There is a way of assessing a person’s degree of health referred to as “ease of functioning” by two Canadian researchers working on the questions, “What is health?” and “What is the difference between good health and bad health?” “Ease of functioning” is a helpful way of thinking about what we are doing and howContinue reading “August 21-B, 2022”
Author Archives: jimwdollar
August 21-A, 2022
We spend much of our life waiting. The Green Heron is waiting for an afternoon snack to swim, or fly, by. I was waiting for a Green Heron to alight on the log and pose for a photo. The secret of bird photography is to walk with a camera into the vicinity of birds andContinue reading “August 21-A, 2022”
August 20-C, 2022
To those who say, “Have no aversion of any kind to anything ever!”, I say, “Oh, I see you have an aversion to aversion!” To those who say, “Do not DO anything at all!”, I say, “Now, that would really be doing something!” We cannot say anything without producing the antithesis of what we intend.Continue reading “August 20-C, 2022”
August 20-B, 2022
We are all looking for where we belong, for what we belong to. For where we fit in, for what fits us. For what we do well/best, for what we have no business doing at all. For what our shtick is, and what it isn’t. For the good places to be, and the good placesContinue reading “August 20-B, 2022”
August 20-A, 2022
Finding joy in what we are doing, in what is available to do, is a matter of changing our mind about what is important, in order to see what is being offered to us, instead of seeing what is not being offered to us. The simple pleasures require us to see them and avail ourselvesContinue reading “August 20-A, 2022”
August 19-E, 2022
People are always misreading their attractions, thinking love and sex, when the first read should always be self-reflection/examination/exploration/inspection… Whenever we find ourselves knocking ourselves off track, we have to dig then and there into what is going on. Everything is a doorway/portkey/invitation to self-transparency/awareness, with the potential to strengthen, or weaken, our affiliation with theContinue reading “August 19-E, 2022”
August 19-D, 2022
Sex can be a lot of fun, but it can also get in the way. Sex has no necessary connection with intimacy– though it is often referred to as “an intimate relationship.” Too often, it is a way of avoiding intimacy. We go to sex to keep from being known. Being known in the BiblicalContinue reading “August 19-D, 2022”
August 19-C, 2022
We all need a sounding board. A sounding board is all we need. We have to hear what we have to say. All of our “institutions” are designed to keep us from hearing what we have to say. They all tell us what we need to hear. Churches head the list. Schools. Hospitals. Government… EverythingContinue reading “August 19-C, 2022”
August 19-B, 2022
We refuse to bear consciously the pain of our contradictions/paradoxes/polarities and deny them, run from them, hide from them, when the simple solution is to refuse to take them seriously and laugh at them, play with them, enjoy them, live lovingly with them all the way. Schizophrenia is not much different than poetry, or otherContinue reading “August 19-B, 2022”
August 19-A, 2022
We can’t hurry anything up, or slow anything down. It is a though we are all in this river that flows at its own rate no matter what we do, and we forget that, and think we can hurry things up and slow things down, and avoid things altogether. Nope. Can’t do it. We areContinue reading “August 19-A, 2022”
August 18-C, 2022
There is what we want, and there is what we ought to want. Guess what kind of chance the-ought-to-want has with us? Slim or fat? The-ought-to-want tags along behind us everywhere we go, hoping to be heard, seen, attended– never giving up, never quitting. Want gets all of the attention, wields all the power, enjoysContinue reading “August 18-C, 2022”
August 18-B, 2022
We know what the truth is. And hide from it, pretending we don’t know. And here we are. We know what we know, and what we think we know, and opt for what we think we know because what we know asks hard things of us. “We can’t handle the truth” (Col Nathan R. Jessup),Continue reading “August 18-B, 2022”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 