A Pensive CB and the Concept of Air

I don't know why I haven't posted this picture before, at least on my blog; I'm certain it popped up on Facebook at one time or another. I snapped this on last March's trip to Jordan as were waiting for lunch to arrive. On the surface it appears to show a decidedly pensive Cyndi Brandenburg. However, I think if you look closer you see something else, and this brings me back to COR 110 and Cynthia Freeland's Portraits & Persons (a book the students hate, and which I won't allow to be dropped from the course, and not simply because the students hate it - at least not entirely). Freeland discusses  Roland Barthes (who seems to be the unofficial philosopher of the Core division) and his concept of "air", which I know I've discussed previously. Essentially, air is the almost indefinable something that makes up an individual, and that you have to know the person to identify the air. Barthes used the example of a picture of his mother that he beautifully described, but never shared, because he said no one else would ever see her indefinable quality. To me, this picture captures Cyndi's air in that there's always the deep thinker, but also always the mischievous soul lurking beneath the surface. Of course, if you take that to be true then it's also possible that you're filling in a picture with your own scripted meaning, I suppose.

A penny for your thoughts, Mei Mei.