Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

"God's will" is an interesting concept,
and it applies to everything that
"Amazing coincidence" would cover as well.

It also opens the way to the Grande Paradox of Life:
Everything is coincidental and nothing is.
Everything is a matter of chance and nothing is.

We walk two paths at the same time
and live with a foot in two worlds at once.
We are the bridge between transcendent reality
(Also called "The Mystery" [or "The Great Mystery"],
or "The Tao," or "The Totality," or "God,")
and personal experience
(Birth defects, accidents, wars, earthquakes, etc.),
as we try to put the experience of transcendent reality
together with the idea of ALS with the idea of "a loving God,"
for example.

And, as we look back over our life,
with all of the wrong turns,
dead ends,
disappointments,
wins and losses,
etc.
it appears that there is a thread
of cause and effect running through
all the events and experiences
that lead us to conclude
"everything worked together to bring me right here
right now,"
and "If that had not happened, 
that wouldn't have,
and that wouldn't have..."
and here I am!"

It all had to be just what it was 
to produce here/now.
And that looks like a plan,
and that implies a planner,
and "Anything can happen,
but nothing can go wrong."

But if something else had happened,
at the end, looking back, 
we would say, "Nothing can go wrong."

Yet, in truth, the end of the dinosaurs 
was quite wrong for the dinosaurs, etc.
And slavery and the genocide of indigenous people
was/is the highest form of wrong there is--
no matter what a distant outcome might be.

This is the thing about outcomes:
they never end.
Cause and effect is a false phrase
because the effects become causes
with more effects,
and things spin out in a good/bad/evil
blend so that nothing accurate can be said
about anything when everything is taken into account.

Things "just are,"
and they are good and bad and evil
depending on our point of view
throughout time.

Point of view/perspective/impression/judgment
is no way to evaluate/designate good/bad/evil
Good/bad/evil is always good for whom?
Bad for whom? Evil for whom? When? How?

Things just are
and whether they are good or not
depends on the narrow outcome we are using
to make the estimation.
Looked at from our point of view,
it appears to be "a miracle" 
that things worked out as they did.
Looked at from other points of view
(That of Native Americans, or African Americans, say),
and the outcome has a different value attached.

And "God's will" is impossible to declare
because it all is still being "worked out,"
and there is no end to the configuration 
of possibilities,
and no results are ever complete and final.

It is all process in the making,
chaos creating chaos
when looked at from far-enough away,
like galaxies being born
and black holes devouring other galaxies
eternally and forever. Amen.

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Worldviews have to change over the course of our life.
We cannot see how we have always seen,
and certainly not how our ancestors have have seen,
and not even as the people we spend most of our time with see,
and expect to be able to see
what we are looking at
and comprehend what it means
and know what is called for
and do what needs to be done in response
here/now
from one situation to the next
all our life long.

We have to develop our ability to see our seeing early on,
and to ask the right questions in response:
How do I know that the way I see is the way to see?
How many different ways of seeing are there?
How does the way I see keep me from seeing?
What makes me think that the way I say things are
is the way things are?
How often have I changed my mind about what is important?
How often have the people around me changed their mind
about anything?
Who are the people I/We disagree with most vehemently?
What can they show me about what I am not seeing?
What would happen if I adopted as a basic principle,
"All people are entitled to their own point of view"?
And began to exemplify it by talking to other people 
about how they see things?
And why that way and not some other way instead?
And probing/exploring how some way they see
clashes with other ways they see--
and do the same thing with me and the way I see?
And allowing one question to lead to another
all my life long
no matter where it takes me
or what it means for the way I live my life?

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I am going to have cataract surgery on my right eye tomorrow, and that may impact my writing schedule, which may mean that I write later tomorrow, or, maybe not at all. My absence should be only one day at the most, and then again in two weeks when we go for my left eye. In the meantime, fare well, question everything, “see” you soon, and better than ever!

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

Too much of the West
lives to make money
for/with which they have nothing to do.

"Let's go to the moon!"
"Let's go see the Titanic!"
"Let's buy the United States Government!"
"Let's destroy democracy!"
"Let's burn everything down!"

It is as though some twisted god somewhere
said, "Let's give adults at a 16-year old
maturation level billions of dollars
and see what they will do!"

When immature people have nothing to live for
that is worth living for,
we have society as it is today.

How many people do you know personally
who have something worth living for
to live for?

Who are serving a good greater than their own good
with their life?

Who are "in it" for something 
other than what they can "get out of it"?

Who have incentive,
aspiration,
ambition,
for something more important than money?

Who would give all their money
to do what they know is theirs to do?

Teaching botany, perhaps.
Or writing poetry.
Or playing a piano.
Training horses.
Tending a garden...

Who do you know who has a life
beyond making money?

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We need to make things right--
as right as they can be made--
by making reparations and restitution
to indigenous people 
and descendants of slaves,
and stop talking about God and Jesus
until we do that.

God and Jesus demand/require that
reparations and restitution be made.
We make a mockery of our affiliation
with God and Jesus until we do
at least that much.

Candidates for political office
who don't make this a part of their platform
are unfit for office,
and people who go to church
without making this a part of their 
declaration of faith
are unfit to be called Christians.

And people currently in office
who want to "cleanse America of Palestinians 
and immigrants"
have to come to terms with the fact
that they, themselves, are descendants of immigrants,
which makes them immigrants,
and resign from office
for being ignorant,
stupid
and mean.

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Consider the infrastructure required
for this bridge to do its job
at optimum efficiency.

Optimum efficiency demands balance and harmony,
whether it is a bridge in question
or you
and all the things that keep you running
at optimum efficiency.

Each of us is this bridge,
dependent upon our sitz im leben 
to keep us going.

How's your balance and harmony these days?
What can you do to improve it?
What is beyond your control
that you need to help you maintain and sustain
your balance and harmony?

These are essential questions to answer.
Everything depends upon our balance and harmony.
We have to do our part,
and the larger world has to do its part.

Toilet paper and electriity
are important elements
in the maintenance of my balance and harmony.
And a hot shower.
And the right cup of coffee...

We hang by a thread.
Start messing with our balance and harmony
and it all goes to hell like that (Snaps fingers).

We live to serve our balance and harmony.
Our balance and harmony
live to serve us.

Being aware of the tenuous nature of our position
may lead us to stop taking it for granted,
and honor it with our attention,
and guard it with our life.

How might you tend your balance and harmony
today?

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There has to be an accounting,
a reckoning,
an awakening,
a realization,
a full knowing 
of who we are
and what we have done.

This is basic 12-Step stuff.

Squaring up to our lapses,
failures,
excesses and deficits--
and letting it be because it is,
learning from it,
and living to redeem it,
making amends where amends can be made
without making things worse,
and carrying the awareness 
of what we are capable of
with us all along the way.

We have to put things right--
as right as they can be put--
with ourselves and others,
and endeavor to keep things there
by keeping our eye on what's what,
within and without,
in each situation as it arises
throughout the time left for living.

This is the ground of compassion and kindness,
granting to others the same kind of
generosity that we extend to ourselves
in "letting be what is,"
and going on together
into whatever comes our way
over time--
over long stretches of time
in our mutual commune with ourselves
and all others all the way.

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Now is now everywhere.
If everyone wherever they are
would only do what needs to be done now,
where and how it needs to be done,
and follow that
into the next now flowing from this one,
the transformation would be instantaneous.

And since there is nothing but now
in which to experience being alive,
we would have a taste of all there is to have 
now 
forever,
now.

And, even if we only do our part,
that would impact our immediate circumstances
in ways that will be transformative
right here, right now,
and who knows where that will lead!

We transform our part of the whole
just by doing what is called for,
where and how it is called for,
now.

Let's do it!

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The people in Stonington, Maine
eke out a living as best they can,
like 99% of the world's population
from the beginning--
and, if they are lucky,
foster an inner life
that enables them to live
with joy, resolve and resiliency
amid the ebbs and flows 
of their outer life.

How many world-wide through all of time
have been that lucky,
and have known and benefited from
the inner peace, calm, balance, harmony
of a vital inner life?

How many live in the outer world
out of the vitality and vigor
of their inner life?

Returning regularly to the silence
in order to "recover from the past
and store up for the future" (Robert Ruark),
and do what needs to be done
amid the noise of the day-to-day? 

How many live daily out of the vibrant secret
of an adamantine foundation in their inner life?

And if we did not have that,
where would we go to find the way
of developing our capacity for it
and maintaining our connection with it
throughout the time left for living?

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Hate, fear and greed are the primary motivators.
Peace, love and compassion have no chance against them.

"The Woke masses are going to take your guns!
And the people of color are going to eat your babies!"

Repeat that over and over from the pulpits
and the talk shows
and you have recreated Hitler Germany
and its unrelenting attacks upon the Jews.

What's the antidote?
You will not like the idea:
The right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence.

Waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

While the other side stirs up the mud
and brings the water to a boil.

Which is to say there is no antidote
and that is why the world is as it is,
rolling in hate, fear and greed,
as it has from the beginning,
is and ever shall be.

And those who know have to live
as though they know
in a world that doesn't know
and doesn't care to know,
because it thinks it knows
and that's that.

But.

"The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness cannot put it out."

Children of light have to be children of light,
and let nature take its course.

It is the way.
The only way.

Being who we are,
when and where and how we are,
not caring what our chances are,
anyway, nevertheless, even so.

Finding our solace, our strength
and our courage
in the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence,
and the right kind of company--
and living on, living on.

The Sisyphean Task
of being the light in the darkness
through the ages.

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We know more than we know we know.
Let's spend the rest of our life
discovering what that is!

Curiosity leads the way!

Being curious about our nighttime dreams.

About the things that spontaneously occur to us,
or call us to action,
out of nowhere, for no apparent reason.

About questions that arise unbidden,
books that pique our interest,
movies and songs and photographs 
that draw our attention...

About our motives and incentives
and why we do what we do,
think what we think,
believe what we believe,
see the way we see,
say what we say...

About why we cry when we cry,
laugh when we laugh,
become angry when we become angry,
become sad when we are sad,
and happy when we are happy...

About what guides our boat 
on its path through the sea.

About how we know what to do when,
and why we care about what we care about
and don't care about what we don't care about...

About what we always say,
and never say,
and what we always do 
and never do...

About what we pay attention to,
and dismiss,
discount,
ignore...

Despise,
denounce,
detest...

Revere,
honor,
admire...

Get it?
Get with it!
And remain there,
curious,
inquisitive,
intrigued
with/about YOU!

We are always looking,
pleading,
for divine assistance,
when all the help we need
is "right there,"
right here,
right now.

We are born with what we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
here/now.

And, we will not be abandoned
and left bereft. 

So, what's with all the empty eyes
and the woe-be-gone appearances?
They all belong to those who 
want more than they have any business having
and are eternally displeased
with things as they are.

All of the addictions
have their foundation
in attitudes that don't like
what they have to work with
and how things are.

In light of them,
I give you the fictional character Tevya
(from "The Fiddler on the Roof")
and the real life example of Helen Keller.
And I repeat:
We are born with what we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done.

All we are lacking is Anne Sullivan.

In her place we get Jimmy Swaggart
and Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, etc.
And the world is as it is 
because of the guides we embrace
and the ones we ignore--
and the responses we make
to the world as it is.

And what I have to offer
in response to that
are the right kinds 
of emptiness, stillness and silence.

The turn-a-round starts with taking stock,
with seeing the truth of how things are,
and offering,
"Okay, now what?"
to the emptiness, stillness and silence,
and waiting for what stirs to life,
arises,
emerges,
appears,
occurs to us
from within.

Without the equivalent of Anne Sullivan,
we turn to ourselves
and say, "Okay, let's see what we can do
about this."

And see what we can find within
our own original nature
and the virtues/characteristics
that come with us from the womb
to do what needs to be done
with what we have to work with here/now.

Which may have nothing to do 
with what we want.

The ability to do what needs to be done
regardless of what we want
is all that separates Adam and Eve in Eden
from Jesus in Gethsemane.

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Believe whatever it takes
in order to do the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
in the right way
in each situation as it arises
all your life long
no matter what it means
for you personally.

That's what Jesus did,
and that's what Jesus calls us to do.

This nonsense about Jesus dying for us
so that we don't have to die
but can zip straight to Glory Land
when we die if we believe Jesus died for us, etc.,
completely denies and covers up
the truth of the significance of Jesus' death.

He died as an example to show us
what he had been talking about
all his life.

No one can die for us.
We each have to die for ourselves,
over and over again
until our actual, physical death.

This metaphorical dying is what Adam and Eve
(And all of us like them)
refused in the Garden of Eden,
in choosing to not do what they
most did not want to do,
and to do what they most wanted to do.

To not do what we most want to do,
and to do what we most do not want to do,
is like dying.
That is the death Jesus died
in the Garden of Gethsemane,
with his "Thy will, not mine be done."

That was him dying, again, metaphorically,
which, that time, meant dying actually, physically,
on the cross
which was arraigned by Joseph Caiaphas,
the High Priest of the Temple
during the life of Jesus,
with Pontius Pilate,
the Roman governor of Judea,
after Jesus turned over the tables 
of the money changers in the courtyard
of the Temple during the time of Passover.

Jesus knew the likelihood of that
in Gethsemane,
and died two deaths,
the metaphorical/symbolic death
of doing what was called for
that he most did not want to do,
and the actual/literal death on the cross.

Sometimes it works out that way,
but, usually, we just die metaphorically 
again and again until we actually die,
usually of natural causes.

This is also called "growing up."

Jesus' life and death were about growing up.
Doing what needs to be done--
doing what is called for--
in each situation as it arises
regardless of what it means
for us personally.

That was what Adam and Eve refused to do,
which lead to their "dying" long before
they were actually dead.

By refusing to "die," they "died."
Get it?

And "true life," "real life," "abundant life"
lies on the other side
of our metaphorical deaths.
Resurrection is about "rising to new life"
after every metaphorical "death."
Get it?

If you get it, good for you!
Now, go DO it!
Get it?

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