
Fact From Friction
Pictured here is Charlotte: a client, colleague, and confidante of mine whose academic interests and authorship towards the analysis of provocative topics such as military misconduct, gender issues, culture change, civilian-military relations, and personnel policy demand fearless aplomb, to say the least. She is also an internationally-recognized consultant for military academies around the world and a tireless advocate for many vulnerable and disadvantaged groups: truly an intelligent, compassionate, and resolute force. That said, I figured that I might capture her essence of achievement and character with my own craft as a birthday gift. Thus, we find her, calm, poised, and assuring whilst juxtaposed against a somewhat foreboding landscape, used here as an allegory for the dark matter she pursues and illuminates for all to appreciate with a wider, informed, courageous, and thoughtful eye. The scene is panoramic by design to reflect her equally expansive knowledge, vision, and competencies with the metaphor ratified further still vis-à-vis a proverbial tree of wisdom set far afield and the osprey soaring overhead. Finally, an open book rests upon a pedestal within the confines of an ancient Greek temple as homage to study and truth, the base of which is inscribed with Athena’s motto: “When the obstacle becomes the road.” I’ve a feeling that she would gladly have Charlotte as both a champion and example of her own ethos of adaptation, sense of virtue, and want of justice.