based on the photograph ’Grace’ by Eric Enstrom
I’d peg the odds of finding a copy of this well-known photograph
at any thrift store or rummage sale in the state of Minnesota
somewhere between better than average and practically guaranteed.
It depicts an elderly gentleman with a snow-white beard
and a plaid hunting shirt frozen in prayer before a humble meal
of bread and soup, his hands folded into a two-fisted knot
and his head bowed, while nearby rests a bible, although
one suspects it’s actually just a dictionary posing as a bible.
You can usually find an example for a few dollars or less
in a battered oak frame hanging unassumingly on the back wall
of a second-hand shop, or buried in a stack of discarded artwork;
sometimes sun-faded, often dust-covered, and frequently
with faux brushstroke texture. Once, at a flea market,
I had a dealer tell me she collected over a dozen copies
in just the greater St. Cloud area alone. Imagine how devout
they all must have looked displayed in her home; side by side,
plaid elbow to plaid elbow, a gallery of recurring grace.
