December 25, 2025

The Buddha under the Bodhi Tree is Jesus in Gethsemane and on Golgotha.
And Dylan Thomas writing as his father lay dying, “Do not go gentle into that good night! Rage! Rage! Against the dying of the light!”

The last one alive is still dying. The work remains the same: Rage! Rage! Against the dying of the light!”

It is our work to do! We must do it even with our dying breath!

Socrates drank the hemlock. Hitler pulled some trigger in some dank bunker. How different they’re dying! Jesus on the cross, shouting, “Into thy hands I commit my spirit!”, having done all the could do–all that was his to do–all the way to the end was Socrates drinking the hemlock. That is the way to do it! I will be writing and perfecting photographs all the way to the end–not caring if anyone reads or sees or gets it and dies doing their own thing the way it ought to be done, laughing, dying, knowing that’s the way to do it, or not. It is mine to do! Theirs to do! Yours to do! “Get in there and do your thing, and don’t worry about the outcome!” (Joseph Campbell on the crucial importance of saying YES! to life just as it is, on his way to death).

We are all on our own way to death! So What? That is the nature of the game that’s afoot all the time all the way! We live and we die! That is the way it is! DO IT! The way it needs to be done all the way! And when it is done, say, “Good-by, Gracie!” “Good-bye, Gracie!” Laughing and dying, dying and laughing. Getting it and rolling on the floor laughing, dying, all the way!