This mesmerizing clip is from American Beauty.  What’s important and relevant to this post is not the context of the movie, but the video recording of a plastic bag floating around in the air.  This clip actually has a lot to do with why I chose to do my final project on simplistic things that when looked at closely are actually very memorable and unique.  When I saw the bag floating, I remember thinking it was really beautiful, and in some ways kind of magical, the way it floated around like a ghost.

Why post this video as my first entry for my final project? Well, the last 2 weeks I have seen three more of these “phantoms.” (Phantom is the word I have adopted for things I see floating weightlessly like the bag).  The first phantom was in Florida, off the coast of Egmont Key, and it was a stingray swimming near the coast next to our boat.  It was so elegant and fast, that it honestly did not look real.  The water was clear-blue and the sand was white, and the stingray stood out (it doesn’t usually visit environments like this, according to my future marine biologist friend).  My friend who initially spotted it described it as a phantom, and that’s where I adopted this new name from.  When I saw the stingray, I immediately thought of the scene in the clip.

The second phantom was when I was in my car driving home last Friday for the fist time since December.  It was a large black trash bag, moving in slow-mo on the interstate.   Cars going 80 flew by it sending it into the air and then it slowly sunk down toward the road until the next car drove by and sent it back in the air.  It was infront of me and I thought it was going to hit the windshield, but by the laws of physics (I can’t explain why) it didn’t hit the car, but instead shot up over the car like it had control of its flight.  Something about seeing bags fly around in the air, somehow avoiding objects and hitting the ground makes me want to be a bag for 5 minutes, just so I could glide in the wind.   That was phantom number 2.

Today I saw phantom number 3.  It was a small purple butterfly, a color that I had never seen on a butterfly.  It was so small and going so quickly, I didn’t even see its wings moving, I just saw it bouncing around out of the corner of my eye.  I again thought of the clip I’ve posted above, and realized that today’s essence had to be something pertaining to the “phantoms” that keep appearing.  Today would have been normal had I not seen the butterfly which was the third phantom, and thus today is the day of the third phantom.

The movement is so important.  Taking a screen shot doesn’t do it justice, or entirely capture what I’m looking for.