Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

04

Our life is uniquely equipped 
to lead us to the heart 
of what matters most.

The problem is 
that we have our own ideas
about what that is.

And our life has to get us
to abandon our idea
of what matters most
and to embrace our life's idea
of what matters most,
and live in the service of that
with all our heart.

This is the story of Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden,
and the story of Jesus of Nazareth
in the Garden of Gethsemane.

This is the story of humankind.
We live to know what is important
and live in light of it,
serving it with our life.

And we interfere with that process,
with the process of life,
by forcing our idea of what is important
on our life.

Ideally, we live to comprehend--
and pledge our liege loyalty to--
the meaning of:
"Thy will, not mine, be done!"
with "Thy" understood as
"The flow of life and being,"
or "The Mystery of Life and Being,"
or "What needs us to do 
what needs to be done
here and now."

It would help to have this 
explained to us at the start,
and to be reminded of it often.

Our life is not ours
to do with as we will!
We belong to our life
to do what it needs us to do!

This is the call of Destiny
to acquiesce to it's demands.

Everything rides on our response.

–0–

03

Consequences are the only teacher.
Experience is the experience of consequences.
Reflection on experience
leads to new realizations.
Realization takes the past
and constructs the future.
Yesterday's wrong
is tomorrow's right.
It takes getting it wrong
to get it right.
Doing it wrong
to do it right.

We learn to make really good
chicken noodle soup
by making a lot of very bad
chicken noodle soup
with our eyes open,
seeing what we look at,
reflecting on our errors
to the point of new realizations
and informed hypotheses
and additional experimentation
all the way to perfection.

We live boldly,
courageously,
toward doing it better,
toward getting it right.
Right Soup,
according to our taste,
exists "out there."
We only have to find our way to it,
and trust ourselves
to know it when we get there.

It is the same 
with every aspect of our life.

We are making soup constantly.
The idea is to make really good soup,
to live a really good life,
one mistake at a time.

We get it right
by getting it wrong
with our eyes open,
seeing what we look at,
reflecting on what our experience
is telling us,
to the point of new realizations
leading to different ways of doing things,
all the way to perfection.

Throw away all of the rule books,
all of the doctrines,
creeds,
theology,
and live with your eyes open
to what is happening
and what the consequences
have to tell you
about what you need to do differently
in light of what needs to be done
to make things as good as they can be
as assessed by the majority of people
evaluating your life over time.

–0–

02

Fraser Snowden said,
"The only true philosophical question is
'Where do you draw the line?'"

Where do you draw it?

Only you can draw the line
where you draw it.
Where do you think it goes?
Only you know that.

What keeps you from drawing the line
where you think it goes?
Get to the bottom of that question.

Who draws your lines for you?

When we stop drawing our own lines,
it is all over for us.

Joseph Campbell said it all comes down to
drawing our own lines.
To having the courage
to draw our own lines.

His exact words are:
"The aim of individuation requires
that one should find
and then learn to live out of
one's own center,
in control of one's own
for and against."

In control of where one 
draws the line.

That is what makes us human.
Drawing the line where we determine
it needs to be drawn!

Oh, and we have to be right about it!

That's the catch with being human.
We have to say so,
and not so,
and be right about it.

Being right about it 
is where philosophy comes in.
Who is to say
what is right and what is not?
We are, of course.
But. 
We have to be right about it.

This being right
is completely of the moment.
It is ephemeral,
mercurial, 
fleeting,
and gone like that (snaps fingers).

Jesus said "The Spirit 
is like the wind that blows where it will."
Which means not even the Spirit
knows what it will do next.
Which means nothing can be 
written down,
set in stone,
declared to be so for all ages to come.

There are no laws.
No laws of nature.
This is what science has discovered.
There are only hypotheses. 
Only best guesses.
Of the moment.
To be verified or refuted
in the next moment,
or one of the ones after that.

There is right.
And there is wrong.
Which can be determined
only later.
In the meantime,
we are left with drawing our lines
for the time being,
and redrawing them again,
and again,
in light of future revelations,
when we are better able
to know what we are doing,
knowing that we will never know
all we need to know
to know what we are doing.

"Sin boldly!"
Said Martin Luther.
"And believe more boldly
in the marvelous grace of God!"

We have to live boldly,
from our own center,
from our own for and against,
from our own yes and no--
and be right about it.
Which means knowing when we 
are wrong,
or have been wrong,
and making adjustments,
and re-drawing our lines
in light of the best information
currently available.

Believing in--
counting on--
grace all the way
to the end of the line,
knowing there is no end of the line,
as far as we can tell,
given the information 
currently available to us.

–0–

01

They want impunity and immunity.
They want a law that puts them forever
beyond the law.
A law that says they aren't liable,
which means they aren't responsible,
which means they can do whatever they like.

The top 1% I'm talking about.
Maybe the top 0.5%.
And also those aspiring to be
among the top 0.5%.

They want the Prince MBS Rule,
which says, "Anything Goes,"
applied to them.
Exclusively.

And they will do anything
for the privilege
of being able to do anything.

They all aspire 
to being who Donald Trump is.
Who aspires to be who MBS is.

Donald Trump will do anything
to remain in power.
Power is everything to Donald Trump
and to all of the people
who want to be just like him.

And power means making everyone
afraid to oppose you.
That is Donald Trump,
and MBS,
and all their doting legions.

Don't forget Mitch McConnell.
The Enabler in Chief.
When he says, "No Democrat bill
will ever pass!"
he is exercising the power
he envies and envisions for himself.

Total power.
Absolute power.
The power of God.

Republicans and their keeper/donors
want the power of God.
They want to be God.
They want God to be their toady. 

And they will do anything
to have what they want.

If we are going to stop them
it is going to be now.
Every eligible voter in Georgia
has to vote for the Democrats.
If they don't win,
it's over.

Why is this so hard to see? 

04

Martha Graham premiered Lamentation 
on January 8, 1930. 
You can participate in her dance here:


Hers was/is the only appropriate response 
to her times
and ours.

Metaphors express what words cannot say.
The most important things cannot be said.
The deepest things cannot be said.
The truest things cannot be said.

Yet we have lost the medium of metaphor.
We don't know symbols.
If it isn't a fact,
it isn't real.

What are the meaningful symbols
in your life?
In the life of the nation?

We live in the absence of symbols
like a fish lives out of water.
Without metaphors to speak to us,
and for us,
we are dead people walking,
not seeing,
not hearing,
not feeling,
not knowing...

Plodding through our life
going nowhere.

Oceans of tears exist
just on the other side of silence,
but we will not be that quiet.
Noise is our salvation.
Noise and addiction du jour.

We have to talk, talk, talk,
defend,
explain,
justify,
excuse...

Anything but be still and quiet,
listening,
looking,
because we might see and hear,
and never stop crying.

Let Martha Graham say
what we are experiencing,
without saying a thing.

–0–

03

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the Father 
of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.
His YouTube videos are not to be missed
(The shortest ones first)
in the work of establishing
ourselves in the practice of mindfulness.

But.

There is one thing he fails to stress
to my satisfaction:

Silence is the source of Good
and Noise is the source of Evil.

Blaise Pascal said,
“All of humanity's problems stem 
from (our) inability to sit quietly 
in a room alone.”

Being quiet
and paying attention
to the silence,
noticing what arises--
without engaging any of it,
but simply being aware of it,
and watching as one thing
is replaced by another,
with no apparent connection
and no inherent meaning,
and how your emotions
are aroused,
and how your body reacts physically,
to the thoughts that fly about
erratically,
haphazardly,
inexplicably...

And yet, the one thing they have in common
is you.

Watch for patterns to develop.
For themes to emerge.
For a story to take shape.

We do not think "just anything."
Our "monkey mind" is not swinging
wildly from tree to tree.
The chaos is ordered precisely,
and presents a clear picture
of how things stand with us
at this particular moment in our life.

Our mind is shouting,
"Listen! Look! 
This is how it is with you!
Pay attention to the apparent madness!
This is the mud
you must allow to settle,
so that the water can clear
and you can see what is interfering
with your ability 
to live your life as it needs to be lived,
moment-to-moment,
day-to-day!"

Being aware of the noise
in the silence
allows us to distance ourselves
from the turmoil
and just see, just know, just be
in the moment with it all
in our awareness.

Returning our attention to our breathing,
allows us to hold it all in awareness,
just watching,
just seeing,
just knowing,
just breathing...

And things shift.

Without our doing anything
beyond watching, seeing, knowing, breathing...

Wu-wei, as the Zen Taoists might say.

Make a regular routine
of sitting with the Silence,
and be amazed at how that simple act
transforms the way you live your life
over time.

–0–

02

We are the final authority
in all matters of faith and practice.
We are the one who says so.
We are responsible 
for all of our decisions and choices,
and the burden of our outcomes
remains ours alone to bear
throughout all eternity.

Our life is our responsibility.

Life is constantly throwing things at us--
and that is where we come in.
We respond to each thing as it comes,
and the way we do that 
is the teller that tells the tale.

No matter what happens to us,
we say what it means,
and we say what we do about it.

If we yield our position
and allow someone else to tell us what to do,
we choose to yield and to submit to the other.

Our choices and our actions are inescapable.
We carry the weight of having lived
up to this point,
and will carry it forward
from this point on.

We are the authority
by which our life is lived.

That being the case,
you might think we would 
be more diligent about
our approach to the moment at hand--
more aware,
more intentional,
more alert,
more awake,
completely present 
and accounted for--
and ready to deal with 
what is ours to manage
as only we can.

Instead,
we allow ourselves to be swept along 
by our circumstances,
with no idea 
of what is guiding 
our boat on its path
through the sea.

It is time 
we take up the work
of getting to the bottom of it--
and assert our authority
over what we do about
what is happening
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

Our life is what we do
in response to our circumstances.
What we do is our call to make.
Moment-by-moment-by-moment.
If we aren't making the call,
we are making it by default
in a "Not to decide is to decide"
kind of way.

We are Luke Skywalker
with the training helmet on,
having to learn what it means
to trust the Force,
which is also the Source,
which is also the Mystery 
at the Heart of Life and Being.

Moment-by-moment-by-moment.

How well we do it is dependent
on how intentional and aware
we are about what we are doing.

It is all up to us.
For better, for worse.
All our life long.

–0–

01

The Christ I am
wishes a Merry Christmas
to the Christ you are.

If the Christ is anything,
the Christ is iconoclastic to the core.
No theology!
No doctrine!
No ideology!
No creeds!
Just being right about what is important,
and seeing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises--
doing it without considering
our advantage,
or what we stand to gain or lose,
with no interest in the outcome,
just giving the best we have to offer
to the true good of the moment,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.

Of course, 
the outcome of this moment,
will set up the next moment,
where we will again offer what is needed,
so that our work is never done,
which always gives us something to do,
so what's the problem?

Well, one problem is being right
about what is important.
We get better at that over time,
bringing our experience into play 
with our imagination,
and our intuition,
and our instincts,
and our sense of what's what,
but throughout time,
consequences remain our only teacher,
and we are always learning what is important,
and getting better at reading situations,
and having less at stake
in what is happening,
and becoming more aware of ourselves
responding to what is going on,
and what's pushing our buttons,
and yanking our chains,
and engaging our complexes,
as we work things out slowly
over time,
reflecting continually
in the service of new realizations
and an increasingly better alignment
with the Tao,
and a deepening accordance/resonance
with the Mystery at the heart of Life and Being
throughout our life.

The Christ is always becoming The Christ--
and we are always 
incarnating/embodying/expressing/exhibiting
the Christ in all that we do.

And my Christ wishes your Christ
the merriest of Christmases 
with good faith
and courage for the journey
through all that is before us
all along the Way!