Two couches, two worlds

http://communitycouch.tumblr.com/

There is a photographer in Ottawa who has been taking a beautiful old couch into neighbourhoods around  where we live. He invites people to sit, stand, lounge, etc on the couch while he takes pictures. Some of the shots are posted on his site.

What a lovely idea, I thought when I saw this, a great way to celebrate the places and people around here that I love so much. Sure, it's gentrified and all, but Westboro is a great place to raise kids. At a recent community event in our neighbourhood park we had over 100 people show up, despite the cool, rainy weather.

The Community Couch project seems like a neat way to capture some of the local vibe. I even pitched a story about it to my editor at Kitchissippi Times before realizing they are already going to be running a story on this next week.

Muzaffar Salam/Reuters

Then I sat down with last Saturday's edition of the Globe and Mail to read an article on the latest turmoil in Egypt and the Arab Spring movement. Opening the paper I was immediately struck by this image from Syria.  The couches are so similar, yet the setting couldn't be more different.

Sometimes it just takes a simple thing like the contrast of two images to remind me how fortunate I am to live where I do.