The river does not have a way. The river finds a way. Be the river.
June 23, 2026 – B
June 23, 2026
My father reacted to me and I reacted to my father and we both could have done a lot better. And we both need to acknowledge that about ourselves to each other and simply allow that truth to be a part of our individual makeup, and let it go.
And this is so with way too many of us around the world throughout time. All for whom this is so, need to take ourselves to a cosmic wailing wall and say our say and make our peace with ourselves and those we need to make our peace with, and let that be that, as the old Taoists might say. And let it go.
June 22, 2026 -B
Sitting quietly and assessing the quality of the things that occur to us in the silence will develop our curiosity about the nature of the drift of our thoughts over time, raising the question, “Why do we think naturally, spontaneously, of the things we think about and not something else instead?” And, “How might that have shaped the direction of our life over time?” And, “How might we direct our thoughts toward different life choices in the future?”
June 22, 2026
I am not going to care about things that are not worth caring about in the time left for living. I will leave all of those things for someone else to care about. And I recommend this as a life posture for everyone. Care about the things that are worth caring about and let the rest go. That is the way Blue Whales do it. And they get by just fine with that as a way of life. Be the Whale.
June 21, 2026 – C
As far as I can tell MAGA is merely another term for White Supremacist. I have been white all my life and I have never felt the need to be supreme. What would that get me? What is it with white people who need to be supreme? Who need to be supreme to such an extent that they have manufactured ways of manipulating the voting process throughout the united states to guarantee that no black person will ever be elected to public office of any variety, anywhere ever throughout these United States of America? That is caring deeply about your white supremacy. And a reflection of how deeply you fear being in any way ever at the mercy of black people who intend to do you harm. That is evidence of a psychological disorder with the word “phobia” somewhere in its description. And it would apply to nearly half of the white people in the US, and perhaps throughout the world if the turnout that elected Donald Trump TWICE is a reliable indication of the fear at the heart of those voting. Which I find to be an appalling and disgusting psychological condition with no remedy anywhere to be found.
June 21, 2026 – B
We have to take it all just as it is! We cannot throw any of it away–or run away from any of it! We have to square up to it as well as we are able. Jesus said it well! “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And no one comes to the Father but by me! And he was talking about each of us! We are all the way, the truth and the life, and the “Father” Jesus was talking about was the Tao that the old Shaman/Taoists who lived 5,000 years before Jesus realized was flowing through all things, Yin/Yang “and all that jazz.” The Tao is our Father! Is our Maker! Is Who We Are! “The Father and I are one!” This was Jesus’ realization/recognition. We are all one with the Tao/Father/God/Psyche/Intuition… We only have to throw theology away to know it is so. The Parable of the Prodigal Son, which Jesus told ditched the idea of Original Sin and the need of Atonement and Redemption. The Father runs to meet the Son before the Son can reel off his Litany of Confession and Repentance. “Get out of here with that stuff” says the Father, “You were lost and now you are found! You were dead and now. you are alive!” The Prodigal was resurrected before Jesus was! We are all resurrected! “Converted and Transformed,” is how Einstein put it. And we can get a head start by bringing our best to bear on life just as it is, which is all Jesus did, and all he called his disciples and the people of his day to do! “No one comes to the Father but by me!” Not by believing in Jesus as our savior. We don’t need saving. We need waking up and being who we are, here, now. By doing it like Jesus did it! As only we can do it like we can do it! Just being ourselves and doing our life like we would do it–just like babies do their life just like they would do it. And Jesus said, “Unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” And children have no theology. But they are themselves! So was Jesus. And he had no theology either.
June 21, 2026
There is a solace in the pathos of aging and cognitive decline. In the pathos of life. Solace and a sense of the sublime side of being alive. What a wonder it all is. To experience the IS-NESS of living. The sadness, and madness, and horror, and joy, and delight–the IS-NESS and the ALL-NESS of it.
The experience of living is so beyond words, so incapable of being expressed… So beyond us all, yet we are all together in the tragedy and the wonder of it all. And I get to go out with Trump! Is that not horrific? And laughable? If I’m not crying, I’m laughing. What a release and relief death is going to be, and yet, I don’t want to miss anything! It is all so unbelievable it has to be lived to be believed!
And there is a comfort in the community, in the commonwealth, in the gathering of those who are together and bearing each other up! My liege loyalty and filial honor to you is that I will be here as long as my house has power, and will be chanting the Om Mani Padme Hum long after that! (The Jewel is in the Lotus and the Lotus is in the mud at the bottom of the pond!) No greater irony or contradiction than that! And Buddhism declares “No Duality!” But paradox and contradictin apleanty! Exactly what I’m talking about with the wonder and the pathos of life!
June 20, 2026
How do things need to be here, now? How do we know? Take inventory? Consult the Silence? Check our email? Wait to see? I like easing into the day. Letting the day arrive slowly, at its own pace. Little by little. Giving it room to be what it needs to be. Without plans and agendas, schedules and deadlines. Seeing what’s what and doing what is called for when it is called for, by and by.
June 19, 2026 – B
I am dealing with cognitive decline which shows itself in forgetting things I am supposed to know, like the name of one of our daughters, which I can remember by thinking of the name of another of our daughters, but forgetting how to get home from the auto dealership after getting an oil change is on a different level (I googled my name and my address popped up which I put in the iPhones GPS which guided me. home (which I remembered as soon as I saw the map). All of which is to say that knowing the difference between normal forgetting and something to be concerned about forgetting is a line that is important to be able to draw. And how do you know? Tricky, when you think about it. So I live not knowing if I am right to be concerned about not knowing or not. Which normal people don’t have to be concerned about. So, there’s that.
June 19, 2026
I am taken by the solitude that abounds in the world. Every scene conceals and reveals elements of solitude. And where do the lines lie between solitude and aloneness, between aloneness and loneliness? And the cure for loneliness is solitude according to Marianne Moore. What we have here is a circle of perception/perspective, and how much of our life hinges on how we see what we look at handing us what we see when we look. So that it is all an optical illusion, exposing us to who is looking as much as what is seen. And where do we end and our projections begin? Where does our experience of reality end and reality begin? And Joe Friday’s request, “We just want the facts, ‘mam” asks for the impossible. Where do we stop and the facts start?
June 18, 2026 – B
The less we care about what happens, when, where and how, the smoother our life goes. The more we care, the more complicated/complex/trouble things are. The way to smooth and easy is to have no opinion about, nothing at stake in, any outcome. The moon, for instance, doesn’t give a damn about anything anywhere and has an easy path through the cosmos all day, every day. Want an easy life? Be the moon!
June 18, 2026
Trump in the White House means the South Won the Civl War. How are we going to recover from that? How do we get back to “Liberty and Justice for All”? How are we going to get back to who we were when Lincoln was President before the White Supremacists killed him? How do we recover the filial devotion and liege loyalty to Freedom! Justice! Equality! Truth!?
How do we get back to: We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Prosterity do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America!?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 