This leaf I still find beautiful. I just thought the title souned nicer than what I originally had in mind.."Dead Leaf". It is still intact, just a bit drained in color and dried out. Is it really dead though? It is alive here....I photographed it...it has life. It has come to life on our electronic monitors. But...I wonder...is it in leaf Heaven now? Or maybe leaf Hell. Perhaps it's in leaf Purgatory. Maybe it is just fading away...and it has no spirit. It is becoming one with the world again....but what about when the world dies away. Then what becomes of the leaf? Did it live in vain. What was its purpose. To provide pleasure during the color season, or to act as a model for me to photograph? Maybe it is there to remind us that we have veins, like the leaf. Or maybe it's purpose is so some scientists can have a job, or students can study it. Is the leaf any less or greater than the human? Or is the human just vain because we are abstract in our thinking. Maybe the leaf is better off than the thinking entity...if it can't think..then it just is....it is just a leaf that is(or was) just hanging out. I see the leaf and take a picture of it, and I can trip out on the leaf. Can the leaf do this? Maybe if it is a pot leaf...and this one looks kind of like one. Would I smoke it? Probably not. What do I know though? NOt as much as I would believe...is what I believe. Maybe I am just a souless leaf-like carbon based biped....destined to fade away like this here leaf. Or maybe what the hopefuls religious types say is true...that the Human is supreme to all other life on earth, and thus has an eternal soul. Therefore we should have dominion over all leaves, animals, and lower life forms, like the earth...and kill it all!!! Anyways, if I was just a souless leaf like being, then Why else would I believe in spirits, a Creator, and know good from bad? Maybe I am an alien? If I was an alien, then it would be known from a distance because how could I be an alien from the point of view of an Earthling. I feel like an alien though. A cool alien. Did God create an aliens, and alien afterlife? Most likely, but I have no idea. Maybe this is the afterlife, and we think it is the present. The Big-Bang seems a bit primative, but perhaps it has an important part in the big picture. Ok...I am tripping...but I'll maybe be ok. -Peace/Jeff :-)