Exhibit A: Motion

This is my son Ellis on the swing at Branford college. There's not a whole lot to say about it except to point out that unself-consciousness is often the first step in eleg-ance, whether in dance, design, or even in social interaction.

This swing has been a fixture of the Branford courtyard at Yale for at least a hundred years, and countless families have cute photos of their children on the swing stretching back as far as the 1920s. I've seen twin photographs on coffee tables of someone on the swing as a child and as an undergraduate.

But the salient feature of most of these portraits has been their formality. Girls sit chastely on the swing, boys pose gravely with one hand on their pocket. And into this arc of history of which he is totally ignorant, Ellis strides boldly and gives us this.

I suppose it's safe to say that the swing is best when its form follows its function.