Waiting

Not waiting for the train, in either direction. If  I had been intending to catch one (going west behind the photographer, or east into the city, around the corner) I had just missed both. Fortunately I was not wanting either train. The photo would have been very different had I been on the steps up to the overbridge only a couple of minutes sooner. 

One could argue that this photo is a truer truth (no train to be seen) than one which showed one or possibly two trains. But truly, would not one say that the purpose of these rails is for trains to use them, so therefore trains using them is the true truth, not this inactive period.?

Photographs are accurate, but not necessarily the truth (Richard Avedon: "All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth." emphasis added). 

I have titled the photo waiting even though instead of waiting for Young L where I should have been (back down the steps and than away from the railway line and across the road to the school gate), I chose to follow a young Tui which had drawn my attention with its song only to fly off. So I wasn't waiting. But then he wasn't there waiting for me and when I came back to where he was likely to emerge, there he was walking towards me.

So neither of us was just waiting. Nor was the tui. Only the railway lines were waiting. Without drama, and sometime later they would again fulfil their purpose. Perhaps we should all learn to wait with such acceptance .