Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Growing up
is shifting our perspective
examining our perceptions,
evaluating what's important
and changing our mind
about a lot of things.

When was the last time 
you changed your mind
about what's important?

If being alive doesn't do that for you,
try being alive with your eyes open.

Enlightenment is nothing more
than seeing what's what
and changing our mind about what matters most--
and allowing the implications of that
to impact our life as they will.

Growing up.

Enlightenment is growing up.

And changing the way we live
to reflect the life
that is ours to live
in doing what is called for
at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way,
and being good for nothing--
not morally/ethically/puritanically good,
but good for what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
no matter what.

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Having faith is having an opinion
and believing in it.

I have faith in the Cajun Queen's
(A restaurant in Charlotte, NC)
ability to deliver a plate
of crawfish etouffee to perfection.
In other words,
in my opinion the crawfish etouffee
at the Cajun Queen is perfect.

Faith is always in an opinion,
if it were in a fact,
it wouldn't be faith.
It would be recognition
of the correctness of the fact.

We don't have faith in gravity,
and we know when the tide goes out
it will come back in.
We don't have faith in the tidal charts.
We know they are valid 
and can be counted on.

And we really cannot say that we love God
when God will send us to hell
if we don't love God.
And we really cannot say that God loves us
(unconditionally, it is usually said),
if God will send us to hell if we don't love God
(That is a big condition).

Having faith is holding opinions 
that are founded on other peoples' opinions.
It is a circle that can be maintained
only by saying "If you believe it,
your experience will confirm that it is so."

Astrology, horoscopes, black magic and superstitions
are grounded on the same declaration. 
Believing makes it so.

But, the people who believe
have to believe
because they believe 
that without faith in their opinion,
there is nothing to hold them up,
provide a moral base for their life
and give them a reason for living.
They are afraid to not believe
what they believe.

I say they need to test their faith
in believing
by seeing what else they could believe
that would provide them 
with a foundation for life.

Why do they take on faith what they take on faith
and not something else instead?

For instance, in my opinion
it matters how we live.
I have faith in my opinion,
and am validated by the millions of people
who share my faith through the ages.

I believe it matters how we live
and I have a "plan of salvation,"
if you will,
for putting that into effect,
which has also been in existence
from more than 1,000 years BCE
(The Buddha lived from 563 to 483 +/- BCE,
and Taoism was going around 1,000 BCE,
and Yoga and Hinduism existed before that).

It comes down to doing the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
and in the right way,
no matter what--
with no personal gain in mind.
Just doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
in each situation as it arises.

That is as solid a foundation for life
as there is,
without having to have an elaborate structure
of doctrines and theology 
to hold it in place.

We all have to have some grounding,
guiding,
orienting,
comforting,
consoling
opinion to help us along the way.

What's yours?

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Rodney King's question,
"Why can't we just get along?"
remains unanswered
as an unacknowledged burden
of every generation,
and will remain so
as long as there are
"People like you
who make people like me
hate people like you."

Because you are black,
or Mexican,
or gay,
or poor,
or ...
whatever it is 
that somebody likes to hate.

If you want to fix something,
fix that.

There is no fix for any of the
important things.
Like the way we see things,
and the way we feel
about the things we see,
and what we do
about the way we feel...

And the fascists keep things boiling
with their
"Why can't I hate you if I want to?"

Jesus and the Buddha
throw up their hands
and walk on to the next town,
hoping to find an audiance
who can hear what they have to say--
because they cannot change minds
that need to be changed,
which is all enlightenment
and realization are about.

Changing only the minds 
that can be changed
leaves unchanged a massive sea of minds
churning,
heaving,
seething,
rolling through the ages
as the unrestrained backwash
of civilization's best efforts
to just get along.

What to do about that
leaves us looking for ways
of securing the cooperation
of people who delight in being
uncooperative all their life long.

The Huns, Goths, Vandals and Vikings
were there when Pax Romana was no more.

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We cannot come to ourselves
without leaving the culture behind.

The return to Eden meant death 
to those entering the Land of Promise.
That would be the death Jesus died
before his death on the cross--
the metaphorical/symbolic death
in Gethsemane,
with "Thy will, not mine, be done."

We, like Jesus, have to die
to all that stands between us and Eden,
home, the Promised Land,
oneness with That Which Has Always Been Called God.

The exit from Eden leads to Gethsemane,
which is the doorway back to Eden.
Living to ourselves
means dying to the culture--
to all the culture proclaims to be important,
to all the things Adam and Eve thought 
they were getting when they left Eden.

We have to die to all of that
in going back to Eden.

Start by cutting off your TV.
Engaging emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
Finding the balance point
among all aspects of life,
and living there,
bearing the pain
of the contradictions
and the bliss of the harmonies
and the rhapsodies.

Making the trade-offs,
saying "No!" 
to what needs to be "No!"
and saying "Yes!"
to what needs to be "Yes!"
no matter what
all our life long.

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