Below is a photo of Daniel and Cedar bringing in Cedar’s buddy’s (Ms. Nancy) trash can during our family bike ride yesterday. I share it to show the person we hope Cedar continues to be and the person I am grateful to call my husband.
This morning I received a meaningfully anonymous and malicious email at work, subject line, “Unreal – Lack – Amazed, stunned – you are in new yorker...” attacking my husband for the “Truly laziest, low bar response to a rare opportunity” The sender who gave a fake email and number was upset that “you did no work to have a relevant section on your website or for contact…”
At first I was going to let it slide, but instead I sat down to write a response for myself and even sent it to the fake email. After quietly sitting, ok, maybe stewing on it, I decided to share it, not to get even, but to show a not so rare side of my husband, our life, and our world that the digital world doesn’t always get to see… it is too long for an instagram post, but ironically in response to the person who messaged me, it provided opportunity to update my business website…
To Anonymous Messenger:
“Gravity is the first word that comes to mind when I think about the last few days… weeks… months… even years… Gravity, depth, richness, trauma, triumph… and I think too often it’s easy to jump ahead of ourselves and speak before its time to speak… before the thoughts, experiences can turn to true wisdom that isn’t self-seeking, but genuinely from a place of peace, kindness, and hopeful selflessness. If I’ve learned anything from the journey thus far, if I can share anything of value and truth to the world… take up precious time and space to type these words, and even more ask that you give your unreplenishable time and space to read them, it’s that when we spew hatred, malice, anger at one another it not only spreads that mess into the world, dehumanizing others and causing division, it actually rips the spewer inside out replacing peace with a torrent of wrath.
So, in response to the anonymous messenger today who entered my business space and personal world, dehumanizing my husband, I say, “I’m sorry for whatever anger and hatred led you to send me that message. I would have liked to have had the opportunity to respond to you directly to assure you that we honestly don’t think that we do fully grasp the profound gravity of the blessing Daniel has received through the weighty, poetic, and timely article published by the New Yorker… how could anyone in such a short span of time?
We were on a bike ride with our two year old when the article was released. We didn’t discuss it at the time, because there was someone in our presence who deserved our attention… our son. After our scheduled work that day, rather than go immediately to publicize the honor, we sat quietly in our home together in awe of its magnitude, shedding literal tears of gratefulness as 20+ years of calling, passion, and heart-wrenching work was recognized, critiqued, and found compelling to not just the general public but also an audience of distinguished photographers, reporters, environmentalists, writers, etc. that we admire beyond measure. We then shared the news with our children and parents.
Over the past two days we have read and re-read the article, and each time we find something we didn’t catch before… another tid-bit to give thanks for. Anonymous messenger, you definitely know the buttons to push… “lazy and low bar response” touch a nerve with us especially… because we aspire to give wholly of ourselves in all we do. Both terms you used are completely subjective in light of one’s priorities. Our response to the New Yorker Article, and any publication local, regional, national, any award, any like, any praise, has been and will continue to be thankfulness.
Our response first, is to the highest bar – on our knees giving thanks to God where all talent, opportunity, grace, mercy, gifting, ability, resource, and opportunity originate. We give thanks by celebrating privately with our family. We give thanks by celebrating locally with our community. We give thanks by reaching out in private to the people who gave us the opportunity for such an honor. And after we have put first things first, we will reach out to update our website appropriately to reflect the honor received, so that the stories and people behind work to which we are called, and the images we are blessed to create can be seen, heard, and honored as part of a greater story. That is our heart and my response.”
I’ve given enough time and taken enough time for anyone who has read this. If you’ve gotten to the end, my prayer is that you can take this as a sign to show grace rather than cast judgement.
And in the spirit of thankfulness, and as prompted by the anonymous messenger, below are links to Daniel’s website, instagram, and the article.
www.instagram.com/danielpullen
The New Yorker, Battling the Sea on the Outer Banks
~ Kate
Kate and Dan, As a photographer from Maryland, with a long history of seasonal visits to the Outer Banks, for over 50 years, I have know Dan, from his days working at Natural Art surf Shop, and when he first began photographing. His work has grown measurably and remarkably as a photographer. His passion about the community where he resides, and his documentation of his life on a barrier island has always been true and honest. Dan deserves the recognition he has received. It is sad to think that someone is so jealous of this recognition of his work, that they need to resort to posting a negative remark is appalling to me. As a photographer, we all have a different approach in how we see and document our subjects. Dan’s eye is in every pixel of his images.