Into the rabbit hole, again and again

I came here to post about a strangely moving image I saw today and got waylaid by another moving image. How curious.

I've been in a particular mood lately: deeply immersed in my writing self and therefore very sensitive to everything going on within and around me. I love these periods of my life but they're intense and difficult to take in long stretches. They also make me want to search for new icons. I can't exactly explain why, but I love expressing myself through my LJ icons. When I'm in moods like this, I love the icons to mirror whatever I'm feeling inside. So, my icon hunt brought me to (natch), where I found some icons based on the art of Ken Wong.

And then I found this.

Ooh I want that so bad. I want it as an icon. As a print on my wall. As a sandwich board sign to wear for the next several weeks. As the cover to this book I'm writing. Want. Want. Want. I may have to email Mr. Wong to see if a print can be made available, despite his professed loathing of email. *covets*

Back to the original image. You know how sometimes sidewalks just...end? Like, they needed a sidewalk for a while, but then they didn't anymore so it just stops, completely abruptly, and the end is surrounded by grass again or whatever? Well, I was driving back from the grocery store this evening, and I saw a young girl, maybe late teens, wearing a backpack and pulling another bag just standing at the end of one of those dead-ended sidewalks. Just...standing there, staring at the end of the sidewalk, as if it was a path of stones through a sea of lava and now that it had ended, she had no idea what to do next.

I drove by pretty slowly--it wasn't that I just caught a glimpse of her at the precise moment she'd paused or happened to look down or something. This girl was just standing there, waiting for I don't know what. I guess, waiting for the next section of her path to reveal itself.

It was quite profound. And sad. And a little cheesy, in that crap-they'd-put-this-on-a-motivational-poster kind of way, even though it was happening in real life.

Welp, back to my girl and my warlord.

ETA: Srsly, ppl. Would you look at this?? The image, the title... I think this will have to be in my house somewhere. *nods*