Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Why spend our time with people
who cannot take "No" for an answer? 

Taking "No" for an answer is
the primary ingredient in maturation.
It is instrumental in "getting over it,"
and nothing is more essential 
to our development
than "getting over it"
and "moving on."

People who cannot do those things
are drains on everyone else,
sapping the life energy out of every room
in demanding that everything revolve
around them
and their need to be happy in all things
at all times.

The entire attraction of,
and motivation to attain, power
is grounded in the inability
to take "No" for an answer.

Wealth is just a weapon to wield 
in refusing to take "No" 
for an answer.

All of the problems of humankind
come down to a refusal
to take "No" for an answer.

And being able to take "No"
for an answer
is the foundation of all helpful,
healing,
relationships,
and the ground of our ability
to live together in ways that 
are good for each other
and the entire species/world.

It is what holds everything together
and enables us to find the way
through disappointment,
heartache,
grief,
loss
and sorrow,
in getting over it
and moving on.

–0–

What's it going to take
for us to settle in 
on meeting the day on the day's terms
and doing what we can about what is called for
with the best we have to offer
in each situation as it arises
and letting that be that
because we will do it all over again tomorrow?

What does "Taking care of business"
mean to you?
What is your business?
What do you live to serve/do
with the gifts of your original nature
and the innate specialties/virtues/talents
that come packed into your DNA?

What's your shtick?

What do you look forward to doing?
What do you love to do?
How often do you do it?
How long has it been since you have done it?

I love posting photographs
and seeing what I have to say each day.
I'm doing it now.
Taking care of business.

Then I'm going to see what the day holds
and meet it on its terms
with the best I have to offer
to the time and place of my living.

Each day has its own rhythm and flow,
and I keep time with it 
as well as I can,
responding with what is asked of me
without trying to force anything,
just seeing what can happen
where/when/how,
and dancing with the day
all day long.

–0–

"The Peace of Wild Things" is a poem by Wendell Berry,
which I recommend highly,
but which is occasioned
by wild things' absence of anticipation
and remembrance.

The wild things that are hunted
have less peace,
I would think,
than the wild things 
that do the hunting,
but then,
everything is hunted by something,
and the more conscious anything is
of that,
the less peace it has
as a regular state of being,
wild or not.

Which makes peace a fleeting thing,
coming and going at a moment's notice,
incapable of hanging around
like poverty forever.

If peace had the staying power of poverty,
it would take the anguish 
out of being poor.
Or hunted.

But no.
Here it comes,
there it goes.

Peace like the wind
blows through our lives
as an irregular reminder
of what we don't have,
or have too much of,
regretting and dreading
through our days,
with an occasional respite
of peace like that of the lake above
oblivious to the moss growing beneath 
its surface
and the annual leaf fall filling 
it from above
until there is no room for water
to rest on its way to the sea,
which is coming,
hunting for it,
even as we speak,
challenging us to make our peace
with that
if we can.

Awakening us to the reality of peace
being more of a state of mind
than a state of being,
and asking us to be okay
with things as the are
even as they are changing,
transforming,
coming,
going,
which is the way of all things
like the rhythms of the tides
and the moon in its orbit,
and our way through our life,
whispering relentlessly,
"Let it be because it is,
and what would you do about it anyway
that has a chance at permanence
or even longevity?
So, let come what's coming
and let go what's going,
and make the best of what's what
here and now."

Making our peace with that
is all the peace we will ever have,
and all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
here and now
some more again
every day.

–0–

There are places that are sacred to us,
beyond reason, question or doubt.
Parker Palmer calls them "thin places."
Joseph Campbell would say they are
"Transparent to transcendence."
The enliven us, 
and remind us
that there is more to it all 
than meets the eye.
there is an inexplicable,
irrational,
illogical side of physical existence
that defy words...
"The way of a ship on the sea,
The way of a snake upon a rock,
The way of a man with a woman..."

There is a holy side to life
that transports us to a state of being
might be described as
"One with the cosmos."
"Aligned with the way."
"At one with the Tao."
"At peace with all things."
"Glad to be here/now."

The moments that stand apart for us
are sacred moments,
beyond the reach of theology,
doctrine,
dogma
and creed.

Their primary characteristic
is that there is nothing artificial
about them.
They are authentic experiences
with the truth of life
incapable of being produced/created/manufactured
at will, 
but always possible at any moment.

Knowing that keeps us alert to its presence,
aware that any time
might be the time of transportation
from the mundane and profane
into the wonder and rapture of more than words can say.

Holiness is the fundamental state
of life in the world of physical reality
for those with eyes to see,
looking for the door to open,
that they might walk through
into another thin place
that is transparent to transcendence,
here and now. 

–0–

Dawns can be just this way
if we give them a chance.
I haven't seen a dawn of any variety
since well before we moved to Blakeney.

Not that I haven't been up before dawn.

That happens nearly every day.
But I don't leave the house.
I make coffee and sit down to write.

I'm made for writing and photographing.
My knees have made photographing difficult enough
for me to be happy sitting with a tin mug 
of coffee and writing for a while.

I'm good for the right word 
at the right time
in the right place
and the right way.

It's my shtick.

But spelling is not.
Nor are numbers.
So, I don't get far away
from being at home 
with my coffee and my shtick.
Looking forward to being bald.

To be bald,
I'm going to have to outlive my wife.
Until then, I'll be happy
imagining being bald.

Being bald, for me, is a defiant protest,
renunciation, rejection, repudiation,
renouncement, and abrogation
of the ways things are being done
everywhere I look.

Being bald, for me, is immolation on the order
of Buddhist monks in Vietnam,
only I get to keep breathing
and enjoying my putdown of what it's all come to.

Protest is all that is left to us.
That and the power to put things right
insofar as we are able
by doing small things
like choosing the right word
and using it at the right time,
in the right place
and the right way,
while enjoying our coffee and our shtick.

So, if you shave your head before me,
know that I'm coming along
and will get there as I am able.

–0–

We cannot fix the system from within the system.
All of the revolutions and near extinctions 
through the ages
failed to change much (enough) of anything
to change things.

Like fascism did in the United States
at the end of the Revolutionary War--
it went underground,
operating as the KKK
and the White Citizens Council,
until enough fascists with enough money
could mount a serious takeover attempt
and succeed in owning enough members of Congress
and enough judges strewn throughout the judicial system
to be a credible threat for decades and eons.

Fixes require a healthy majority, 
say 70% of the people,
to be solidly in favor of
and committed to 
Liberty! Justice! Equality! Truth!
for Democracy to have a chance at eternity.

And, for that to be the case (70% of the people),
the people have to wake up, 
be present,
pay attention,
be aware
of what's what, 
and what's happening,
and what's called for
in each situation as it arises,
and respond in ways appropriate
to the occasion,
every moment,
of every day,
throughout eternity.

And, if you know people
the way I know people,
you know lethargy takes over
after a year or two at the ready,
and things begin to slide,
and money buys votes and judges,
and within a generation
things are back to being out of hand.

The truth about humanity favors fascism.
Always has.
Always will.
The rest of us have to recognize 
what we are up against
and go up against it
all the time--
without quitting 
because "It's hopeless, pointless, useless,
futile and absurd!
And coming to a very bad end
(We are all going to die before the work is done).
So who cares?
What's the use?
Why try?
What good will it do?"

At this point, 
it is essential that we 
not care that "no one" cares,
that it is "no use,"
and refuse to be conned into 
defending/excusing/justifying/explaing
why we are doing why we are working
in the service of the Good that is truly Good
whether it does any "good" or not--
and stand up
and step forward
into each situation as it arises
and do there what is called for
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
anyway/nevertheless/even so
without keeping score
or caring what our chances are
because that is who we are
and that is what we do,
and if you think you are going to stop us
with reason and logic and money, money, money,
you've got another think coming
because that think isn't going to stop us
or even slow us down.

He said, smiling and winking, 
on his way to what is here and now and waiting...

–0–

Being moved by that which moves us 
is the common element uniting all living things.

That which lives, lives as
"the moved in response to the mover."

The mover--the moving "thing"--
is the wonder/radiance of life itself. 
Life being moved by life,
by the encounter with the reality of life,
with the astonishment of being alive.

Life is in love with itself,
cannot get enough of itself,
relishes the glory of the sublime nature
of being one with the mover in being capable
of being moved.

Those who know the beauty of their own experience
walk around agape and giddy
at the very idea of being here/now,
immersed in the "WOW!!!" on all sides.

There is nothing beyond the experience 
of being moved
to ask,
or seek
or desire.

Life itself is all life has to offer.
Are we going to be moved by that
on and on forever,
or not?

–0–

There is the way things are,
and the way things need to be,
and the ways things are said ought to be.
and the way we want things to be,

If we can apprehend the way things are
and live in service to the way things need to be,
dismissing the way things are said to be
and the way we want things to be,
we will be doing what needs to be done
when/where/and how it needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

No more can be asked of us than that.

However, the worldwide trend 
is to what is said ought to be
when it coincides 
with how we want things to be--
discounting,
dismissing,
denying,
ignoring 
the way things are
and the way things need to be
to our own detriment
and that of everyone/everything else
no matter what
forever.

Until things become what they need to be,
it's going to be like bathing hogs
in the barnyard 
with a short hose
for the rest of time.

–0–

We do not see
what we cannot articulate.
Articulation is the hidden source of seeing.
Taking up the work of saying
what needs to be said
is also the work of seeing
what needs to be seen.
The less we have to say,
the less we are capable of seeing.

Where photography is concerned,
the scenes that speak to us, 
speak to many of us, 
maybe most of us. 

What is it there 
that isn't everywhere? 
Why some scenes and not others?
Why some scenes for some people,
other scenes for other people,
and other scenes for no one at all?

I ask as "the moved" in response to "the mover." 

What moves us to awe, rapture, wonder? 
The old Taoists might answer, 
"The Tao that can be said is not the eternal Tao." 

What ever it is, 
we know it when we see it, 
even if we cannot say what it is. 

Our work as photographers 
is to show what can be seen even if
we cannot say what it is. 
To be "transparent to transcendence," 
and allow our silence to express 
our highest honor and deepest admiration.

And whether we are photographers or not,
our struggle is to say what needs to be said
and trust that to enable us to see
what needs to be seen--
always aware that we cannot say
what cannot be said,
so we talk about "transcendence,"
for instance,
without saying anything about "The Transcendent."

We owe it to ourselves to say as much as we can
about what can be said,
and to "talk without ceasing"
until we see at last what we have been
trying to say all this time.

–0–

The only thing between us
and what has always been called "God"
is sin.

But not sin as action or state of being.

It is sin as concept or idea.

It is the belief in sin as a human condition
that is the problem.
Dump it immediately--
and, POOF, like that, sin is gone,
and we are free from its burden, guilt and shame forever.

All acts and deeds work more or less well
to get things done as they need to be done,
and it only takes doing things properly
and in reasonable order to meet customary 
standards of behavior worldwide.

Which is normally enough to keep us out of trouble
with the authorities and our neighbors in most cases.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do,"
is generally all it takes to get us by--
and saves us all the issues with confession,
repentance, redemption, penitence,vindication,
absolution, pardon, forgiveness, exoneration,
dispensation, deliverance, clemency, amnesty,
exhortation, and being put right with all those
we have wronged.

Which brings us to getting over things
being put right by us,
and simply focusing on doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how 
the way it needs to be done
here and now in each situation as it arises
all our life long
no matter what.

We square ourselves with the world every day
and do what is called for,
letting that be that
and growing up some more again
all the way.

–0–

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
with its four pairs of opposites:

Thinking/Feeling
Extraversion/Introversion
Sensing/Intuition
Judging/Perceiving

is one way of conceptualizing 
the eight fundamental/foundational forces
shaping the way we are,
and therefore, the way things are,
worldwide through the ages.

Life is but a dance of opposites
clashing over how things are.

How things are is a reflection
of how we are,
and how we are is beyond our power
to shape or control.

The way we see things 
is just the way we see things,
and even the input we may have in that
is, itself, shaped by the way we see things.

To see/think/feel differently
is to BE different
and that is quite beyond us.
We can only be who we are
pretending to be different.

Invisible forces arrange our lives
apart from our intents and purposes.
And those invisible forces 
are who we are, 
and also are.
Without us being in charge of
and determining,
the ways we see, think, feel and do.

What is guiding our boat 
on its path through the sea?
The eight happy captains it seems,
and their sixteen different ways
of arranging/expressing themselves
in the situations/circumstances of our lives.

–0–

We are our responsibility.

We are in charge of our balance and harmony,
our integrity,
sincerity,
spirit,
energy,
vitality,
mind,
body,
heart-soul--
within the forces of destabilization,
disruption,
disharmony,
diversion,
distraction,
disinterest,
denial,
chaos
and 
lethargy.

It is as easy as our answer
to the question:
What do we live to do?

There is what we do for a living,
and there is what we live to do.

What do we live to do?

If we are living to make money,
what's the money for?

How does what we live to do
serve our balance and harmony,
our integrity,
sincerity,
spirit,
energy,
vitality,
mind,
body,
heart-soul?

--0--