Waterfalls

Does anyone else feel like this picture is rather baffling?

Every week I go drown myself in nerdery for about an hour and a half at BYU. I am attending a "how to write science fiction and fantasy" class, filled with the greatest collection of world of warcraft indulging dragon lovers that I have ever encountered. There is one guy in there who changes his computer screen back ground at least 3 times per class, usually starting with some sort of mystical dragon imagery, and ending with a scene from some absurdly beautiful elven realm.

After explaining some final requirements, Mr. Sanderson asked the class if we would prefer him to talk about how to create short stories, or to look up other people's self published fantasy books online, and rip them apart/fix them. Obviously the latter was what the majority chose. He would google search for self published fantasy novels, find one, and then find the first chapter online. He would then have someone in the class read the chapter out loud, and then he would critique it.

This was funny, because people in the class would be snickering and mocking the ridiculousness of what people were writing about, or their writing style, or whatever. Mr. Sanderson implored people not to laugh, to just learn. All I could think about, was that here was a heaping bundle of aspiring fantasy writers, making fun of crap that was more than likely just as bad as whatever they were writing. I mean, the whole class was laughing. And unless Mr. Sanderson some how put together some truly magnificent, crack squad of prodigy amateur writers, chances were that at the very least half of those scorners' own stories sucked.

As people made suggestions on how to better improve these stories, I could see them just seething with pretension. I could practically hear them thinking, "I am someone credible because I am taking a class from fantasy master Brandon Sanderson." Yeah, so am I, and I'm a nobody, just like you. I guess all I'm saying is, the guy with the World of Warcraft t-shirt and the flaming unicorn battling an orc screen saver really shouldn't be making fun of anybody, for any reason.

So on my way out of class, I noticed the above picture. It is one of those pictures that are located in pretty much every BYU edifice, portraying the building's namesake. And this is certainly the weirdest one I have ever come across. If the picture is of 3 siblings, then that is one strange set up. It seems to me, however, that the 2 snuggly old people are married. And then there is the other guy. Just standing there. With the snuggly married couple. Just right there. Happy as a clam to be included. Not to mention the painting of the strapping old fellow striking a rather swarthy pose behind them. Its like a suit waterfall, cascading into a turquoise pool of old lady.

Cool. I guess. Or something.