Esse quam videri is a Latin phrase meaning "To be, rather than to seem (to be)". And it was the credo by which the Granite Mountain Hotshots lived. As should we. Ironically, this photo was taken of a very isolated storm cell that seemed to hover just over their namesake mountain, and the very mountain they had just one year prior successfully defended against a wildfire, and just before succumbing to the Yarnell Hill fire that claimed the lives of all but 1 of this 20-member wildland firefighting crew.
This photo, after I shared it with some friends, apparently has what others could see as faces in both the cloud and the sheet of lightning. Once I saw what others pointed out to me, I could not UN-see it!
-Photo by Theresa Rose Ditson