Outside in the crisp fall air and the bright afternoon sunlight is where a person likely should be right now, but I'm inside motivating myself to read and write. It's a slow process, as it sometimes is, made slower at the moment by the results of a quick conversation with a friend this morning about photography -- and about art and about God.

So here's one result -- a photo I took weeks ago stuck in traffic along the Charles River on my way home from teaching. (Downtown Boston is behind the trees and to the left a bit, the bench on the right was completely empty, and in the shots before and after this one you could see the amorphous blurs of passing cyclists, trotting joggers, and a crew team on the water getting barked at by a coach in a motorboat.)

The real joy of this photograph was taking it -- switching gears from frustration to appreciation (neither of which can usually last very long) and reveling a little bit in how beauty smiles that shy smile even when no one is looking. But it's no small joy to share the photo either. Enjoy the afternoon a little extra for me, OK?