Sorry again that the photos didn't come through...
Sometimes, just taking pictures of the same thing again and again bears good results. Different lighting, a different angle; it can work, and the shooting is the fun, while the culling is important, and gets you familiar with the photos.
I think; well, would I like to see that in a magazine, and, if it’s not good enough, then I weed it out. The exceptions are the archival type stuff; family photos, work in progress, etc., that I can maybe use later….and whats’ the cost of a little storage space, anyway?
I mean, the digital thing sure changed photography a lot. Now, I don’t even do the technical stuff to speak of.
Point and shoot, do the art part….isn’t that the fun anyway?
Well, I do admit that all of this sorting, and making photo-stories, is a lot of fun, too. That’s why I keep at it every day. It gets me out of bed…
Stuck in the Snow for the Last Time,
I hope….I was at the library, and parked right into a pile of snow. Ok, I like to smash snow piles with my tires. Moving into the pile repeatedly, I made some inroads, so the rear of the car won’t stick out so much. And, I got stuck!
Oh, laughable moment….the snow is gone, it is sun-bathing weather, I am stuck…
…..and….no shovel,,it is left on a job,,,
..so , I spin tires a bit in futility, spend some private moments in wonderment,,,, get out to look around, then shovel the small piles of slushy, chunky snow out from behind the front tires with my hands, ; manage to roll back, ,,,,,,,,,,after a few rocking movements of the car….what a laugh…,,,wellll, I am out……
now, in the library, drop off books, seek for some more ( do I really want to travel to New York? The hotels there are high),,,,the art section is how it has been all these years, though moved…..the magazines That I left on the counter to buy, were put away by an embarrassed woman. Getting more, another tries to run me off, “We are closed”….I get a bit mad, pick out a few ( good National Geographics for reading in the tub), and am still not the last one out….
I didn’t much read the books that I got, excepting the dinosaur book. So much new stuff is happening….I really do like the theory of evolution, it at least helps to explain the dinosaurs, and the rest of natural history….I cant believe that our dating methods are entirely wrong, radioactive decay is fairly well understood….
….well, when I come up against the anti-evolutionists, that’s what they say, dating methods all wrong, we can prove God made the world 5,600 years ago, or so….
…now, the bottom line with most of those folks is the Adam and Eve story…to wit,,,,the first man, the first woman….right?
….well, read, and read, and re-read, that I did,,,,so many times in fact (lots of times), to get it all right…my only conclusion, sorry all of you good theologians of the past….is that none of them even read their precious document,,,and they should…
….and now;;;;…this is how I read it…….in exactly this order……….you can please read it yourself……;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;.God makes Adam, God Makes Eve, Adam and Eve have two kids…one kills the other in Jealous rage ( not good, eh?)…
…..he ( this unpleasant person)…. then goes off amoungst other people ( get that, other people)….marries one ..
……………..( if she was a descendant of his parents, that would make it an incestuous relationship, wouldn’t it?…….. )….
……AFTER he goes off, Adam and Eve have more children,,,,did you catch that,,,after,,,after,,,,and only after,,,,,,,,
….so, if they really were the first parents, then it is some other interpretation ( and not the literal one) that we must look to…
…..so, why don’t you guys want to believe in dinosaurs ( Dinosaurs are great!), and other life (other life is great, too) , hundreds of millions of years ago?…)
…..well, actually, several billion years they give as the age of good old mother earth)…
…
….this part really makes me wonder…..below, I mean…if people….
…..don’t want to believe that God is infinite,,,that’s’ infinite time, infinite space, infinite worlds, stacked one on top of the other, ,,infinite the inhabitable worlds, infinite the intelligent races,,,,,,infinity equals worlds without end, Amen (which means, “That is True”)…..
….then, maybe they don’t want to believe in science…to wit…
…personally, I really love the Hubble Space Telescope Photos,,,they are great,,,one little grain of sand at arms length sized piece of the night sky, and we find…..oh my god, thousands and thousands of galaxies previously unknown,,,,,,each one having, countless stars ( more than I want to count anyway),,,
,,,,,,,,,each star cluster may have life,,,,if only one or two intelligent life forms (get it, not species, who knows if they even have what we might call a body)…
….if each one only has one or two , then,,,it is countless,,,,,since probably alllllll of the night sky is filled up like that,,,,and….and, more than likely, each one has thousands, if not millions,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,, built right into a world that appears to have been made for the express purpose of developing intelligent life (please read up on the major forces in Physics, and how extremely tight each one had to be, in order to allow all of this creation to even happen, to set the limits such that life could and would evolve)….
….hey ;;;;what,,,,,what will ever happen when the Hubbles’ big brother goes into space,,,and its’,,,like , a bacteria sized particle held at arms length, and we are looking between those Hubble galaxies,,,,what do you think we (we)..will…see ……then…
…I am not counting on the end of the universe, comforting though it may seem…….logic and intuition dictate more of the same,,,,,more and more universes,,,filling up endless space……
….pack it up disbelievers in life on other planets,,,,you are wrong,,,,,and completely homocentric, perhaps more so than the persecuters of Gallelio ( I mean, those scientists who got the church to do their dirty work for them, and then to take the blame, touché, scientists!)……
….yes, yes , yes, you are right, the religionist will ignore this, the scientists will get mad, so, what have I done…not much,,,but have had some fun, and a reason to get out of bed this morning…
….,,,and if other people really want to close their minds up tight like clams, there is really not that much that I can do about it…except…I can just try to not be like that myself, and it is hard……
….and you might just admit that its’also hard to speak your mind without offending anyone…
….
…..even when we are wrong, it is good to get the ideas out,,,to send them out,,,,to see how they fly in the face of adversity…..
Breakfast is the best meal of the day. I get out the trusty old cooking iron, fire up the gas burner ( that’s’ modern cooking for those of you who don’t know). Then chop up all kinds of stuff, and fry in a little bit of oil.
Looks like eggs, sunny-side up, scallops, raw cashews, red Russian kale, and some carrots to me; with some spices, and maybe some melted cheese……………….. Bridges are often good for framing photos. I rode the train that crosses those trestles once, into the city, to walk around for the day. It was sunny, in spring, and the people were nice to me………………………………………… This is Latana. In Peru, they grow into large bushes……………………………………
Well, they call this bush a butterfly attractor for a reason………………………………………………. I think that the dark backgrounds can be very effective…………………………………………….. Morning glory is one of my favorite flowers. The problem with them is, well, they are only open in the morning. This type flowers in just over a month, so I don’t have to wait till the end of the summer to see the flowers…..
Brother John
Somewhere in the long wanderings from Ojai, near to Southern California, and Seattle, near to the Canadian border, a small book by Brother John came into my hands. It was about the coming cataclysm. Yes, there is so much talk of the coming cataclysm, but don’t worry. It may happen after your lifetime.
It also gave good mention of the Atlantean Crystal, a crystal that sat at the focal spot of a concentrating mirror, and provided all of their energy, healed people, and did other things. One of the things it did was to send off a bad vibration that caused a terrible earthquake, and subsidence of their homeland. Lost into the sea.
Shows what bad intentioned people can do, doesn’t it? Not enough that their bad vibes send out, affecting us that way, also, they do bad stuff, as part of their act. What else can I say, that ethically impaired inter-dimensional creatures invade their thoughts, and are after invited in to share, and to provide? In any case, the story goes that evil people tuned the crystal wrong, and the vibes set off the earthquake….
John says that after the cataclysm, the crystal was moved, for safe storage, until the people of the world were ready to heal. It went to Tibet, high, isolated, and that may be, if this story is correct, why a race of people developed there so completely absorbed in philosophy. The Daly Lama says that Buddhism is better looked at as a philosophy than a religion, and that seems right to me. So much hatred of religion these days, don’t know why……
Then, of course, Tibet was invaded by China. Read the book, don’t see the movie, “Seven Years in Tibet”, a moving story of the Tibetan people, the war, their exile. Sad, beautiful, moving, accurate, everything the movie was not…..
The crystal was again moved to a protected spot, this time to the Amazon side of the Andes mountains in Bolivia, and that’s about as remote as you can get. So, now, you know why I went there, or do you?
Starting in the 70’s, with the oil crisis (since found to be fabricated), still in my teens, I became interested with solar technology, suppressed gas saving and automotive technology, etc. This led into the 80’s, when I started to make concentrating solar collectors. Somehow, I was obsessed. It was not so good for me, and I wondered why.
When that book came into my hands, I wondered if, in a past life, this had been my work. And, what could it do for me, for the rest of humanity. I have always been the self-sacrificing sort, working so hard for others. The solar thing was to give a way to be energy independent, and to avert the coming ecological catastrophy, for others, I surely didn’t need it…………………. Yep, I really thought I could do it…..
Now, one college professor told me, in Seattle, that he didn’t know why I would want to re-create something( the solar collector) that had torn the Atlantean civilization apart. Brother John did say that the Tibetans were holding it, until the human race evolved enough to be able to use it in a benign way.
I did eventually stop working on the solar collector, when it finally hit me (through an intuitive dream of my wife) that ill intentioned men would take my work, and turn it to their own purpose (the gist of her vision).
Another college professor, in Truillo, Peru, told me that it would be easier to find a needle in a haystack, how was I planning to locate this crystal, once I got to Bolivia?
A nice, large, wire tied piece of jewelery that I had made on the plane trip back from India to England, was much admired. It had a clear, faceted quartz crystal the size of an apricot pit wired with silver wire to a dark quartz crystal twice that size. I wore it around my neck, and called it, “My Heart”. I was following my heart on this travel, and I thought that my destiny could be explained by the Atlantean crystal.
The little crystal would help to keep my thoughts pointed to the larger one, and would help to lead me to it, I thought….
I just love frogs. Have you ever looked into their eyes (no, I don’t kiss them either) , hey, just look….it’s gorgeous, I mean, it looks like gold jewelery.
At one time (I was about 12), I wanted to be a herpetologist (Or, I was one really), and had lots of animals around the house. Snakes escaped to under the screaming sisters bed,,,it was great…
These eastern painted turtles are aquatic, so finding one out of water and shooting it, is rare. I had a bunch of em’, and took them to the races, yes, the turtle races. I think that I only placed because another contestant would not let me use his water to cool my animals…foul deed, eh?
These roses were here when we got here, then I learned how to propagate them, so we had many. The wife learned, too, then gave some away. Now \, they are popular with her friends….and,,,they call them…of course,,,Michaels’ Roses,,,kind of sounds nice, doesn’t it????
The garden is Kika’s work. She started in on gardening after I got out, and really went wild with it. I have to admit she did a lot better with the landscape design part than I.
The Pope
In the winter of 2004, my sister in law came up to visit and said she would take care of the kids for us. This allowed us a week or two to go somewhere, made much more difficult with children.
We debated Charleston, South Carolina, but airfares were cheap. I thought, Italy. It was the destination of my dreams, so deeply imbedded was I in classical sculpture at the time (see bigsculpture.org, it shows some of my art work).
My wife, it turns out, had always wanted to see Rome, the ruins, and Venice, so it made a happy journey. It also turned out that early march, when we left, was an ideal time to be there, before the crowds arrived.
This, anyway, is how I happened to be in the catacombs under Saint Peters’ cathedral, in the heart of the Vatican. I had not come for any kind of a spiritual experience, nor had Erika. We did not even think about seeing the pope, preferring to let that man have some peace. We were not seeking miracles.
So, I’m in the basement of the Vatican, and I get an urge to pray. I go over near a crypt of a pope, and kneel down. It is very peaceful in the Vatican, and the high ceilings, beautiful art works, as well as the mood of the place are very uplifting. I am happy to be there, kneeling on a marble floor.
A thought comes to me, that I should keep Jesus, both as a baby, and as a crucified man, with me at all times. It was a pope telling me this.
I work on that one for quite some time, looking at it as a work of art, first. I make several designs with that theme.
I ask this pope, what is his name? He tells me Sixtus the Thirteenth. But I checked, and there is no Sixtus, past the sixth or so. That is interesting, and most will say, of course, the imagination, but, if it is true, maybe Pope Leo the thirteenth said that to me, and was not trying to make a big stir. I mean, I really admired that man, and the fame problem, of people adulating fame, can distort things. I really don’t know (shrug).
This thought evolved over the years. Walking along, I would envision myself carrying the baby, and the crucified man. Riding the bike, with the baby in a front pack, I would also have his parents behind me, riding long.
Wanting to overcome lust, anger, and lethargy (a few of my major errors in life), I think hard, and the images help me. Sometimes all of this is such Joy!
Leo 13 had a vision, that a hundred years in the future, Satan and his minions would be fighting Michael and the angels, in a horrible struggle over earth. He saw this as being a hundred years or so in the future, from his time in the early twentieth century.
What if angels are just kind inter-dimensional beings, and devils are just unkind ones? Think of all of the people you have known; some good, some bad, most so-so. That’s how I look at spirits, et’s, etc. Maybe some day everyone will be able to see into other dimensions (think about some of the crazy sounding physics and mathematical parallel universe theories out there).
Pope Leo also wrote about the secret societies, and how they use murder and thuggery to achieve their aims. See …http://www.rense.com/general86/kill2.htm…, and see rense.com for more information about secret societies and their aims.
These sorts of things make a great impact on our lives, according to those who know, but what is the whole story, or the fuller version, at least?
It seems to me that people are such good psychic generators, and are all having a profound effect on the fabric of space, the medium which binds all things together. Most people these days don’t believe in spirits too much, or don’t have a really straight view, that some are good, and some are not. Some of the same ones who complain about the Illuminati, and the other secret societies, fit right into their aims, without even knowing it, because those folks have a multi-leveled agenda, and the money to bring in new mass movements, as the above link demonstrates.
They also worship the devil, or ba-al, or, by so many other names, the great horned one. Some people say they do raise him up, the standard old bull/man, very large, with huge horns, coming right out of a big kettle. I know of one grown woman who swore to me that she saw that, right here in Alexandria, adjacent the devils playground, Washington, D.C. She heard some strange incantations, peeked into a barn at night, while a teenager, fell on her butt in shock, and ran like hell.
I know another woman who said to me that she would have a dark spirit hovering over her bed, and deep fear gripped her for several nights, until she began to pray. She said that then the fear left her, and so did the spirit.
Oh, I forgot to mention that she also said that the bed was shaking, violently, lifting off the ground, even. I guess that could scare just about anybody.
In 1998, or so, I attended a discussion of demonic possession, at a Catholic church in Franconia. A Frenchman, who had written a book, did all the talking, two or more hours, and he was fit to do more. It was very interesting. The motion picture, “The Exorcist” , as we all know, was based on a true story, but there was a lot of other stuff.
The church in New York City, maintains an office of exorcism. There are some others around the country, too. They do a lot of psychological studies to determine the problem, then move right into an exorcism, if necessary.
Jesus told his followers to; cast out Demons, heal the sick, and teach the good news. Interesting, how there are demons and angels all through the old and the new testaments, isn’t it? And why would a man, widely believed to be an intuiter of the human condition, and a great prophet, if not the son of God himself, talk complete blithering non-sense? That doesn’t make any sense to me at all, and is part of the reason I converted to Christianity in the first place, after reading the bible for the first time, at the age of 38.
Numerous Psychiatrists in mental asylums told the speaker that they believed some of their patients were demonically possessed, but they couldn’t say anything, for fear of losing their jobs, prestige, etc. It must be hard to not believe that, confronted with weird voices, very strange behavior, heads that can twist all the way around like owls, rooms ice cold, with no explanation, and so on. Forgive me if I remembered any of this wrong, or, worse, left out the really good stuff.
Some years later, I did an internet search, and was interested to see that the Governments of the world are covering up ritual satanic abuse. Or, as one psychologist says, he has talked to thirty or more small children, so we have to believe the previous, or that there is a conspiracy of three year olds trying to convince us that there really is ritual satanic abuse.
Another search revealed that there are 100-250,000 missing persons in the US each year, un-attributable to parents taking a child from the divorced spouse, etc. That is a lot of people. They said that there are well -placed satan worshippers in key places in the Government, keeping anything from being done about it.
Please take the time to research these things yourselves, and prove me right or wrong, the book is not shut, and I do like to learn new things.
Looking Back…
This is it, I think, the end of all of my old photos. It’s great. I worked so long sorting, deleting, writing, and now, it is at an end, except for any new photos that I might make….I am happy. At last, all these years of making photos, and finally, I do something with them,,,,,I think it is great,,,,,;;;;;;22@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2@@@2222222@@@@@@@@22222222@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2@@@@@2@2@@2@@@22@@2@222@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@222@@@2@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Of course, all that fun of making the photo stories is all ended too…..I’ll have to find something else to occupy my energy….
You know, they always told me that the pictures should have frames, and now, the pictures don’t have frames, and they look ok to me….
….they say, sort the photos as to type, and here, they are as they come off the camera, selected for quality only….
…then, maybe there are some rules for making photo stories, that I never heard either, just as welll…and, the rules for writing, well, you can see that I choose to ignore them, if it looks good to me, and some of those new words, Freudian slips and what-have-you, are real neat looking,,,,some of the typos, I was sorry that I changed them,,,,some of this stuff, weel, this scizo computer does it,,,the program does weird things to my writing,,,no lie….
All of these photos appear to be looking back to me, how about to you?
Besides, they are all from about four years ago, and that seems like looking back to me…….anyway, I was trying to name the second photo here, when I put that name……
The Making of a Vandal…….
…., or, how to get vandalism and anarchy out of a good student…….
When I was in the fifth grade, I was respected so highly, that the school Principal, Mr. Whittier, had me lay-out the ¼ mile track for the presidents’ fitness trials. I mean, the geometric design in one hand, the tape measure in the other, with a fellow student to just stand there mainly, I laid out an accurate ¼ mile running track in white lime. Now, why didn’t he have an older student (out of 700 or 1000 students), a teacher, or some other county employee do it?
Well, I guess he thought that I could do it, and I did….. …………….my grades were always a’s and b’s……….
……Now we come along into the evil year of Miss Wyn……
….many years later, I was visiting with my old sixth grade teacher, and she told me about that woman, and that she finally transferred out, just to get away from her….by then I was seventeen, a lot of time had passed…..
………I’m going to try to bring you into all of the degradation that I was led into at the time, but the memories are not all there, and, to be sure, this is a whole lot more embarassing than just telling you about knocking over a lemonade stand, at the age of 10, on the way home from the pool, using a wasp attack as a diversion….
…my dad even said that she was a bit like the Gestapo. He, of course, was called down to see her, and she told him that her son was on the road to become a criminal, and that didn’t really bother him, as he rather encouraged that in me, but that is another story…..
….a tall, handsome man (many thought that he looked like Robert Goulet, the actor), a scientist, and a good talker, who could lay down a good line of bullshit across philosophy, cars, culture, or any other topic, and he did impress her, or so his story to me went…
I first met Miss Wynn on or about the first day, of my fourth year, in the Kings Park Elementary School, in Springfield , Virginia,
just starting up in the sixth grade;
with Mrs. Nicodem as my teacher.
Tall, blonde, attractive, and intelligent, she was a tough, black belt, ex army wife, who had done time in the middle- east with the Shieks,
She said she had to swallow a whole lambs eye at one festive meal, to stay in their good graces (it may have been one of those little put on things that people do for foreigners, like, hey, eat this, our national delicacy, or else we will be unhappy, you know, then they all laugh out loud when you are gone…)
She said she had to close her eyes and choke it down. I’ll bet those rowdy old boys just loved seeing that estranged and contorted look on the face of a real pretty girl (an RPG, I mean real pretty girls do share a lot in common with rocket propelled grenades, at least in their general impact on the male population)),
especially a fair, outspoken (even for us) and blonde one. In fact, they are a very sensual people, I’ll bet the pictures in their heads were just rolling, and slavery there still being legal there, may have offered to the husband a kings ransom, in order to purchase her…..,,,,, ….
……………………..it may just be artistic license here, but I do seem to remember a story of hers that they actually did offer her husband some money…..Lisa nicodem, if you are out there, can you please shed some light on this incident?………………….
;, and that one of them lit his cigar with a hundred dollar bill
( read a $1900 bill with inflation),
in a country where that might be a whole years salary to many inhabitants
(it’s called a gross show of wealth)……
Many the time she wrangled with me or my friends, and, poor her, she got a rowdy bunch of us….
But, she had some control, and we respected her much more that the substitute teacher who sometimes showed up….
……..even at the end of the year party Cathy Corsepious told me by jesture to not throw the piece of cake into the center of the room, and I don’t know even why I wanted to, or why I did that, but, it was either a trip to the hall-way,
Or else to see my old friend Miss Wyn, for sure…
…………… but I ramble on……………..
Cathy, I can remember (she had great hips), Mrs. Nicodem, I can remember (with an angry look on her face), but, you know, I just can’t picture Miss Wynn,
…………………………….(…… 0 …..and I’m sure the psychologists will have a field day with that one…..)…..
….so maybe, she was so nasty to me, that the only picture I get of her is of the dark cave of her office…that is rather odd, I have to agree…..
………..well, maybe she was middle aged, mid-height, medium overweight, dark hair…..or, I really cant even recall…
….on the first day of school , I think it was, I went into the bathroom with my friend, Clinton Crow, and, the urinal still flushing, took a roll of toilet paper off the roller, and chucked it out the window…….
……Clinton and the bully, or, a neighborhood hero…
A falling away from the American way of life….
Snowballing a poor girl…
A boy scout, Ok, I finally admit it…
The grafitti incident……
Punching the poor kid..
;;;;;an appla in a bag,,
Drape and burn…
A fire burns brightly ( in the park)….cigarettes in the storm sewer,,,,,spin the bottle,,,,,strip poker….tying them up…
Bird seed shotgun,,,,birds on the ground…..the neighbors window…
Several years later, my first high school girlfriend told me, “Oh so you’re the one who painted the back-side of the school”. Turns out, the back- side of their house faces the back side of the school, and her dad had gone over and tried to remove our grafitti.
Atonement…..
A Crazy Night in Zanyland…
Exotic Pets….
God forbid that I should be the worlds expert on designing light tower cranes..
This is my workshop. As you can see, I am studying the book on a new camera, which sits on some drawings for the big sculpture, and a book on anatomy for artists. The renaissance angel looks on
my workshop is the funnest place. From here, I sally forth to do battle, or, er, as the case may be, wander around the lake a little bit, and take some pictures….
The human hand is the most fascinating instrument, life is just not quite the sam e without it. It is a constant study for artists, to get it right; and I have made my fair share of them, in clay, gods’ given wonder material (the base of virtually all of our technology, and many of our art forms)…
The lake looks good in the reddish tones, don’t you agree? The master painter (mother earth) sure does know what she is doing… perhaps a bit redundant, but I want to show the ceiling here a bit. It is very interesting, and could go into most any kind of a building. It is especially good looking when back-lit…
The old rocker there is from my uncles’ estate in Seattle. We have lots of furniture to remember him by, he was/is a good man….
We bought a lot of good furniture, once we found out how to buy it used. It is remarkable what you can get. The corner desk there, I couldn’t even buy the wood for it, from what we paid for it. Our whole house is filled with similar deals.
As you may already know, momma lost her head.
the sculpture is not quite the same with out her….
Poor baby, I wonder if the kids miss her?
They do look just as happy alone….
You know, out of 250 or so photos, you would think I could have more good ones than you see here in this story. Seems like I’m not as good at it as I thought (always a welcome break to see where you are really at, hmmm)…happens to me often, think I have it all together, then, I find out; that’s why keeping the eyes open in a humble way helps…..to relieve reality…I mean just when you think you are really great at something is when you cease to learn….
The Catholic Church
I was talking to my sister last night. We were doing pretty well with the subjects of garden soil amendments, and mushrooms saving the world by detoxifying soil. She started into the old belief she has that she already knows everything on the subject of inventions. Then, she got onto the Catholic Church. I can’t remember how that started, but she talked on and on about it for a long time.
I asked her to give me some examples of the corruption she was talking about, she had to go back 500 years. I asked for more recent ones, she could not answer. Seems odd, doesn’t it? Used to be the Jews were the ones who go that type of flack. Now, for some kind of a scapegoat, people have selected another church. She ranted on and on, interrupting me constantly, not answering any questions, repeating the same statements, without giving examples. I have no idea why she wanted to be so rude. At one point, I thought she had hung up on me. Calling her back, she said I had hung up on her; that she had stayed silent, and heard me say, ”She hung up on me.”
She did this for the pleasure of knowing that I had hung up on her? Such a demanding person, doing the same things she always did. It wasn’t easy growing up in my family
Lots of people bad mouth the Catholic Church, yet, if they apply the same criteria to any other church or social organization, it goes nowhere fast. I mean, usually, they want to tell you about the crusades, 700 years ago, or the inquisition, 500 years ago, and are unwilling even to put those events into their proper social context (the Pope didn’t tell the crusaders to make the streets of Jerusalem run with blood, for instance, and he did tell the Spaniards to tone it down, but they didn’t, the English and their descendents have written our history books, and they were at war with Catholic Spain).
Governments are social organizations, composed of members of their societies, the same as churches are. The mass murders created by governments, throughout the ages, make the evils of the churches look quite small. It is the political fanatics, not the religious ones, who are destroying the world. So, it is no wonder that they point their fingers at their ancient enemies…
Really, these sorts of attacks are an off-branch of attacks upon all religions, there is very little difference. These days, a significant part of the population in the west believes that religion is the source of all evil. At least, that is the impression they give. Sometimes they even say it……
Now, if you want to hear about any government, and the chaos, or genocide they commit, who would have to go back more than a week or two? Look at China, and their forced abortions, the genocide in Tibet and other regions.
Aren’t both churches and governments composed of people? Don’t people make mistakes? Or, being malicious, it is no mistake?
So, she tells me the church claims to be the mouth-piece of God, and must be held to a higher level. Well, I think that is duplicitous, a double standard, and all the other churches, in fact most individuals without a church even, feel that their word is absolute, so why pick on just one?
The Jews think they are the chosen people of God, the Moslems will not tolerate a Moslem converting to Christianity on their own soil.
For a greater context, there are a lot of countries, and places inside countries, where they feel that to be from their area is to be of special importance. They look upon anyone else as inferior.
The history of the Catholic Church is one of suffering, and exploitation. Yes, when on top, they did some bad stuff. It was not the policy of the church, usually, but the zeal of its’ members.
In the deep south, if the Klan cannot find a suitable black or Jewish person to persecute, they will target Catholics.
Right up to 1913, you could see signs in big American cities saying they would not hire Irish (read “Catholic”).
The Pollocks, and the Italians were similarly discriminated against. Polish jokes were just as popular as Jewish jokes when I was growing up.
Some of the founding fathers were upset that the freedom to vote would allow Catholics to vote…..
I know of a college professor who has experienced discrimination at work due to his religion. It is not infrequent, and bad mouthing is on the rise, just watch tv.
A Jewish man told me once that it was their turn to suffer, when we were talking about the genocide in the Sudan. You know, as if those particular people had ever caused Jews to suffer. I didn’t know how to respond to that one, I guess it took my breath away, something like when people tell me that war is good for the economy, which is the same thing as saying that they are willing to see millions suffer and die for some money.
OK, pop quiz, how many Vietnamese people died in the Vietnam war?
The cry “Catholic” did not stop John Kennedy from winning the election, though many were surprised at his victory. It did, however, stop some of his predecessors.
The first black governor of Virginia said that he could not trust a Catholic to defend his country, as he might follow the Pope instead. This is one of the first protestant battle cries, repeated through the ages, and seldom seen.
We have seen two recent American middle-eastern wars soundly chastised by the church as immoral, and how many soldiers defected? And how many Catholics were swayed by these words? None that I know of, and I talked down those wars to lots of them.
The local shopping center is a good place to hunt for interesting photos. I like to sit at the coffee shop, and talk to people. There are things all around that look so interesting. Once, I was trying to shoot the froth on the coffee, and some people near by asked about it. I just said that it was really interesting looking…
That was years ago, then an unpleasant man took over the coffee shop, and drove people away. He closed down the Friday night open mikes right away, so, when I go up there, there is nobody there, at least, people who I know…..
Now, under new management, the open mike is starting again….well,,,,we’ll wait to see what happens….
This is my workshop. I am standing at the computer right and center there right now red
Prayers
Two Angels
Imagine that you are kneeling, in the most humble state of mind imaginable; full of self worth, but humble before the great creating spirit.
Now, two heavenly creatures lift you up,, one grasping you under each shoulder. They are taking you home. As they lift you up, and you rise higher, your one, only, and truthful thought is that you don’t deserve this, and you almost cry , in the simplicity and joy of the moment.
The Baby Jesus
Imagine that you are holding the baby Jesus. Sometimes I imagine that I am home with the family, seated on the floor. The mother is spinning, the father relaxing, the child running around, or in a crib.
If I am in a car, I imagine holding the baby, and the parents are in the back seat.
If riding a bike, I have the child in front, in a baby carrier, and the parents are riding along behind me.
It is so peaceful, and did you know that a lot of work has been done using visualization as a healing tool? It used by physicians, and psychologists, too.
Visualization is very effective for healing the psyche and the heart. Forgiveness is not for the perpetrator, it is for the victim, so we don’t have to carry around the excess baggage of hate and anger. If a person is guilty, maybe he does deserve prison, but if I can love him, then my heart heals.
The heart of Jesus
I am in the sauna, looking at a stature of Jesus hanging there. I think how it would be nice to be in his heart. So I see myself in the aorta, looking at the red wall, and the ventricle. I say that I would like to stay there forever, for the peace that is not peace, since all there is there is peace, so there is nothing to compare it too.
The Nature of Work, Re-organizing Matter
Here I am separating accounts, proceeding with my yearly business taxes.
I was thinking of re-organizing my photos.
And, it occurred to me that all work shares common ground.
What Is that, you might rightfully ask?
Well, when I do carpentry work, I am re-organizing matter.
When I do the taxes, I get rid of the bills that don’t apply, first.
The same with the photos, out with the bad, into similar groups with the good, so we have art photos, photos of art, landscapes, people, animals, etc…..
So, in all work, we have the re-organization of matter.
In my thoughts, I do a lot of work, welll, thought is matter, an electro-chemical action, in the nerve bundles in the body (25% in the body, or so), the rest also in the body, that fat part at the top of the spinal column…..yes, re-organizing the brain is important, we do it all the time, emotional memories come creeping, intellectual ones come and go, the cells re-generate, and the body changes (please do say where the body ends, and the brain begins, I want to know).
All of this re-ordering is our daily life. Some people are disorganized, and you have to walk over piles of clothing to get into their room. The idea of cleaning up for the most part is under-developed. This makes it hard for them, as all paperwork, and work in general has to do with organization.
New life that came into existence, that wasn’t previously there. NLCEWP……a child….that is my children, one comes up and hugs me, as I stand here writing, the other left for work just now, and I had to clean up his pile a bit…..
……………Ok, I doubt if all work is reorganization, but it makes an interesting precept to study……like, when I walk, and am on auto-pilot, where is the re-organization?
Maybe, moving matter, relocating it, the air, the squished micro-organisms, the body moving…..maybe all action is the process of energy ( read matter) re-organizing, changing, shifting…..
I thought that this vine made a good jungle scene….in fact, the woods here in Virginia, in the summer, are very much like the Amazon rain forest ( we are officially in a temperate rain forest, and British diplomats received tropics pay for coming here). …………………………………………..kind of gives you an idea of how hot it gets here, doesn’t it?……………………………………………………….. Well, the big hand was a lot of work, proportions, mainly. It is also 500 lbs. of wet clay, and that surely puts a strain on the armature. There were several incidents of fingers and the thumb falling off….bad boys….
So, Paul wanted a good picture for his facebook profile. We shot off a good few, and selected this one…….but I like the one from half-moon beach best, don’t you?
Alternative Medicine 101…1/5/10….written originally for my sons, if they will even read it( I know their mom won’t)…………….
If you want to detox your body from the many chemicals we are exposed to these days, which the body is ill equipped to handle, start simple, and work your way up.
The start will be food. Go to the Weston A. Price foundation website, and read up on nutrition. Try to lead up to an organic, and grass-fed diet. Try to think of how people ate 200 years ago, avoid factory products, do some research.
Some people say that an all raw food diet will cure many diseases. This is because the body craves many of the nutrients, which otherwise are cooked off, and processed out. There is a lot written on it. Some doctors claim that they have patients with no more interest in alchohol and tobacco, once they get on a 75% raw food diet. There is some proof from this that drug addiction is a nutritional deficiency disease. Try to eat as much raw as you can. You can start with just one fruit or vegetable salad a day.
Don’t ask me why, and it may be the unconscious result of writing this, but I have gone over to an almost 100% raw diet. Something about cravings that I don’t understand. The fruit salads in the mournings that make me salivate to think of them, then the mayonnaise on top of the cilantro and tomatoe salad (with whatever else is in the house). Anyway, I’m keeping it up for as long as it lasts.
Water may be even more important than food. Get a water filter, and drink lots of water. It is hard to get the floride out of the water, unfortunately, along with all the pharmacutical ( they were originally called patent medicines) drugs that pass on through the body. These are terrible pollutants, with little proof that they are beneficial. The birth control pills may be the worst of these. In the same class as the now illegal steroid drugs, they frequently cause male fish to become female, and, in England, it has been found that as many as half the men are now infertile due to this cause.
On top of this, most birth control pills work in two ways, one of which is by preventing implantation of the fertilized egg. Science being what it is, we now know that those entirely new chromosomes that come into existence when the mother and the fathers’ dna material mix, remain virtually the same until the death of the creature. Abortion is always a tragedy. Everyone agrees on that. If you must use the pill, then try to get the one that does not prevent implantation.
Quite a few social organizations, from old hippies on The Farm in Tennessee, to the Catholic Church (quite a spread there, eh!), advocate natural family planning. This uses cervical mucous, basal temperature, and other advancements in medicine, to give a system equally as effective as the pill, without the down side. It is not as good for women with irregular cycles, but it is proven to hold couples together. Part of this is the required time of abstinence, which allows men to see women more as biological entities in their own right, than just as sex providers. Many people say that lust destroys more lives than greed does.
Did you know that sex and morphine set off the same reaction in the brain? I mean the same chemicals? Seems like sex is quite addicting, but I never heard of this kind of addiction being cured by raw food. You actually don’t hear about it much. Last I saw someone admitting it in the press, it was old Mayor Barry, of Washington, D.C.
This may actually be in inverse order, but next we have exercise. The human body (and the brain is a large part of it) has 200 million years of evolution in close relationship to clean air, water, food, and lots of hard exercise, out in bright sunlight. Think about it, how is the species going to evolve in fifty years, or a hundred? So now, we have a race of couch potatoes, living on highly processed food, filled with deadly chemicals, swilling down untold sodas, instead of water, and 100 years ago, the FDA was trying to outlaw them as being dangerous! Is it any wonder that diseases such as cancer are shooting off the chart, should surely be declared an epidemic, and a failure of our so-called health care system? Americans spend twice as much as any other country on it, yet we are number twenty on the list of health and longetivity, the last of the developed countries. If you think the Big Pharma companies don’t rule our economy, then please explain why the above facts do not show up in the talk of health care reform?
So, enough ranting, back to exercise. Any athlete will avoid depression, have a good self- image, and be confident, as will many who work physical exercise jobs. All would do well to practice yoga. One study showed that of the 2500 or so respondents, from 60% to 90% of them, with every kind of disease imaginable, received significant relief from the symptoms by simply doing yoga. It is an ancient, scientific system of exercise, which builds the muscles, stretches the skeleton back into its natural position, and massages the internal organs. It includes breathing excercises. Did you know that 70% of heart patients are shallow breathers, and that some doctors cure many diseases just by teaching proper diaphragmatic (deep) breathing?
Life Through the Lens.. If you haven’t seen the mother and four children before, look around, its’ on my web pages, and probably elsewhere in this book. Here, you can see the mom’s head, after it fell off, and I used it for a paperweight on my desk for a while… ………, then , even more tragically, I glued it on, I thought, but then it came off, and hit the floor, hard, so it is now in tatters, waiting for major re-constructionwork…
Although it does look a lot like alfalfa sprouts hanging from this ones mouth; well I know the kid, and he is a carnivore, only; so those might be mouse tails or some other such delicacy hanging there.
Some people think you have to separate photos into categories, and maybe they are right. This is what I had for a few days shooting, and it looked good to me as is.
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