Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy
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?
There are three questions and several ways to ask them: 1) What’s what? (Also phrased, “What’s happening? and, “What’s going on?”) 2) What needs to be done about it? (In response to it? (What is being called for?) 3) How can we be helpful with the gifts/ tools/traits/virtues/specialties/character/etc. that are natural to us– that comeContinue reading “July 04, 2023 – A”
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Something is to be said for repentance well beyond getting us into heaven when we die (Whomever thought that one up needs to be sentenced to a couple of years at hard labor in the other place on the grounds of absurdity and cheekiness alone). Repentance restores balance and harmony, oils the wheels of socialContinue reading “July 03, 2023 – B”
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In being what we seek, we discover that we have always had what we need to meet the moment straight up and do there what is called for and is appropriate to the occasion. The way is clear until someone with a better idea comes along, and then there is tension and struggle, and weContinue reading “July 03, 2023 – A”
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Everything is amazing to eyes that see. Eyes that see are amazing. To SEE is to be stunned into silence. So, we have to not-see in order to get around at all. We have to close ourselves off from wonder to find a toilet. Or a clothes hanger. Which, in themselves, are aspects/extensions of wonder.Continue reading “July 02, 2023 – B”
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“Grace” is another term for “good luck,” “good fortune.” We all are graced by the minute, by the second. Everything is a coincidence, an accident of time and place. Every photograph is a miracle, that we should be there, then, with a camera is always amazing. What were the chances? Who could have planned it?Continue reading “July 02, 2023 – A”
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We have to learn how to be balanced and harmonized in the neighborhood of the clashing rocks on the heaving waves of the wine dark sea. The way there is a simple shift in perspective. Life is an optical illusion. We can look and see hopelessness and despondency, and we can look again and seeContinue reading “July 01, 2023 – B”
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What is missing from our life? What are we seeking? What do we need that we do not have? Pondering this, I realize that the world seeks release/relief from the burdens of life— the uncertainties, the insecurities. People seek reassurance, companionship, security, certainty, peace… The ground of all religion is hope for the future– someContinue reading “July 01, 2023 – A”
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Accepting our plight for what it is, whatever it is, and determining to make the best of it, far exceeds the frantic search for an escape into bliss and happiness everlasting. We meet the day and do what needs to be done there, putting woe and “poor me” aside. “Here we are. NOW what? WhatContinue reading “July, 2023”
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The saving grace about Jesus’ abject–perhaps even deliberate– inconsistency, ambiguity, self-contradiction, obtuseness– is that it recognizes/exhibits/declares/expresses the essential nature of life, of living, beyond absolutes in each situation as it arises. What is right, what is good, what is wrong, what is evil, shifts and changes from moment to moment, from situation to situation, andContinue reading “June 30, 2023 – B”
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I recommend having nothing to do with the Buddha or with Jesus. The Buddha hated women and abandoned his wife and child in order to “seek enlightenment.” How enlightened was that? He opposed women having leadership positions over men, and it was due to strong opposition by his male monks that they were welcomed atContinue reading “June 30, 2023 – A”
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See what we look at. Hear what we listen to. Know what we know. Say what needs to be said. Do what needs to be done. All there is to it. Derailed by wanting what we want. Refusing to maintain balance and harmony. Being awash in opinions, assumptions, presumptions, inferences, projections, fear, desire, hearsay, noise,Continue reading “June 29, 2023 – A”
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What is right? How do you know? Where do your boundaries lie? Who lays them for you? What is the truth about you? Who told you so? There are things that define us that we have nothing to do with. They are just there. We just are the way we are. We just know theContinue reading “June 28, 2023 – A”
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy