The idea for OWS MV (Occupy Wall Street- Martha’s Vineyard) first appeared as an image of a can rolling down a hill. The hill was the enthusiasm I felt all around me as people took to the streets to restore our democracy. The can represented a simple idea — a photograph of people congregating in some visually iconic place to support the Occupy movement in each of the Island‘s six towns. Let’s publish these photographs, I thought, wherever appropriate — on Web sites, on social media like Facebook, in newspapers.

Three weeks ago, my 16-year-old daughter asked me what the Occupy Wall Street protests taking place in Zuccotti Park and all over the country meant. To better answer her, I visited the park and spent time talking to many different protestors. There was a very inviting and spirited energy the night I visited. The group was frantically cleaning the park in hopes of not getting thrown out the next day. At one point I was even handed a mop to help.

I wake up in the morning to the clucking of chickens. The sun is rising, peeking up above the trees as I stumble down the stairs and out into the yard. The “ladies” rush to the edge of their fenced enclosure and watch me closely. I almost fall on the dew-covered grass as I step into the wooden shower covered by honeysuckle and green twisting vines, 15 pairs of eyes still observing carefully. They flock to the shelf in their coop, where they can see me standing in the shower.