Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

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–

The new religion
is reading the circumstances
as they unfold about us,
knowing what is called for
and responding out of our original nature
and the virtues/characteristics 
packed into our DNA,
perfecting our response patterns over time
and learning to trust ourselves 
to know what to do when, where and how
out of our body of experience
and our physical body of inner capabilities.

Paying attention to the here/now
and to ourselves paying attention to the here/now
is the path to seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/being.

No theology, 
no doctrine,
no dogma,
no catechisms,
no Bible...
Just seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/being. 

We get better at it with time,
and begin to enjoy it,
and look forward to it.

The adventure of being alive!

Not striving to force our way
onto the situation--
just seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/being.

And letting the outcome become merely
the next situation 
in which we see/hear/know/do/be.

It is a game,
a dance,
a joy,
a delight,
matching up with the circumstances
and playing our hearts out,
time after time.

This is the new religion of being alive!

–0–

Sin gets all the press.
Who wants to be penned up in heaven
for eternity
with a vindictive and easily angered God
who is insistent on everything 
going his way?

We need a different narrative.

Theology is the origin
of all our trouble today/any day.

Theology, doctrine and dogma
are enraptured with a story
as old as the species.

"We have pissed God off
and he is out to get us 
if we don't make him happy quick!"

The priests cooked all this up
and were good at fooling most of the people
all of the time.

Different priests carried the theme
with different spins 
throughout history,
but it's all about making God happy.

Keeping the people busy doing penitence
and making offerings 
kept the priests in business
and kept the people from exploring
the deeper side of themselves.

"Don't go there," 
they were told.
"It's all evil and dark in there!
The Devil lives in the darkness!
Stay out! Stay away!"

The old Taoists laughed
and said, "Circumstances are all there is
and ever has been.
Circumstances creating circumstances,
producing momentum and chaos,
disrupting harmony and flow--
just strive for balance,
and align your nature and virtues
with the drift of life 
and circumstances
to restore peace and serve resonance
within and without.
Nothing to it."

The priests started losing market share
and said, "Out with the Taoists!
They are making God angry!"
And here we are.

–0–

We are here, in part,
to find out what we are good for,
to discover what we can do--
to explore ourselves,
our original nature,
our innate virtues/abilities/traits/qualities/
specialties/strengths,
who we are,
what we are about,
where we fit in,
where we belong,
what is ours to do,
and do it.

The "stages of development"
serve to call us forth.

Just as "it took the cyclops
to bring out the hero in Ulysses"
(Joseph Campbell),
so it takes our life 
to bring out who we are capable of being
at every point in our life.

The circumstances of our life
are delivery rooms,
birthing us at every stage along the way.

Everyone grows up against their will.
Babies come protesting from the womb
throughout their life.

It is the way.

We find out who we are built to be
by "getting in there and doing our thing,
and allowing that to show us who we are"
(The Bhagavad Gita).

This is the adventure of being alive!

–0–

Our life is lived between
"How much can we get by with?"
and "How much can we take/bear/stand/tolerate?"

Somewhere between those two poles,
optimal lies.

If we had some way of knowing,
"This is it.
It isn't going to get any better.
Enjoy it while you can."
That would take the pressure off
of trying endlessly to achieve/acquire/get/have
more/better/now.

That isn't going to happen.

Optimal exists,
but we don't know when or where,
thus, the life-long struggle
in the futile effort for more/better/now.

Or, we could opt for "good enough,"
and settle in with what we have
at any point along the way.

–0–

Knowing who we are
and aligning ourselves with who we are,
living out of who we are
in each situation as it arises
means noticing/knowing 
what we like and don't like,
what brings us to life
and what robs us of life,
what is "us" and what is "not us,"
and so on, like that.

It means noticing/knowing 
what our original nature is and is not.

The old Myers/Briggs Personality Inventory
is one path to figuring some things out
about ourselves.
An internet search will bring a lap full of options
directly to your laptop.

Knowing what our innate virtues/attributes/qualities/
talents/specialties are
is an excellent foundation
for knowing what we are best at
and what we had best leave alone
(You don't want me doing anything with numbers for you
or singing at your next wedding).

We are well-equipped to know
when and where to draw lines,
and to live within lines
that have been accurately drawn.

We live to know and serve who we are,
not to ignore and sacrifice who we are.
Our identity and authenticity
are a gyroscope enabling us to 
remain balanced,
on the beam
and in harmony with ourselves
through all the circumstances
and situations
life throws at us.

It starts with noticing and knowing 
what we know,
and honoring that with the way we live
through all that comes our way.

–0–

The truth is infinite, eternal, ever-lasing, now and forever.

Truth is the bed you slept in last night,
and the world you woke up to this morning--
and what needs to be done with it,
about it,
here/now.

–0–

Joseph Campbell was of the opinion that
"reflection leads to new realizations."

Reflection requires emptiness,
stillness,
silence.

Our life is grounded in,
surrounded by,
seems to require
noise,
complexity,
drama/trauma.

Regular retreats into solitude
are vision quests
into the inner world
that is vibrantly alive
and replete with everything 
we need to find what we need
to deal with what's happening now
and get up and do what needs to be done
about it
in each situation as it arises
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

"A word to the wise is unnecessary." 

–0–