aMsTeRdAm: Innocence Where No One Else Sees It

I’ve always struggled with the saying: ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’

There are so many ways to understand this. But I’ve always wondered: does something cease being beautiful if no one recognizes it?

Maybe I’ll never make up my mind on this. Either way:

Amsterdam. Approximately four hours. Ready, set, go.

Strikingly, everyone, locals and tourists alike, seemed to recognize only a few mainstream things. The typical monuments. The popular photo op locations. And of course, the legal drugs. But there was more to the city than most people saw.

Innocence.

It was too obvious, too ironic, too paradoxical to possibly be true.

After walking the streets of Amsterdam for a few short, sunny hours, it became well known to me, the distinct scent of weed. It also became clear, that there are seldom corners of the city of Amsterdam without this drug present. And man was it striking, attention consuming, thought provoking.

And I thought: had I gone through the city, not having know that what I was smelling was weed, I would have left simply thinking that Amsterdam had a very distinct scent. But now I leave, associating Amsterdam with drugs. Recklessness. Foolishness? And I do wish I had more pure memories of this place.

But now it strikes me: perhaps beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I don’t need to focus on what everyone else sees. Important it is, yes, to understand what others see. Why they do what they do. Where they long to be, what they long to have, manifested in how they live.

But truthfully, I’ve never seen the world quite as others see it. Und dafür bin ich wirklich dankbar. (Some things are simply easier to express in German.)

I found some beauty in Amsterdam, that’s for sure. And some innocence too. And I think only these photographs can convey that gentle paradox.

It shouldn’t be so. But where there is confusion and despair, there is always surely a greater, overcoming hope.