Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

You know what the problem is?
We could call it the human problem. 
We are the problem.

We know what we want,
but we do not want know what we ought to want.

And even if we did,
we would not do what we ought to want.

Which is to say,
we would not do what we ought to do.

We would not care about
what we ought to care about.

And that is exactly why things are the way they are.

And that is only true of the conquistadors. 
Before colonization, the natives have things under control,
and things are operating exactly as they should,
with people doing what should be done.

But, you know how it is:
If a profit can be made,
a profit will be made,
and the world goes straight to hell--
"as straight as a martin to its gourd." 

We have lived to witness that truth
with our own eyes.

No?

The Things I don't know anything about
would fill the cosmos,
and do.

I am the Puer Aeternus,
and you may be as well--
unless you are female, 
and then it becomes puella aeterna,
the eternal child,
innocent of guile and deceit,
pure and well-intended,
with a gentle heart,
and no chance of ever 
growing up,
and sizing things up,
and winning the day.

But,quite capable of stumbling into
a series of propitious accidents
that turn out to be
exactly what is needed
to win the day.

We have to know what we are cut out for,
and what we are not cut out for.

Centerfield for the Yankees isn't for everyone.
But Yogi Berra had his place,
and so do we all.

And it is up to us to play our part well,
because we are built for it,
and no one can do it like we can.

He said,
with a wink and a smile,
and spinach between his teeth.

A raccoon has its business
and it goes about it every day
as best it can.

It has preferences but no opinions,
no agendas, no greed, no angst...
It just deals with what comes up
in each situation as it arises,
and lets that be that.

Every natural thing is that way.
Even me and you.
But we aspire to be more
than a bird in the air,
a fish in the sea.

We have plans. Ideas. Intentions.
Interests beyond doing what is called for,
day after day.

We invented addiction and denial.
And war.

And what's a war without nuclear weapons?

So we invented them, too.

For the lack of anything better to do.

A raccoon would have gone fishing.
Or taken a nap. 

I'm turning things over to
emptiness, stillness, silence
and my intrinsic intuition,
and letting them take it from here.

We all should have done it that way
from the start.

The Flow seems to consist of
sitting in the right kind of silence
waiting to rise and enter the field of action
to do what needs to be done there,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
then dropping back into the right kind of silence,
waiting to rise and enter the field of action...
round after round.

Anything that disrupts the flow
is folded into the flow
by responding to it
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
which means doing what needs to be done about it,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
and dropping back into the right kind of silence,
waiting to rise and enter the field of action...

Ebb and flow, kid, ebb and flow.

The rhythm of life and being.

Life is to be endured
as a series of trials and ordeals,
and the quality of the spirit
with which we take what comes 
the entire length of the path,
as though to say,
"Is this all there is?
I thought there would be more to it!"

And the last trial to be endured
is the ease with which we let go
when it is our time to die,
and the confidence and sincerity
with which we can say,
"And now it is time to go--
I'm looking forward to knowing what is next
at last!"
 

Just a photograph of an expanse of sunlight,
trees and grass,
waiting for a downpour
or a hurricane (I hear they are coming)
to transform instantly into a lake/river/inland sea,
forcing the animals who live here to find high ground.

Charlotte/Meklenburg County is great for its green spaces,
connecting and running through the city/county.
I've seen small herds of deer,
occasional wild turkey, 
coyotes,
and I will not be surprised to come upon black bear
wandering through,
wondering what all the surrounding development is about
in its natural living space.

We have to make room for one another.
Consciously,
deliberately,
intentionally,
routinely,
regularly,
for the rest of our life together.

Toward that end,
I propose that we all begin each day
with a prayer that will connect us all
as surely as this green space does,
compelling awareness and relization
that translates smoothly,
even easily
into life styles and attitude shits
that are grounded on making welcome
all that is not like us
by focusing us to consider intently
all that is like us
every day for the rest of our life together.

I offer the following as a prototype
of a daily prayer to That Which We All Share In Common:

We come again to share with you 
all that we share together,
recognizing all that connects us
at the heart of life and sentient being
and makes us one in the wonder of all that is.

We pray that the mind we share,
and the intuition that unites us,
the joys and the sorrows,
the agonies and the terrors
that we all know and fear,
will remind us that our differences
are nothing in comparison with our similarities.

May that be and remain for us the foundation
of our cordiality and compassion for one another,
guiding us in our life together as one in spirit and soul,
leading us to hold one another in high regard,
and humble alliance through all the days ahead. 


Amen--may it be so--Amen. 

Trying to effect outcomes--
rather than striving to do what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
and letting the outcome be the outcome
no matter what it may be--
is the single most efficient way
to screw up everything 
ever devised.

You could talk to Adam and Eve about that.

Life itself is the burden,
the agony,
the trauma,
the torment,
the affliction,
the pain...

Why should we have to live
with Donald Trump
and the Trump-Ettes,
and the Trump MAGA Billionaires,
and their mirror images
around the world,
Putin in Russia,
Xi Jinping in China,
Kim Jong Un in North Korea,
Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel
and all the others everywhere???

It is an unending line 
of viscous hatred, 
rancor,  
bitterness
and greed
that has no rightful place
in a world desperate for
liberty,
justice,
equality,
kindness,
peace,
truth,
good will
and well-being!!!

So what's with all the crap?
Seriously.
What is it doing here?
Why does 50% of humanity think it's just fine?
We have been here for 2 million years,
and can't do any better than this?
WHAT?

Jesus had no impact.
The Buddha had no impact.
The list is long of good people
who wasted their time.

Who are we kidding
when we tell ourselves 
it is going to get better with time?

I'm taking life to the Wailing Wall,
and living what's left of it
under seething objection.

I am going to shave my head in
renunciation and protest
as soon as my wife grants her permission.

The Tao,
the Dharma,
and our Intuition
are all as one
when it comes to declaring
that it comes down to
doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right way,
in the right place--
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction 
of having done it.

And, beyond that,
there is nothing in it for us.

So, why would we do it?
Because that is what matters most!

And the profit motive goes up in smoke
before the requirement
of right living for no reason
beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

If you are looking for reward and glory,
refer back to the line,
"Because that is what matters most."

What matters most
has nothing to do with reward and glory,
but only with what needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises.

All our life long.

The amount of noise in our life
is the degree of distraction in our life,
is the measure of the amount of life in our life.

The noisier we live
the less alive we are.

Our life is one distraction/diversion
after another.

And we hate silence
because we don't know what to do with it.
And we have to have something to do
to take our mind off how empty our life is
without noise taking our mind off our emptiness.

Emptiness, stillness, silence
are the essence of life.
They are the ground of reflection,
which is the source of new realizations--
which are the heart of life.

We live to be alive.
To be energized with enthusiasm
ardor, fervor, passion, zeal, gusto...

How long has it been?
What is in charge of your life?
What are you living for?
Where do your interests lie?
What shape does your service
to your interests take?

Where do you go to consider these things?

It all starts with,
flows from,
leads to,
emptiness, stillness, silence
as the heart of life and being.

We cannot be really alive
without being really quiet
on a regular and recurring basis.

We know that intuitively
and reject it passionately,
desperately.

No?

I am against things 
that introduce noise 
into the equation.

People are always introducing noise
into the equation.

All equations.

It is as though everyone thinks
life has to be loud to be alive.

I see noise, not as life,
but as complexity, drama, trauma.

And, I see silence--
the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence--
as the womb of life, living, being alive.

We return to the womb in this sense,
to be reborn again and again.
And I see the Wailing Wall in this same sense.

The Wailing Wall becomes a womb,
not that it is quiet,
but that in its essence,
the Wailing Wall is about the right kind 
of emptiness, stillness and silence.

At the heart of our utter devastation
is rebirth.
Again and again.
In dying the right way,
we come to life.

Letting go is letting come.
Holding on is death forever.

And the lesson to be learned
at the Wailing Wall
is not holding on
but letting go.

In letting go,
we let come what is,
and what may yet be.

And the key is to learn to live
like it matters
and, at the same time,
to be able to let it go,
and to walk on, walk on, when it does go.

Returning again and again to the Wailing Wall,
to let go again and again,
and be reborn again and again.

Like the tide going out,
and turning around,
and coming in.

The flow of life
is the ebb and flow of life.

And I see noise as the denial of all this,
as diversion/distraction.
As in changing the subject
like we might change channels on the television set,
or stations on the radio.

Noise is death 
pretending there is no such thing
as death.

I am against things 
that introduce noise
into the equation.

And, I see silence--
the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence--
as the womb of life, living, being alive.

We don't get there by trying,
and we don't get there by trying not to try.

We get there by responding naturally,
automatically, without thinking about it
to the situation as it arises,
doing what is called for
with the gifts at our disposal:
Our original nature,
our innate virtues/virtuosities
(What we do best and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition--
doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
with nothing in it for us
but the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
and then dropping like the Buddha under the Bo tree,
and waiting for the next situation
to call for what we have to offer...

And like that for the rest of our life.