Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

When The Right Thing To Do
loses consensus nationwide,
we no longer can boast of 
"One nation under God
with liberty and justice for all."

All it took were malcontents
with conspiracy theories
broadcasting the endless ways
democracy was unfair to them
and their kind,
for "What about ME?" and
"When is it going to be MY turn?" 
to expose the fragile nature 
of good faith working 
for the best interest of all concerned
when the loud and the vicious/atrocious
are committed to creating chaos unending
with their grievances and objections
against any system that does not 
cater to their desires which will always
be contrary to the true good of those 
they hate,
making getting along together
forever out of the question.

Creating turmoil is their only joy in life,
destroying democracy is their only goal,
and employing Guerrilla warfare 
on a political/social/cultural level
is their only means to effecting their end
of ending democracy in their lifetime,
and to hell with the good of anyone not like them.

If you are waiting for your losses
to be made up to you,
you are standing in a long line
with other losses accumulating
while you are waiting for
the original ones to be redeemed.

Better just to let them go
and let it be.

Some parents are better than others,
and some kids get the good ones,
and others get the rotten ones.

It is called being lucky
and being unlucky.
There is nothing to be done
but make the best of it,
and don't let your deficits get you down.

We do what we can with what's left
of our life and let that be that.

We leave our sorrows at the wailing wall
and walk on, walk on,
with only our perspective, 
attitude and outlook
between us and the clashing rocks
and the heaving waves of the wine dark sea -- 
"And when the waves have shaken my raft to pieces,
then I will swim!" (Odysseus in The Odyssey) 

“God” does not have to be, need to be, 
posited in any of it. 

In “God,” we find a well-developed projection of ourselves 
(Our idea of our “best self”) 
that is “believed to be ‘Out There’” 
but is actually only faith in faith. 

We could as well consider it to be faith in ourselves. 

There is no reason or need to posit “God”! 
And it is self-deception to do so. 

“How then shall we live?” 
is ours to determine for ourselves. 

And “saying, ‘Yes!’ to Availability and Vulnerability” 
is a very fine way to live! 
Which we are quite capable of determining on our own, 
out of our own contemplation, 
reflection and realization—
without the need of a source 
beyond our own awareness 
of our own Body-Mind connection. 

We have all it takes, 
all that is required, 
to realize/know and do 
what needs to be done, 
when, where and how it needs to be done, 
just by sitting in the right kind of 
emptiness, stillness and silence, 
waiting for clarity 
and watching for what 
emerges within 
for our consideration and implementation. 

No?

I had a dream last night
driving home the point that 
I have no idea of what I'm doing--
I have a chant that goes:
"I do not know what to do,
I do not know what to do (Repeat)--
and am stuck eternally with trusting
my intuition to find the way,
the path,
The Tao,
through the darkness of the time and place,
the here/now of my being,
and hoping bit by bit
to know how to do that
with an increasing degree of competence
over the time left for living.

And I am somehow certain
this is a lot that I share with all of you.
Taking heart in the fact that we 
are in this together
and can find mutual consolation and courage
in being up against it with each other
and our collective intuition,
pondering now what?
All along the way, path, Tao,
in very good company.

Ghetto Economics will be Trump's calling card
if he is re-elected,
stealing from the poor
and giving to the rich.

The Billionaire foundation paving Trump's way
is composed of people in a Money Bubble,
aware only of what they stand to gain
with Trump in office,
and oblivious to what the people
outside that bubble stand to lose.

That would be,
for all practical purposes,
everything. 

Me, for instance.
Trump has promised
to take away my Social Security--
taking away what I amassed over 
40 years and 6 months of salary deductions,
but which, nevertheless,
Trump declares to be an "entitlement program,"
when the actual entitlement program
is the tax cuts going to the people
and corporations already afloat in the Money Bubble.

Trump will take away my Medicare,
and with that goes my healthcare.
He will take away family benefits
necessary for food and medicine
and financial encouragement
to people he never notices,
knows about
or cares about outside the Money Bubble.

The catch is that the welfare
of the people inside the Bubble
is directly connected
to the welfare of the people
outside the Bubble.

The people inside the Bubble
live under the illusion 
that their money makes them secure.
The truth is that their money
is completely without value
everywhere but in their imagination.

When the people outside the Bubble
are crushed by Trump's "entitlement" attacks,
and cannot meet their obligations
or pay their bills,
who is going to prepare the food
and serve it, etc,
in the restaurants where
the people inside the Bubble go
to celebrate their wealth?

Etc., throughout society and culture and world.

We will have a Money Bubble
with no means of support.
Money cannot buy what isn't there.
And money cannot produce what Trump
will destroy in order to make more money
for his friends.

There is a tipping point Trump ignores.
You have to feed those who serve you,
and take care of their basic needs 
by creating an environment that enables
them to take care of their own needs.

Destroy that environment
and you light the fuse
that blows up your Bubble,
or makes it valueless,
which has the same effect.

Creating a worldwide Ghetto
in which no one can thrive,
and few will be able to survive.

Ghetto Economics.
That's what you are voting for
when you vote for Trump.

It comes down to
revolves around,
flows from
listening to our intuition. 

There is never,
was never,
never will be,
any more to it than that.

The people who listen to their intuition
are who they need to be,
doing what needs to be done,
when/where and how it needs to be done.
And the world is better off for them.

Our calling is to live the remainder of our life
being one of those people.

The world is dying for us 
to be who we are
in lifelong service to our intuition.

It is up to us
to spend the rest of our life 
doing that.

And it is essential that we do.

Intuition guides us along the way,
past the withering exits 
to the Wasteland,
disguised as shortcuts
to Happy Ever After,
beyond the off ramps
to All Our Dreams Come True,
through the darkness
of lost hope
and bitter disappointments,
to the realization
of oneness with balance and harmony
and the best we have to offer
aligned with the heart of life and being
through the situations
and circumstances 
as they arise upon the path.

Intuition is the way,
the truth
and the life,
and no one gets to the end
of the journey
except by being true
to their own.

Waiting it out 
has a clear advantage
over other options.

Particularly over forcing the issue
and going to war,
and suicide,
and alcoholism...

Native Americans are waiting it out.
Palestinians are waiting it out.
LGBTQ people are waiting it out.
People of Color,
Descendants of slaves,
Immigrants,
Women,
The poverty stricken,
...

The list is long of people who are waiting it out.

And while they wait,
they remember.
They know.
They will not forget.
They will wait it out.
As long as it takes.
Over generations.

What are you waiting for?

Jonas Salk said, "It is always with excitement 
that I wake up in the morning 
wondering what my intuition 
will toss up to me, 
like gifts from the sea. 
I work with it and rely on it. 
It is my partner."

This partnership is the heart
of who we are, what we are about.

We do not direct our intuition
to fetch us this bone
or that one,
or tell it to dial up such and such a future.

We serve its ends
with our gifts,
trusting ourselves to it 
to know where we are going
with this life we call "ours."
But it is "ours" in that it belongs
both to us and to our intuition.

What does our intuition have
in mind for us today?
How well will we align ourselves
with its intentions
and its grace?

May we be alert to its guidance
and quick to do its will!

And, at the end,
may we look for the signs of its presence
and evidence of our loyalty and devotion
to intuition's influence on the flow of the day
and "our" life.

Ken Burns says "All we do is argue."
Jim Dollar says "Because we talk out of our heads 
all of the time.
Talking out of our hearts--
out of our intuition--
disappears argument 'like that.'"

Talking out of our heads
is talking about what we want and don't want,
what we like and what we don't like,
what we think about everything.

Opinions are all we have to talk about.
Humans are the most opinionated species in existence.
In my opinion.
Because we are the only species 
that lives out of its head
and not in accord with its intuition.
Its heart.
Its soul.

All we know is what we think we know--
and all we need to know is what we know.

Why don't we know what we know?
Because what we know is the enemy
to what we want.

We want, want, want all of the time.
Take our wants away and there is nothing to us.
What would we think about?
What would we talk about?
What would we do with our time?
It would be soooooo boringgggggg!

And boring is the last thing
anybody who aspires to be somebody
would allow themselves to be.

Sitting in the right kind of 
emptiness, stillness, silence?
BORINGGGGGGGG...

And how are we going to know what we know
without sitting in the right kind of 
emptiness, stillness silence?

Intuition doesn't have a chance
with wanting in the room.

We think it is about 
getting/having what we want.

But it is about doing what needs to be done,
when/where/how it needs to be done
for no other reason than because 
it needs to be done--
with the gifts of our original nature,
our innate virtues and virtuosities
(The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
through the guidance/direction
of our intrinsic intuition
and our reliance upon the right kind of 
emptiness, stillness and silence
where we are able to reflect on
what our body is saying to us
through its sensations and our nighttime dreams,
trusting ourselves to know what's what
and what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
and to respond appropriately
in doing the right thing in the right way
at the right time,
the way flowers turn to the light
and bees find the flowers,
throughout the ages
to right here,
right now.

Seeing this slough,
in this light,
on the side of this road,
we stop and take the picture.

It's all just like that.

This is a MUST watch: