Tomato Tribute

When a picture is NOT worth a thousand words...
Sometimes a picture is not worth a thousand words, contrary to the popular saying. Not because of its quality, or color or or the feeling it gives you, but because for you, there is so much more behind that picture than a thousand words or more could represent. Because , that one picture expresses so much feeling to you, holds memories or represents a much larger story, than what someone else would feel or get from it who didn't know what it was about... I love photography, adore it even, probably drive my family crazy with it, I always have my camera, am always taking pictures of things they just don't get...not again Mom! What is she taking pictures of now?! And the feeling one gets when they look at my pictures is very important to me. Because, a photograph CAN express great feeling...but, when you look at this picture, you probably just see a tomato. Pretty, colorful, even delicious looking . Maybe you like the composition, or think about all the great dishes you could make with tomatoes as lucious as these.
But when I see this picture, it makes me think of my Brother-in-law. He passed away right before Christmas in a accident. A seemingly tiny, impossible little accident. This adventurous man who flew airplanes, raced cars, went to Haiti every month for a week, passed away on his own driveway. He was the most generous man that I knew, funny, brillant, owner of an enormous business, an inventor, a family man...In addition to all things , he loved to grow tomatoes. I think because he loved to GIVE away tomatoes. They were the best, the biggest, the most beautiful, because that is how he did things. Bigger, better, more extravagent: Tom. His children and wife have decided to send each family ( and we are huge, believe me), a box of his beautiful tomatoes each month until the last of the crop he planted stops producing. So thoughtful, classy and generous . So, for a little while we will keep enjoying his gifts, and forever we will remember who he was, thankful that we knew him. And with these few words, I have tried to give you a very small picture of him, but then sometimes too, as with a photograph, words are inadequate to describe...