Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
The Relic — I watched the destruction, deterioration, disappearance of this artifact over ten years or so of trips to the Outer Banks in North Carolina as hurricane after hurricane delivered wind and water to the detriment of all in their way.
Money means power and control. In the service of what? Toward what end? What is controlling the controllers?
They create chaos, noise, complexity–in the service of what? Having their way? Getting/having what they want?
They serve the joy of pushing things around, burning things down? Destroying, decimating, all things good? Anger unleashed upon civilization? A theme that runs through the ages, no?
We see it everywhere. Madness in the service of Fear, Loathing, Anger, Greed, and, you may not be ready for this but, Theology. Theology being the most insidious brand of Fear, Loathing, Anger, Greed there is. Madness in the guise of Goodness. What evil theology serves through the ages, right?
And we all are caught up in the playing out of forces quite beyond us. Psychic forces at work in the world–for what purpose? Toward what end? What controls what is in control?
And were do balance, peace, harmony, silence, emptiness, stillness, fit in? Belong?
The Dao of life and being? The flow of doing the right thing at the right time, in the right way, in the right place? The background and goal of life and being? Why not more of that and less of the other?
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 