A man is whatever room he is in right now – Japanese Proverb

As uttered by the incomparable Bertram Cooper, played by the equally incomparable Robert Morse on Mad Men.  Occasionally when I need a little mental reset, I re-watch the entire Mad Men series.  I always liked the Bert Cooper character.  He was a good counter-balance to Roger Sterling and the other rogues on the show.

Let’s consider though the quote from the beginning for a second.  A man is whatever room he is right now.  What does it mean?  Do we assume that the person is who he claims he is when he walks into a room?  Are we to forget the person’s past transgressions?  He is whatever room he is in?  So we are to assume who he says he is is actually who he is.

Don Draper is a broken narcissist played by the real Dick Whitman, who sought to run away from his sad life.  What does drive people to seek a new identity?  Is it sadness, pain or something else?

Come out, come out wherever you are.

Well with the photos for this one, we’re going with some dark ones I took during the last snow storm.  Mistaken identity is kind of dark, as are the photos:

boston allston corner harvard avenueboston aquarium station black whiteboston aquarium station tunnelboston back bay snow darkboston back bay snow dark 2boston boston common black white pathsboston brookline snow darknessboston downtown man walking with child in steamboston downtown man walking with child in steam 2boston downtown man walking with child in steam 3boston fenway snow 1boston fenway snow 2boston fenway snow 3boston fenway snow 5boston fenway snow 6boston fenway snow 7

 

3 thoughts on “A man is whatever room he is in right now – Japanese Proverb

  1. Oh man, that first photo of the man and boy in the steam; superb! Did you do any post editing for these? They’re wonderful! My only critique would be to dampen the highlights in the first couple photos. But hey, that’s just me. Keep it up!

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