
Clever liaison with Jung!
Julie wrote:
Thinking about Dr. Jung, I believe he was the best "shadow-jump-roper" in the business! [And let me] add how much I like this photo, Danny! It's so alive, so active, and the light is just wonderful.
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