Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

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

Too many of us get earning a living down
without having anything to live for,
and fall into the pit
of drugs, sex, alcohol, money, or some other addiction,
immersing ourselves in attractive
distractions, diversions, and entertaining pastimes,
with nothing of interest to do--
and walk past hordes of people like us every day.

Living lost in the wasteland of discontent,
with no idea of what to do with themselves
or what they might be here for
and drinking beer for breakfast
to ease their way into the day.

This could be a country song.

It is certainly the basis of countless
country songs,
written about other people
by people who live to write songs
about the people who have nothing better to do
than listen to songs about themselves
sung by people who, for the most part,
are not like them.

How do we stop the action
and get this all sorted out,
with truck drivers driving trucks,
and auto mechanics wrenching their way
through the days,
and shoe salespersons selling shoes,
teachers teaching,
scientists sciencing,
and politicians mucking things up for everyone?

(The thing about politicians 
is that they are not in the business
of making things the way they think things ought to be,
but of making things the way they ought to be.
There is no agreement among us about how things ought to be.
And no way to get there, it seems,
so there is no wonder that things are the way they are.
We don't know how things ought to be,
except to say they ought NOT be like this!)

How do we get from here to there?
Particularly when no one is listening to anyone?

Each of us has to take it upon ourselves
to sit down, shut up, be still and quiet
until the dawning comes.

Until then, when people ask us what we are doing,
we tell them we are waiting for the dawning to come,
and go back to being still and quiet, waiting.

If you have a better idea,
by all means, 
hop to it!

–0–

Our place is to be who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
in ways that are true to our original nature
and our innate virtues/characteristics
in each situation as it arises.

We have all we need to do this,
and it only requires the proper portion
of emptiness, stillness and silence
to know what we know,
be aware of what is happening
and what is called for in response,
do the right thing,
at the right time
in the right place
and in the right way,
with the gifts that are ours to offer.

Babies come into the world
knowing how to do that,
but things interfere with our
ability to remember it over time.

Jesus came to remind us with his,
"Unless you turn and become like children,
you will never get to 'the still point
of the turning world' (TS Eliot), were
you can know what you know
and do what needs to be done about it,
through all that comes your way."

Everything we need is always
right here right now
if we empty ourselves 
of all that is distracting our attention
and enter the silent stillness,
waiting to see what calls our name
urging us to action in rising to the occasion,
meeting our circumstances
and dancing with what must be danced with
through all that remains of time.

–0–

It is easy enough to toss out theology
and re-interpret the entire Bible
as a treatise on the order of the Odyssey
about the path to maturity and grace.

But the draw of being magically in control
of our future and our destiny
is too compelling to set aside,
so we tell the tales 
as though they are about
what they are said to be about
and not about living to do what needs to be done
even if it means dying to our idea
of how things ought to be here/now
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Never mind that that constitutes 
the "Jesus-ness" of Jesus
and the calling of each of us
from birth to death along life's way. 

–0–

We lived on the edge of the 22-acre woods in Indian Land, South Carolina (But, it is all Indian land, you know, and, before them, it was just land. I wonder how long it will be before the land returns to its original pristineness and is glad to "just be" again at last), for ten years or so. 

We cleared out the underbrush on HOA property and claimed it for our own, planting ferns and "rescuing" from eventual development Wild Ginger, Sumac, Woods Sorrel and accent stones from the woods, and setting up what I called "The Zen Glen," with a hammock, bird feeders and a bird bath, and waited for things to happen. 

The hammock was a blind of sorts in that I was blind to the birds and creatures of the woods when I was in the hammock and parallel to the ground. I did not mean anything to them there.

One spring when a family of Carolina Wrens were out with the new hatch just learning to fly and going everywhere, looking at everything, one new Wren flitted up and perched on the toe of my shoe for about five seconds, looked me over and flitted on. I was neither a threat nor interesting. 

I took advantage of that by taking pictures of citizens of the woods for as long as my knees allowed the trek back and forth from the house, and miss those times of lying back in the scene, waiting for something to come along. 

"The halcyon days of yore," I think of them, glad to have had them, and glad to have held them close and let them go-- which is the catchy title of a book about raising/rearing children, "Hold them close and let them go," that I don't recommend beyond its title. 

The hammock was also good for silence, stillness and emptiness, which together constitute the bedrock of spiritually/connection with the invisible world of more than can be said/told/explained, and can only be experienced/known as the moved can only hope to know the mover. 

I don't know what serves as a hammock for you, but I know you have to go there often and stay there long enough each time to develop the knack of just being with yourself and reflecting on the experience that enables/allows to the point of new realizations, and see where it goes.

We know what is right for us
and what is wrong for us,
where we belong
and where we have no business being.

So, what's the problem?

Knowing what we know is the problem,
and doing what needs to be done about it.

Our practice has to be
knowing what we know
and doing what needs to be done about it.

This is our duty.
It is what we are born for,
who we are built to be--
with fealty,
liege loyalty
and filial devotion--
knowing what needs to be done,
and doing it when, where and how
it needs to be done.

No matter what.

–0–

Our mission is to 
meet each situation as it arises 
from the circumstances that give it birth 
with the gifts of our original nature 
and the innate characteristics/virtues 
stored in our DNA 
in light of what's what 
and what needs to be done in response--
and to let that be that,
because the next situation is on the way.

We can only do this from the standpoint
of emptiness/stillness/silence.

Anything that disturbs the natural flow of life--
the spontaneous give and take
that is essential to our response-ability
and to our ability to dance with the music
of the moment--
disrupts our focus
and leads us away from the path
into the wasteland of 
noise/complexity/drama/trauma,
necessitating our return 
to emptiness/stillness/silence
where we realign ourselves with the Tao,
merge again with the flow of life
and live at one with the time and place,
the here/now,
of the present situation
as it arises
from the circumstances 
that give it birth.

–0–

There are psychic/emotional factors
that have us where we are,
individually and collectively,
and we cannot "get in there"
to straighten things out
because the psychic/emotional factors at play
are beyond the reach 
of rational/logical approaches.

We are--the entire world is--a mess
we are unable to do anything about.

Fascism and democracy will never see
eye-to-eye
and honor the other's right 
to its position,
and help each other to a common ground
where we all can work together
for the true good of the whole.

We have to kill each other down to the point
where neither has a logistical/political/economic 
advantage over the other,
and muddle along as best we can.

It will always be a mess
no one controls.

It's like your relationship
with your sister-in-law,
or your father,
or your mother-in-law,
or your mother,
or your father-in-law...

We have to muddle along as best we can.

There are no solutions
beyond killing each other down
to the point of mutual impotence.

–0–

What has living taught you
about being alive?
What has being alive taught you
about living?
What has life taught you
about living and being alive?

I've learned that people
think the wrong things are important,
take the wrong things seriously,
and spend way too much of their life
not being alive.

Treat everything with the degree
of seriousness
that it deserves,
knowing that seriousness
and meaningfulness
flow from the circumstances
determining each situation
as it arises.

It all depends upon
and flows from
what's what
here and now.
And lasts exactly that long.

What's what and here now does not last.

If you are going to take anything seriously
let it be music.
And laughter.
And playfulness.
And unseriouslyness...

I wish my dad had read poetry
and my mom had played the jazz piano.
Or, vice-versa.
Or, both and.

We have to put some distance
between ourselves and our parents
to have a chance.

It would help if they put some distance
between you and them from the start,
instead of treating you as though
you were them,
and trying to get you 
to be like them.

Knowing what's me
and what's them,
and what's you,
gets off to a rocky start.

We spend a lot of time figuring out
where we stop and others start.
And learning to draw our own lines.
And respecting others' lines--
even when they don't
respect theirs or ours.

The line business takes a while
to get sorted out.

Where the lines lie is serious.
And honoring them.
Particularly our own.

I think everything else falls out
around that.

Honor all legitimate lines
and let that be that.
Knowing "there is only the dance"
(TS Eliot),
and "the still point of the turning world"
is the most important place to be,
any time,
all the time.

If living teaches us that,
it has done its job.

–0–

Follow the zeal, the zest, the gusto,
the enthusiasm, the excitement, the thrill, the meaning
wherever it goes.

And, if you have zeal-less, listless, mostly dead
all these years now,
don't give up!

Be awake!

Ardor is closer than you think!
Life has been waiting for you all these years now--
looking for an opening.
This may be just what it needs
to have a crack at you!

When the door opens,
walk right through!
And keep on walking
into all that awaits!

–0–

Today is the first day
of my tenth year of sobriety. 
That doesn't mean
that I was a stumbling drunk
nine years ago,
but I was good 
for a half bottle of wine a day
(And sometimes, a whole bottle),
when my acupuncturist said,
"Jim, alcohol isn't doing anything for your knees."

So, I quit alcohol on the spot.
He said the same thing about sugar,
due to it's inflammatory impact,
and I did the same thing with sugar,
though it is easier to "fall off the wagon"
with sugar because it is everywhere
(Try ordering breakfast without sugar--
breakfast IS sugar!).

And that leads me to this:
Everything is overrated.
money heads the list.
Money is overrated.
And sex.
Drugs and alcohol.
The list is long, but.
Silence is not on the list,
nor is emptiness and stillness.

The three most important things
do not make the list of important things,
and will never, ever--
you can check me out on this--
be overrated.

And what all this comes down to is this:
Live like everything matters,
with no attachment whatsoever to the outcome.

Live like everything means everything in the world,
with no attachment to anything.

Meaning is our own concoction. 
If something is meaningful,
it means something/everything to us.
If it doesn't mean anything to us,
it is meaningless,
or may as well be,
for all that it is doing for us.

And here is the funny-as-in-not-funny-at-all thing:
Most of the stuff we do,
most of the things we spend time with,
most of the things we spend time doing,
mean absolutely nothing to us.

We devote our life to things that are meaningless
to us.

Why???

Get to the bottom of that,
and you are onto something.

And, start giving your time and attention
to the things that are meaningful for you.

With no attachment to them whatsoever.

You will transform your world.

–0–

Squaring ourselves up with our life
is coming to terms with how things are
and with the disparity between how they are
and how we want them to be--
and getting up and doing what needs to be done,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so.

We are not in it for what we can get out of it.

"What's in it for us?"
is an inappropriate question.
"When is it going to be my turn?"
"When am I going to get my way?"
Are also inappropriate questions.

We all grow up against our will.

Getting up and doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done
is the duty incumbent upon every human being.

We are here to do what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done.

What we get out of it is the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.
We also get to use our original nature
and the virtues/characteristics 
that are inherent in our DNA
in the service of what needs us to do it.

If we spill the milk, 
we clean up the milk.
If the dog throws up on the carpet,
we clean up the mess--
the way it needs to be cleaned up.

We rise to the occasion
in each situation as it arises.

The Sisyphean task is doing what needs to be done
every day--when, where and how it needs to be done.

The first thing that needs to be done
is how we are looking at what needs to be done.
"What's in it for me?"
Doesn't belong there.
"Why me?"
"What am I getting out of it?"
"Why should I be the one who does it?"

Turn the light around
and it becomes,
"I am built for this!"
"This is my specialty!"
"Give ME the ball!"
"Let me show you how it's done!"
"I was hoping I would get to do that today!"
Etc.

And we don't have to wait until tomorrow!
We can start right here, right now!

–0–