Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Where do you find what is helpful?
Where do you find what you need
to help you along life's way?

You are here, and that leads me to suppose
you find this "place" to be helpful--
unless this is your first visit
and we will have to wait to see
how helpful you think it is.

I hope it is helpful--
I fully intend it to be so,
offering, as I do, what is helpful to me,
both in offering it,
and in contemplating what it means
to be helpful
as a part of "a well-considered life,"
which is, I take it,
the only kind of life worth out time.

And knowing what is helpful
and where to find it,
and returning there often,
certainly has its place
in a well-considered life!

–0–

I observe the 1 year old Great Granddaughter
at lunch in local restaurants twice a week.
She is incredibly attentive and curious,
looking intently at everything and everyone,
lifting the table cloth
to see what is underneath,
trying everything that is offered 
to her to eat,
and reaching a hand into her mouth
to retrieve and hurl to the floor
anything that doesn't meet her idea
of tasty.

That is who she is.
We are all who we are.
From the womb! 

No one comes into the world
as an empty slate!
No one needs to be "taught" 
who/how to be!

The Montessori approach
regarding assisting the coming forth
of what is there
instead of trying to force into being
that which truly ought not be,
is so to be preferred
over what has long passed
for "training the child
in the way they should to"--
as though we know what that is!

Let them take the lead!
They come into the world
knowing more about who they are
and how they are built to be
than we know about them.

Keep them safe and let them live their life!
And allow ourselves to live OUR life,
while we are at it!

–0–

Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner
wrote Teaching As A Subversive Activity,
but it could have been entitled,
"Living As A Subversive Activity,"
because it is up to all of us
to "subvert attitudes, beliefs and assumptions
that foster chaos and uselessness"
(Their words in their book).

They say, "(Students) are almost never required
to make observations, formulate definitions,
or perform any intellectual operations
that go beyond repeating what someone else says is true."

That is everywhere we go. 
The "church," for instance,
is grounded on "what someone else says is true."

They say, "Knowledge is produced in response to questions.
And new knowledge results from the asking of new questions,
quite often new questions about old questions."

They say, Once you have learned how to ask questions--
relevant and appropriate and substantial questions--
you have learned how to learn,
and no one can keep you from learning
what you need to know."

And, "The most important intellectual ability
we have yet developed--the art and science
of asking questions--is not taught in school!"

And, "What's worth knowing?" More than how to find out
what you need to know when you need to know it?

And, "The art and science of asking questions
is the source of all knowledge."

Where are questions encouraged in your life,
particularly the right kind of questions?
The kind of questions that question the validity
of "final answers" across the board?

How many questions do you ask in a day?
Particularly questions like,
"Who says so?"
"How do they know?"
"What is it good for?"
"What/how does that help us do that needs to be done?"

The more questions we ask--
and the better our questions become--
the better our life gets,
and the better our future becomes.

Start every day with, "What makes you think so?"
And see where it goes.

–0–

Something always wants to be heard.
Something always has something to say.
When do we ever get to just be here, now,
sitting still,
touching the ground
like the Buddha under the Bo Tree
grounding himself here, now--
being here/now forever?

Standing with the sunflowers
with nothing better to do
than be here/now forever?

Moving between this now
and the next now
with nothing better to do
that move between now's
here/now forever?

Listening to what wants to be heard,
doing what needs to be done,
here/now
as those who have nothing better to do
here/now forever?

–0–

Meaning is ascribed, assigned, imposed.

We are told what is meaningful.

Religion consists of believing 
what someone else 
has said to be so.

So does education.

The clergy, the teachers, 
give to the laity, the students, 
meanings that have been ascribed and assigned 
to statements by other clergy-types/teachers through the ages.

No clergy-type/teacher ever asks a lay person/student 
about the truth of their own experience. 

The lay-person/student is required 
to dismiss/discount/ignore their own experience 
and to embrace/believe 
what they are told to experience 
by the clergy/teachers. 

In all of this, our individual intuition,
our balance and harmony,
our original nature
and our inherent/innate virtues/virtuosities
(The things we do best
and enjoy/love doing most 
are discounted,
dismissed,
ignored,
and we are required to live entirely
out of a Left-brained, logical, rational orientation.

We are never told/taught/enabled
to reflect/meditate/consider/contemplate
on something/anything to the point of new realizations.

We are never invited to question anything,
to wonder about what's worth knowing/asking,
to explore the validity of various points of view,
to investigate where the lines might lie
between opinion, belief and conviction,
and where imagination comes into play
in our consideration of truth,
or where meaning comes from,
and who says so,
and how they come to know so... 

We are told to take what we are told
on faith
and to not ask questions.

Do you see how empty all of this is?

And the entire world is run
on the assumptions/presumptions
that this is the way 
to run the world.

It is no wonder that the cultures
of the world
are based on escape and denial,
and that all that really matters
are drugs, sex, alcohol and money.

–0–

Beauty is all around us much of the time.
Our place is to make ourselves available to it.
To be present with what is present with us.

Ann Weiser Cornell says that "In Presence,
we are listeners. In Presence we can listen 
with interest and acceptance to whatever arises."
Without taking sides or forcing outcomes.

It works well with everything,
as a general life attitude.

The warmth of friendly presence in our life
opens us to all things,
especially beauty.

And we stop walking past beauty unseeing,
and start slowing down.
Paying attention.
Listening.
Looking.
Seeing.
Hearing.

And that changes everything.

–0–

When we take something on faith
we are enfolding it into our imagination.

We are saying "I am going to imagine this to be so--
pretend this to be so--
because I want it to be so.
And I am going to tell myself that it is so,
whether it is or not.

"Since you can't prove to me that it isn't so,
I am going to imagine that it is so,
because it gives me such comfort to do so."

People all over the world throughout time
have lived in imaginary worlds
because reality would be too stark and painful
for them to bear straight up,
just as it is.

They take it on faith that the world
is the way they want the world to be,
and take as much comfort in that being the case
as they would if it actually were so.

The trouble with that is their make believe world
requires them to treat people who do not share
their conviction
in ways that are outlandish and inhuman.

They have burned people at the stake,
hung people by the neck until dead,
drowned people as witches,
shunned people,
exiled people,
tortured people without mercy or end,
all because their imagination
told them that doing so was God's will.

When I shave my head
it is going to be in renunciation and protest.

–0–

I can't wait to be really old,
things are getting more interesting 
by the day.

The post previous to this one
is listed as "April 31, 2024."
As though there are 31 days in April.
Made perfect sense to me.
Yesterday.

The more Right-brained I get,
the less Left-brained I become,
and living Right-brained
in a Left-brain world
is no way to get around.

So, I'm back to having to pay attention,
yet the Left-brained world is so boring!
If you don't see the problem,
just keep breathing.
And think of growing old
as becoming increasingly Right-brained.
Even against our will.

Do you see the old woman
or the young maiden?

Keep looking until you see both,
and how you can't see both
at the same time.

You can only see one at a time,
and know about the other one,
switching back and forth eternally.

Life is that way.

We look and see one thing.

We look again and see another thing.

Death is where we see all things as one thing.
We wake up in death
and see how wrong we were.
And where we were right.
And why in the hell 
did we have to kill those people
we thought were wrong?

All the wars and the genocides
are wrong killing right
in the name of right killing wrong.

We think the Wailing Wall on this side of death
is something.
Wait until you see the Wailing Wall
on the dead side of death!
All those people Wailing through forever
because they were wrong, wrong, wrong.

Actually, it won't be that way.
It will be more like,
"Oops. We were wrong about that one.
Oh, well."
As we make the shift over
into being right finally, at last, forever.

What would eternal punishment achieve?
That's the stupidest idea in the encyclopedia
of ideas.

And, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, never mind.

There is only waking up and knowing 
what's what.
And living as though it is.

Death is where we all wake up.
Consciousness is coming for us all.
Woke is going to get us in the end!
I can't wait for the Laughing, I Told You So Wall! 

Death is where we all wake up,
get it right finally at last,
and live laughing together through eternity.

I may be wrong about that,
but it is a fine idea.
It will be such a shame 
if it is wrong.
Oh, well then.
I'll just regret it forever.

What does thinking about 
what we think about
keep us from thinking about?

We tend to repeat the same conversations
week after week.

When is the last time we had a new idea?
A realization?

What can you imagine doing
that would make you accessible
to your imagination?

If you were to have a conversation
with me in your mind,
what would we talk about?

Imagine the visit.
What would you say, 
How would I reply?

The simple exercise/experience
if an imagined conversation
is an always available opening
to new realizations.

You'll find yourself saying things
you would never think you would say.
And whenever the person you are talking to
says something,
it is something you say they will say,
and that will likely be surprising as well.

And the conversation will take turns
you would never say you would say.
We generate the words but say things
we are stunned to hear.

How does THAT work?

We are a mystery of endless depth,
brilliantly amazing at every turn,
and we think we are so boring 
no one would ever want to talk to us.

Take yourself out of lock-down
and watch yourself fly!

–0–

No matter how we cut it,
look at it,
size it up,
think about it,
perceive it,
etc.,
it comes down to being
immovably stuck in the Julie Andrews Dichotomy. 

As Mary Poppins it is,
"Anything can happen if you let it!"

As Maria von Trapp it is,
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
"How do you keep a wave upon the sand?"
"How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?"
"How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?"

Which way is it?

How would Mary Poppins
solve a problem like Maria?
By letting it be, no doubt!
By changing her mind about "the problem,"
so that it becomes "no problem at all."

Only Mary Poppins could be
so grown-up!
As to let things be what they are!
Until, as circumstances beget circumstances,
they become entirely different in time,
and we wonder why/how 
we ever thought they were problems at all!

In waiting it out
we change ourselves.
"Acquiescence, accommodation, compromise, Kid.
Acquiescence, accommodation, compromise."

Growing up is the solution 
to all of our problems today, any day. 

–0–

We are never more than 
a slight perspective shift away
from having it made.

Changing our mind about what is important
is all it takes.

Reflecting on our motives for not doing that
until we come to new realizations
is the only thing standing between us
and "a new world, Golda, a brand new world."

That is not asking too much.

–0–