Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

We help each other the most,
I think,
just by keeping one another going.

An encouraging presence.
Listening to the other's stories. 
Sharing a meal.
Helping to bear a burden. 
A kind word.
A soft, safe, place to be...

Carry on, carry on,
we can do this. 

Being what the situation calls for,
reliably,
dependably,
over time.

Not much to it.
Anybody can do it.
Helping Sisyphus with his work
rolling that ball
up this hill,
then down on the other side.

Woops! Lookit! There's another hill!
Who would'a thought it.
Let's do it again!

Helping and being helped,
one hill--
one sunrise--
at a time.

We can do this!
Let's go!

We do not shape the world/life 
to suit ourselves.
We shape ourselves
to fit what is called for in the world/life.

The world/Life asks certain things of us,
we negotiate how much for the world/life,
how much for us,
but it is very much a negotiated settlement
and not something we can insist/demand/require
of the world and of life,
that they serve us and keep us happy.

Each situation as it arises
asks things of us.
What do we say no to?
What do we say yes to?

We have to be aware of our yes's and no's.
Of where we are pushing/forcing our way,
of where we are refusing to cooperate
with what is being asked of us,
of how we are negotiating our way
through the world/life.

We get up and face the day--
and then what?

We have to pay attention
to the "Then what?"

What is asked of us?
What demands are we making?
How aware can we be
of the situation as it is arising?

Of each situation as they all arise?
Toward what are we living in each one?
It only takes looking/listening
to see/hear.

Monitor the amount of emotion
in your tone of voice
as an indicator of the degree
of emotional reactivity in your life. 

Aim at neutral living
from the center
of all bell-shaped curves.

We can't live from the center
without being grounded in neutral
with our emotional responses to life.

The image of a spiritual master
screaming at their life
suggests one who is neither spiritual
nor a master of anything.

See if you can tell what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

NOT what you want to happen in the situation!

What the situation itself is calling for. 

Live to know what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

Practice, practice, practice
knowing what is called for 
in each situation as it arises. 

When you watch movies,
read novels, 
ask yourself constantly,
"What is called for here, now?"
"What does this situation call for?"
"What are the characters missing
about what is called for?"

Knowing what is called for
when and where and how
is the missing element
in human relations around the world.

We can begin to remedy the situation
by paying attention to what is called for
situation by situation,
beginning with the next situation
that comes our way.

When the New Testament writer (Maybe Paul)
said, "Christ is all and in all,"
he was saying, "God is all and in all."
Which is saying, "God is all there is--
so what's the point of all the divisions
and discord?"

"How can God be at God's throat?"

Look around.
There is nothing but war, contention, strife...

on all sides.

God at war with God.

This is ridiculous.
God becoming conscious hates God.
Humans becoming conscious hate humans.
What is one thing consciousness is good for?

I'll wait.

And, while I wait, 
I will drop back into emptiness, stillness and silence.
The Buddha's answer to everything.

"Just sit! It will all pass."

Or, "Denial is the solution to all our problems today."

Maybe the one thing consciousness is good for:
Unconsciousness!

Knowing what is called for--
and doing it--
is all there is to it
in each situation as it arises.

Never mind what you want,
or what is in your best interest,
or what you "ought to do."

What is called for here, now?

That is all you need to know.

And do.

Forever.

Think of all that is arrayed against
knowing what is called for and doing it.
That should tell you something--
like what a threat doing what is called for
is to the way things are
around the world
throughout time.

The way things are suits a lot of people
just fine.

A lot of people 
have a lot at stake
in maintaining the status quo
just as it is 
forever.

If we start doing what is called for
they will lose their minds.

The Mafia, for instance,
would be out of business over night.

Do you see what I am saying?

Are you with me or not? 

Our circumstances can sweep us away.
We have to be focused on--
and grounded in--
our intrinsic intuition
and the here, now and what is being called for
moment-to-moment
in each situation as it arises.

The focus and ground of our life
has to be on our intuition 
and what is called for
right here, right now.

What we want,
where we want to be,
and what is going to happen tomorrow
and what are we going to do then, etc.
cannot enter the picture.

Everything else has to wait
for us to consult our intuition
and determine the best response to make
to what is called for right here, right now.

That is the procedure for dealing with
every here, now that comes along
for the rest of time.

What is called for right here, right now?
Do that.
And then we will deal with what's after that.

The words that greet me in the night:
Atrocity
Outrage
Obscenity
Disgrace
Justice/Injustice
Inhumanity
Absurdity
Truth/Lie
Racism
Bigotry
Brutality
...

I am a witness to it all,
and that makes me a participant--
as in "Compliance with violence
is an accessory to violence."
And a victim--
as in, "A witness to violence
is a victim of violence."

And there is no escape.
Just as there is no justice.
No amends.
No compensation.
No restitution.
No atonement.
No restoration.
No escape.

What are we going to do?
Apologize?

That would be a start.
Public apology. 
Annually.
A national holiday for mourning.
Grief.
Sorrow.
Remorse.

A Victim's Rights Month.
Highlighting all the victims 
all month long.

I suggest May.
As in "May I just say I'm sorry?
Still, even yet, again."

Being true to our inherent intuition
Is laying aside our wants/desires/pleasures/dreams
in the service of our intuition's ideas
of what is called for 
in each situation as it arises.

The guiding question is never,
"What do we want?"
And is always,
"What is called for here, now?"

Knowing what is called for 
and living to do it
when/where/how it needs to be done
time after time
is the sine qua non of a life well-lived.

No one can do better than that.

The way we respond
to events and cirumstances
determines--
or strongly influences--
everything that follows.

We create the future
by the way we respond to the present.

And living willfully, 
defiantly,
demanding and insistent 
is not the way to produce
the kind of results
we have in mind.

The way to experience smooth and easy
is to be smooth and easy,
open and receptive,
with nothing to gain
and nothing to lose
in each situation as it arises.

Living with nothing at stake
in the outcome
allows us to do what is called for
here and now
free from the influence of what we want
"no matter what."

Doing what is called for
by the situation at hand
is the foundation of a future
we all can live with.

All it takes is relentless courage
to discover that this is so.

Indigenous peoples have it right
throughout time.
Colonizers destroy the world.
World after world after world...

The difference is living in sync
with the environment
and living to consume the environment.

And the flip is made
when the population grows
beyond the ability of the environment
to meet the needs of the population.

Humans are intelligent enough
to avoid dying off
by killing off one another.
Becoming so proficient at it
that they kill off themselves
by being so successful
killing off others.

It's a fine balance,
which nature finds
through natural die-offs.
And humans haven't been able
to improve on the solution,
and trying to impose their "solution"
leads to the kill-off of life worldwide.

So much for the survival of the fittest idea.
The survival of the most stupid is more like it.
In the end,
protoplasm outlasts everything.

I wonder how we are ever going to make this right.
This world I'm talking about.
Greed, money and power wield tight control.
Caring nothing about what they do
in an "If a profit can be made,
a profit will be made" kind of way.

I think the only solution to the situation
is to let it burn itself out,
destroying civilization as it exists, 
maybe by way of environmental disaster,
maybe by way of atomic holocaust,
and maybe by way of world-wide economic collapse.

However we choose to exit the playing field,
it will open the way for nature to take over
and restore order and common sense 
to the way things work.

A break from greed and chaos will be welcomed
by all living things.
And it can't happen too soon
or last long enough.

And all the natural world said, "Amen!"