Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Nature is doing its thing. We are doing our thing. Circumstances are begetting circumstances, as the old Taoists observed 5,000 years BCE, and no one is in charge. There is no plan. No purpose. There is only the experience of life, living, being alive. We get to choose the shape our experience takes, but no one is keeping score. No one is grading anyone’s performance. We all are free to do what we will with the time that is ours on the earth. Every living thing is free to do its thing, bound only by its own ideas of what is called for, when, where and how, and what is not called for. And we make it all up. We are like children in a sand box. All our lives long. What we are doing here is what we decide we are doing here. Our life is ours to live as we determine how our life is to be lived. Let’s give it our best effort! And we decide what that is. It is the freedom of being alive, to make our own choices about what that needs to be. These photographs and these words are how I choose to live my life. And, actually, they chose me! And I think it would be cool if we all felt that way about the life we are living–that it chose us, and we are glad to comply.

When I sit thinking about what is called for and what I can do about it, ice cream often finds its way into the equation. Whenever it does, I am glad to oblige. I call it doing my part. Naps also come around quite often, usually daily. I consider my expertise with either beyond the normal and customary range, and am happy to offer my serves to the occasion, using the practice to become increasingly efficient and at the ready over time, and somewhat of a legend among those who know me.

Knowing what is called for here, now, and doing it where, when and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises is all that can be asked of any of us.

Not what do we want? Not are we happy? Not what is expected of us? But, Is this what is called for here, now? Is this how, when and where it needs to be done?

And the questions are to be asked and answered in emptiness, stillness and silence. Meaning that we have to be able to ascertain the status of the state of our emotional wellbeing, seeking balance and harmony, rhythm and flow all the way along the way throughout each day.

Albert Einstein held that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or converted. Meaning, I take it, that death is not death, but transformation, conversion, resurrection, and the energy that is life goes on forever celebrating one form of existence after another, making the Universe/Cosmos, not a burial ground, but a grand party that never turns off the lights.

The wonderful fall leaves in the image above were not dying, but transforming and putting on a beautiful show. May it be so of us all–that we live to become a part of the show!

How about we settle for what’s what here and now? How about we let this be it? No more striving, wanting, having to have this or that or that over there? Just letting this be it? How about we just let this be it?

At 2:00 O’clock this afternoon, I had two cups of coffee and two premium desserts at Charlotte’s premiere restaurant for desserts. Now, if that is not having it made, I would like to know what is! And most of us who are reading this are as close to having it made as I am. How are we going to top two premium desserts and two premium coffees? And if we do top it, how are we going to top having topped it? Let’s just let this be it. Settle down. Adjust ourselves to our lot in life and get on with enjoying what is to be enjoyed every day that remains in the time left for living? I’m doing it and I am calling you to join me in doing it–unless you have something better to do.

Maintaining our presence in the here, now is being aware of what’s what and what is called for by maintaining our balance and inner harmony throughout our present experience with the clashing rocks and heaving waves on the wine dark sea of our daily life in a “What’s new, we have seen it all before,” kind of way. Really–what can life throw at us that we haven’t seen multiple times before? We experienced our first rodeo years ago! And we are well into our “Here we go again phase of life,” so what’s the problem. We pick ourselves up and go again. And again. And again… Throughout the rest of the way!

How are we justifying our existence today? I am justifying my existence by being aware of it. By being aware of existing. By seeing what I look at and listening to what I am hearing, and paying attention to what’s what, and knowing what is called for and doing what I can do about it with the skill set and tools I have to offer. By, asking, seeking, knocking, probing, poking, exploring, venturing into places and areas that catch my eye, call my name, and getting to the bottom of everything that arouses my curiosity. I have never known anyone busier existing than I am. I call that justifying my existence by existing to the max and wondering about everything I can find to wonder about. And you?

If you go there looking for this, you won’t find it. Hurricanes and tropical storms reshape the landscape annually as “circumstances beget circumstances,” and everything finds its way day-to-day, letting “Today’s own trouble be sufficient for today.”

Knowing what to do with the time left for living is a matter of dropping into emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing not three) and “Waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear” (Old Taoist saying), in order to know what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for here, now–and doing that where, when and how it needs to be done, allowing one thing to lead to another, and letting that be that, throughout the time left for living. No thinking needed. Just seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing, doing, being. This is how nature works. We will be allowing intuition to take charge and doing “what we are told to do” all our life long. No will (Except to do what we are told), no agenda, no plan (Except to do what we are told). Just seeing, hearing, knowing, doing, being, day by day for the remainder of the time left to live. It works for elephants and ants, stars and planets. And has from the start.

I wrote the following 23 years ago: “What do we have to do whether we want to or not? What would we do whether we got paid for it or not? What would we do whether it were easy or not? What would we do even though there is, apparently, nothing in it for us? What are we willing to pay any price to do? What are the recurring, consistent (if not constant), reliable, returning interests or “drifts of soul” to which these questions would apply?”

I am still singing the same song after 23 years. I could have written this yesterday, or tomorrow. For me, these questions reveal how closely connected we live to the things that matter most to us, to our “Tao,” or flow, of heart and soul.

My first response to my own writing was to think, “Like a broken record,” and then I realized, “How different was the Buddha’s message over time?” And, “Wouldn’t Jesus still be saying the same things he had to say 2,026 years ago?” The things that need to be said do not vary much over time. We need to know what is important to us and how we live to serve that with our life throughout our life.

The Tao, Psyche, Intuition do not change over the centuries. Doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place remains the thing to do through all the years there are or will be. May we all live to know what that is here, now, and do it. No matter what.

We have to make our peace with our life throughout our life. Making our peace with having to constantly be making our peace is, itself, an important piece of our being able to make our peace as necessary without warning all the way from start to finish. It is upheaval and disruption on the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea constantly, and we have to develop the art of keeping our sea legs under us all the way.

Being able to observe what’s what and to articulate the impact of our life upon our life is instrumental in meeting the day as the day needs to be met. If we don’t have someone to talk to, we have to write it out for ourselves, as I am doing here. Articulation is crucial to realization which is essential to adjustment and accommodation, which is the ongoing and unending work of keeping ourselves in accord with our life. Which is the work of being alive. No?