Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

We invented God as the source/reason for all that is--
taking more pleasure in that
than in declaring "There is no source for all that is,
and no purpose to be found in any of it!"

Why not, "Here we are, now what?"

Why not be happy with,
"There is no purpose
beyond doing the best we can
with what we have to work with
in the service of the best we can imagine,
for the joy of doing it
and the gladness/satisfaction
of having done it"?

"There is no controlling any of it!
There is only doing our best 
in response to all of it!"

Why not just settle down with that
and enjoy what can be enjoyed?

No pantheons. 
No theology.
No doctrine.
No dogma.
No heaven.
No hell.
Just meeting the day
on the day's terms
and doing the best we can with it
in the service of the best we can imagine,
for the joy of doing it 
and the gladness/satisfaction 
of having done it
in each situation as it arises.

We all have what we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
here and now
for as long as life lasts.

And, that is all there ever has been
to it.

–0–

We have had the Hero Talk before,
and we will have it again,
because it is central
to being centered in/grounded upon
what matters most.

We see what matters most reflected in our heroes. 
Who are your heroes, 
fictional and actual?

It is telling, for me,
that I have no actual male heroes,
and no fictional female heroes.

My fictional male heroes are
Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird,"
and Tevya in "Fiddler on the Roof."

My actual female heroes are, in no order,
Betty White,
Helen Keller,
Eleanor Roosevelt
Dolly Parton.

I love the Tevya character,
and agonized over how he would make it
after stepping off the boat in New York,
then realized that he would make it just fine,
simply by being Tevya.

This is how all of our heroes are.
They are invincible to the degree
that they are who they are.

Betty White was always just fine
as long as she was being Betty White.
And Helen Keller,
and all the rest.

Being who we are is our solution
to all of our problems today,
any day
every day.

The trick is to be consciously connected
with our center, our ground, our core,
and live out of that--
being true to our own character--
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

It takes being quiet to connect with the core.

Regularly. Routinely. Religiously.

People who make a religion out of being quiet
are grounded in the truth of themselves,
and have nothing to worry about--
they just turn everything over to themselves,
and stand up and step into whatever is next.

–0–

The only thing that separates us 
is our view of what is important. 

If we all placed the emphasis in the same place, 
we would all be one—
the same one. 

It isn’t just that we see things differently, 
from different points of view, 
from different vantage points, 
from different perspectives
from different times and places 
in the universe. 

It is that we ascribe value, 
assign meaning differently. 

We declare different things to be important, 
and unimportant. 
Our differences are differences in ways points of view.
From different vantage points,
say, the difference between two years old
and seventy-two years old,
we see more together 
than any of us can see alone.

Don't live for agreement.
Live for appreciation
and gratitude
for different points of view.

–0–

My Son-in-law Lee asked an AI bot
to explain the Tao to a six-year-old.
Here is the reply:

"Do you know what the Tao is? 
It is a word that means the way of nature. 
The way of nature is 
how everything in the world 
works together in harmony. 

The Tao is not something 
you can see or touch, 
but you can feel it in your heart. 

The Tao is like a river 
that flows through everything, 
and you are part of the river too. 

The Tao teaches us to be kind, 
humble, and peaceful, 
and to follow the natural flow of life. 

The Tao is not a religion or a rule, 
but a guide for living well."

I find this to be "transparent to transcendence,"
with "transcendence" and "tao" being the same thing.

–0–

I call this "High Mountain Lake Sunset,"
and see it as eternal and everlasting.

I created it by playing with shapes and colors,
allowing it to create itself
by showing me what it wanted to be.

All art forms itself that way,
through a "dear and glorious communion"
with some recipient of its need to be
shaped and formed into a specific shape and form
that only it foresees and serves.

For what? For the joy of it, of course.
The sheer delight of making something from nothing.
And the satisfaction of having done it.

This is what we are all about.
We work with our life,
only sensing its shape and form,
and serving our vision of what it needs to be,
is striving to become through us
by us being us to the best of our ability
at any/every point in time and place
while the opportunity lasts.

I woke up this morning thinking 
of two African/American spirituals.
"All my trials, Lord, soon be over,"
"I'm gonna lay down my burdens,
down by the riverside."

And that connected me to the "centering vision"
which came to me as a Big Dream
all those years ago.

I was told by three members of the Circle of Shamans
that I wasn't accepted as a member of the Circle.
They were an old man, who delivered the decision,
a young, warrior-Shaman, who was glad 
I didn't make the cut,
and I would never be one with him,
and middle-aged woman who was sad for me,
but resigned to serve the will of the Circle.

In the dream I was consoling her,
communing with her my understanding 
of the Circle's decision,
and agreeing with it myself,
knowing that I did not belong there,
being, as I am,
too much of a maverick, loner, unorthodox,
independent-minded person,
to exemplify any creed, or doctrine,
or way of doing things--
too much like the wind blowing where it will,
for what and why, it has no idea.

In less than six months,
I will step into my 80th year.
Out of those almost 80 years,
I have this to say to you:

Live the remainder of your days
out of your own integrity.
Be the work of art you are,
shaping and forming yourself
by what feels right,
by what you sense is using you
to bring itself forth,
like the wind that blows where it will,
for why and what, it does not care.

Just to be! Just to become!
Even now, even yet, even so!

Doing with your life as I did
with the colors and shapes
that became "High Mountain Lake Sunset,"
that became/is still becoming me,
eager to see what is to yet be/become
of all those trials that "soon be over,"
and all those burdens--
which themselves are tools the artist works with
to bring ourselves forth,
being as we are,
in the words of Alexis Carrel,
"The marble and the sculptor."

('Man cannot remake himself without suffering, 
for he is both the marble and the sculptor')

Integrity demands/requires that we be who we are,
even as we live to discover what that is
by living our way to it
following our sense of "Yes" and "No"
"any way, nevertheless, even so"!

–0–

What kind of God is it 
that has to be taken on faith?

That has to be believed in
due to being apparently nowhere around?

One who is a complete fiction
created by the priests who are paid to function
as intermediaries excelling in 
talking people into seeing what isn't there!

As a viable alternative to that "God,"
I present to you: Transcendent Reality--
something everyone recognizes instantly
even though no one can say what it is,
and all are left with "Wow! Just WOW!"
as the only thing that can be--
or needs to be--said.

There is no--nor can there be--theology
of the Transcendent.
No doctrines.
No dogma.
No words.
Just seeing/feeling/sensing/knowing,
"As the Moved before the Mover."

Physical reality is grounded upon spiritual reality.
We call it "spiritual" because it has no material properties itself,
but is readily apparent through the material world
in the places and people who are "transparent to transcendence"
(Joseph Campbell)--
primarily through experiences with art, music, nature
and the right kind of conversation,
the right kind of company.

Indigenous peoples have always known the visible world
to be upheld by the invisible world,
and have always worshiped the "cracks," 
the "thin places" (Parker Palmer)
where the invisible world shines through--
places that are "transparent to transcendence."

Human beings are as close to transcendent reality
as the physical world gets
by virtue of our ability to know the unknowable
and exhibit in our way with each other--
in our company--in our conversation--
"the imminence of transcendence"
by living, as the old Taoists would say,
"aligned with the Tao,"
"at one with the flow of life and being,"
balancing and harmonizing Yin and Yang,
physical and spiritual
visible and invisible
in the way we conduct ourselves
in each situation as it arises
to make apparent what is always real
and always "right there"
but not always evident
because of "the noise of the 10,000 things."

We mediate the invisible within the visible
when we are "at our best,"
and live as "the Christ--the anointed one,"
entrusted with the task of Hermes, 
the messenger of the Gods,
living as those who are "transparent to transcendence"
in the ordinary times and places of existence.

Transforming the experience of the moment,
of the here and now,
everywhere we go.

May we all live so as to make it so!

–0–

We have to know what is holy to us,
what is sacred,
what we owe fealty to
and honor with filial devotion,
liege loyalty
and unwavering allegiance.

How long is your list?

Mornings and evenings are holy unto me.
And time.
Coffee.
Naps.
Writing.
Photography.
Reading.
Avoiding noise.
Looking out the window.
Maintaining my boundaries.
Emptiness, stillness and silence.
Being right about what needs to be done
and doing it when, where and how it needs to be done.
And not doing what does not need to be done.

–0–

The old Taoist masters knew
it comes down to,
flows from,
centers upon,
living from our original/
essential/
true/
eternal nature.

"What was the face
that was yours
before your grandparents were born?"

Why don't we know?
Why doesn't everyone know?

"Buddha Mind"
is any mind that knows who it is
and what it is about,
to the point where nothing can 
interfere with or prevent
it from being who it is,
doing what it has to do--
because it HAS to do it, in a
"I have no say in the matter.
It's the pirate's life for me, Gibbs.
Savvy?"
kind of way.

And we get there by seeing what we look at.
Hearing what we listen to.
Knowing what we know,
and have always known,
and doing what needs to be done about it
in each situation as it arises
all our life long
the way that is true to our original/
essential/
true/
eternal nature.

Savvy?

It all comes out of,
centers upon,
flows from
the right kind of emptiness,
stillness,
silence,
solitude--
living apart from,
untouched by,
noise,
complexity,
drama,
trauma.

All of which was so before 
the earliest Taoists/Buddhists/Yogis
knew it.

It is all there is to know--
and we keep having to find our way back to it,
generation after generation.

Because having our way
keeps getting in the way.

Leading us to forget about
the face that was ours before we were born.

–0–

I've written recently about the importance
of our own confession/repentance/atonement,
and there is another aspect of our sensitivity
to wrong that begs to be mentioned.

We are to bear witness of other people's refusal
to be truthful
and their failure to be good.

I'm speaking of the fascists among us.
The members of Congress,
the would-be-wanna-be next President of the United States,
the members of the Supreme Court,
the wealthy backers of Wrong Forever On The Throne,
the people who chant the slogans of the fascists,
who, themselves, are fascist to the core,
hating those who are different from their idea
of how people ought to be like them
so that the world would then be a safe place
for them to be.

We bear witness to them all
and attest to their rancid souls
and their careless way with words and deeds,
spewing their wrath and their spite,
their malice and their malignancy
unto all who are not like them,
and living to make them pay dearly for daring
to be as they are,
people of color, immigrants, destitute, homeless, gay,
female, disabled, with nothing in common
with the fascist supremacists except all of the things
that make us human 
and cry out to be honored and revered by us all. 

We bear witness to their rejection of our common duty
to be simply human to one another.

We see.
We hear.
We know who they are.
And we will not forget
or allow it to go unacknowledged.

–0–

Carl Jung said that a hermit
is a primitive person
who trusts their unconscious.

I would have used the term "Natural"
instead of "Primitive."

A natural person who trusts their unconscious
is a rare sight in any age.

And a natural person would naturally
trust their unconscious.
There is no other way.

Living naturally is expressing
in our life
the leading/guiding/directing influence
of the psyche, the unconscious.

Who we naturally are
is who we are apart from cultural influences,
social expectations,
religious instruction
and all of the rules to live by
that we have spent a lifetime learning
and applying.

We learn the rules governing behavior,
and then live beyond them
in sync with the Law of Sincerity and Spontaneity,
offering in the moment
exactly what is called for,
no matter what the culture and society may expect.

Jesus was called "a glutton and a winebibber,"
which was in those days the same as saying
that he was "beyond parental control."
Or that "no one can do anything with him."

He lived beyond culture and society and religion
in saying and doing what needed to be said and done,
and left that behind as a hermit's legacy
to all who would follow him
in responding to each situation as it arises,
and to each moment within each situation,
as it needs to be responded to,
regardless of what culture/society/religion
have to say.

We cannot live like that and care what our chances are,
but we do live like the spirit-wind,
blowing where it will.

–0–

What do you like to do?
What are the things you do best?
Could be crossword puzzles.
Or picture puzzles.
How long has it been since you've done 
the things you like to do
and the things you do best?

They are likely to be the same things.
Maybe not.
Tying my shoes is one thing I do best.
I do it every day.
Sometimes I like to do it.

I'm really good at a lot of things
I don't particularly enjoy doing.
But the two things belong to me,
separate me from you
and everyone else in the room/world,
set me apart,
make me me.
Bring me forth.
Wa-La.
Here I am.
There you are.

So do what you love to do,
and do what you do best,
and let those things take you
to who you are
and what is yours to do.

Trust them as one might trust
a faithful guide
through all of the circumstances of life.

Take your guidance and direction
from the things you love to do 
and the things you do best.

Give yourself to them
and see where they lead,
where they take you,
where you go in their service.

I love to write.
Look at me.
Here I am.
Doing what I love to do.

I love to take photos,
and to work with them and Photoshop.
Look at me.
Here I am.
Doing what I do best.
Showing off.
Having fun.

How long has it been
since you showed off?
Had fun?

Need I say more?

–0–

We all stand in need of atonement
which cannot be administered by another
or by faith of any kind,
but only by dying ourselves
the death that Adam and Eve had to die
to get back into Eden--
the death that has nothing to do with
one's last breath
and the cessation of mobility
and the coroner confirming our passing
with "I hereby declare thee DEAD!"

The kind of death that atones for 
all that we have done and failed to do
that requires atonement
is that called for by knowing full well
what we have/have not done
and bearing the full burden of our failure
to be who/what was needed in the moment of truth,
unable to say anything other 
than "I am the one."

We bear the weight of that confession
and walk with a limp
because of it
for the rest of our days.

We don't have a proper ceremony for confession
and admission of failure to be 
who we have been asked to be 
by our circumstances.

The pissy little prayers of confession
in the Liturgical Orders of the Lord's Day 
in Christian churches
are much too easily read
and much too quickly dismissed
with a flighty little "I declare to you
that we are forgiven!"

A wave of the hand
and a "There, now. That's done."
Helps no one.

I'm talking about the need for atonement
that goes beyond anything Jesus could do
with his death on the cross.
Even Jesus declared this to be so with his,
"If you would be my disciple,
pick up your own cross
and follow me,"
as he walked the path that led to Golgotha.

Everybody dies in that man's service,
as everybody must
in squaring ourselves up with who we are
and what we have done and left undone.

Need I mention what we did to native Americans?
Need I put before us slavery and the awful wrong 
that was and is still to this very day?
Need I bring homelessness to our attention?
Global Warming?
Hiroshima?
Nagasaki?
The US Japanese interment during WWII?
   
And the long list of all that is wrong about us
and the way we live,
and move,
and have our being--
including allowing ourselves to be relieved 
of the guilt of all these things
by a hand raised above us
and a declaration of forgiveness?

Death is the only thing that will do.
A metaphorical death.
A symbolic death.
Tears in the shower.
Eyes wide open through the night.
Knowing, knowing who we are.
What we have/have not done.
Confessing again and again,
"I, I am the one!"

With thankfully none to wave their hand
and glibly utter, "You are forgiven! Amen!"

–0–