White over Black: Etseri, Svaneti
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Who has experienced a Christmas like this one? Maybe great numbers of individuals have been cut off from one another before; there have been world wars which covered this season; there have been pandemics before. Even, say, the Black Death in the Middle Ages. But, in living memory, has the whole world been affected so drastically?
I remain upstairs in quarantine, my wife downstairs untouched by The Virus, for which we’re grateful. The winter in our village has been so mild so far, with snow not yet remaining even when it fell, and daytime temperatures above freezing, that it’s surreal.
Last night, the flakes coming down were so thick and fast from the day’s rain, that I expected everything to be white this morning. Most of it melted during the night! So strange, so late. It continued snowing throughout today, but lightly, and I was able (nothing else to do) to watch and shoot with my long lens from all sides of the house.
The contrast was extreme: just a thin layer of pure white on everything, which seemed nearly total black by comparison. Every surface and texture delineated in silence. A bit of mist coming and going, simple magic.
A couple of days later, a bit more snow on one of my favorite scenes from upstairs. Here I had to have several things come right: daylight; a person walking into the scene, for scale; and the “mountain wall” in the background clear enough of cloud to be visible, for drama. With plenty of watching and waiting (quarantine is good for such times), I saw it all coming together and was able to be ready.
The white was, for me, hope. It comes every year, sooner or later, covering the dead-looking trees and ground which have lost all the fall colors anyway. It’s a natural process, just some of the solid forms that water takes below freezing. But… never a snowflake repeated, from the xillions (new word) every year, in all history?
It comes now, as the year (in the Northern Hemisphere) rolls towards its shortest day. Into this darkness comes white. I want to use the verb “trumps”, but alas, that word has been sullied (no matter your leaning) for perhaps many years to come.
No matter one’s worldview, religion, or lack thereof, hope seems to be around the corner. Not just because vaccinations are coming! But when we emerge from this worldwide isolation, we and the world will have changed or started towards change, hopefully in most ways for the better. Not everything will have been corrected as if by a magic wand. But have we not had time to think about what we can work to change in ourselves, and whether we need help with this or not? I, these weeks, have had nothing BUT time.
The symbolism, as well as what I believe to be the history, of Christmas speaks like a bell to me. Whether most of it can be “proven” or not is not the issue for me. The birth was so unexpected in detail that most missed it, except the wise or prophetically warned. No palace. He wasn’t the political leader to throw off the Roman yoke: He was the King who served instead of being served. Living to die, at the appointed time and place, and in the manner foretold. Pointing to children as best examples of faith instead of the religious leaders of His day. And the latter, as He expected, collaborated with their own oppressors to have Him put to death. But only because He allowed it, holding back the legions of angels He could have summoned.
“Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders…” some fulfilled already, some yet to come. We wait, in darkness and cold, but also in hope, as silent snow falls and the days grow longer again. Merry Christmas, world.
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
By Tony Hanmer