Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Our worldview is 
how we think things are.
Changing our worldview
is the task of maturation:
Seeing how things actually are.

This is also called enlightenment.
Realization.
Waking up.
Seeing the light.
Coming to our senses.

Jesus put it this way:
"The old has passed away!
Behold! The new has come!"

We think it is one way,
and yet, it is another way entirely!
We think it is like this,
and it is like that!

The transition is more
than some people can take.
Making the transition
is what is asked of all of us.

The task of living.
The work of being alive.

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We can call time out
as needed
to take inventory,
asses the situation,
note the status 
of our balance and harmony,
check our fatigue level,
remind ourselves of the importance
of living in accord
with our original nature
and our innate virtuosity,
align ourselves with the flow
of intensity and intentionality, 
attend what is called for
by the circumstances before us
and get back into the game.

It is what those who know
have been doing from the beginning.

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We build a foundation
for facing whatever life brings us
by having no expectations or desires,
no opinions or preferences,
no fear or dreads,
knowing simply that we have all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
throughout what remains
of the life left for living.

We can live with anything,
through anything,
in the strength of our original nature
and our innate virtuosity.

We have gifts waiting
for the right challenges
to call them forth 
and amaze ourselves.

It only takes trusting
it is so
to know that it is.

The old Taoists and Zen masters
knew the importance of
"turning the light around,"
and finding within
the blessings and grace it takes
to deal with what we face
in the external world
of the 10,000 things.

It only takes the right kind 
of emptiness,
stillness
and silence
to know that it is so.

We find what it takes
to meet the day
in meeting the day
and doing what needs to be done there,
where/when/how it needs to be done there,
day after day.

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Where do the people 
who own this,
work here,
go for stability 
and confidence?

What grounds their life?
Beyond religion,
drugs
and alcohol?

How close to the edge
can we live
for how long?

Nikki Haley says
if she is elected President,
she will end Medicare and Social Security.
And Donald Trump poses a similar threat.
Those two federal programs
are Edge Buffers for millions of Americans,
me being one of them.

The two Republican presidential hopefuls
bring The Edge to life
for most of the people
who will vote for them.

What makes this so crazy
is that they will vote for them anyway.

We are an election away
from a way of life that is unlivable.

It seems to happen around the world
on a regular basis.

No one can make sense of it.

We can watch it happening,
see it coming,
with no way of stopping it
or avoiding it,
or getting out of the way.

"See? Told you."
Will provide no solace.

In a world where we all
are day to day,
we will be left with
trusting our luck,
and hoping for more than
religion,
drugs and alcohol
to keep us going.

We can start building 
that foundation now.

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In that there is more 
that we don't know
than we do know,
I think I can get by 
with saying,
the universe is composed
of various forms of energy and matter,
all of which is psychic at the core.

The universe is a psychic state of affairs.

Nothing is in charge.
Nothing is in control.
Nothing has a plan...

But a constant psychic flow
has an exciting feel to it for me.

The old Taoists were right
in saying that it's all the result
of circumstances begetting circumstances,
with the Tao (For lack of a better term)
carrying us along psychic paths
all the way.

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I understand the work
of our life as
being contented with how things are
here and now,
doing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
while maintaining/sustaining
our balance and harmony
day to day
as long as life shall last.

We have to settle ourselves
into an occupation
that enables us to make ends meet
(the income and out-go ends),
and live to serve/express
our original nature
and our innate virtuosities
amid our circumstances,
such as they are,
and let that be that. 

You have to understand 
that this is being said 
by someone in his 80th year
who spends much of his time
sitting, reading, writing 
and looking out the window
each day.

And don't think that it has anything
to do with you.

When intensity
and intentionality 
are lacking,
our integrity takes a hit.

Living with integrity
takes meaning it.

We cannot merely show up--
we have to be fully there
with our game face on.

Too many sports teams show up
without their game face on.

In basketball it is apparent
in the turnovers and free throws departments.
Lackadaisical mediocrity
does not win basketball games.

Or football games.

Nick Saban coached football at Alabama,
and what he really coached
(and recruited)
was intensity.

If you didn't mean football 24/7/12,
you didn't play for Nick Saban,
and he lived what he coached.

Talking it is one thing.
Living it is another.

Look your life in the eye
and tell me where you find 
intensity and intentionality.

What do you do with intentional
intensity?
What do you just get by with?

Integrity demands intentional intensity.
That is where we are most who we are.
We shine through
when we are living with intentional intensity.

Hendrick Honda in Charlotte
sees to it that the people who work there
exhibit the Hendrik Honda Brand:
Customer Service.

All businesses everywhere talk 
about customer service.
Hendrick Honda does customer service.

Everybody there is intensely intentional
about Customer Service.
Or they don't work there any more.

Your brand is what?
My brand is what I'm doing right here,
right now--
and when I'm trolling for photographs,
and taking naps.

Yes, you can take naps
with intense intentionality.
And everything else.

And what we do with intense intentionality
exhibits our integrity,
expresses who we are.

If you were going to show me
who you are,
where would you take me
to see your intense intentionality
in action?
  

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There is more to everything than meets the eye.
Any eye.
All the time.

We don't know more about everything
than we do know.
Every thing.

Which puts us in the position
of looking and listening,
inquiring, examining, exploring,
and simply sitting with
all there is to sit with
instead of running through our life
as though we know what we are doing.

Projection, presumption and assumption
lead the way,
and we swagger arrogantly behind
certain that we are only having our way
away from having it made.

Where did all this wind in our sails
come from?

Where did we get the idea 
that we know what we are doing?
And that if everyone would just 
do it our way all would be well at last?

Where is humility,
kindness,
generosity
and good will?

Waiting for us to sit down
and be quiet, no doubt,
and take stock
and be appalled 
at running on opinion
about hearsay
instead of seeing what we look at
and knowing when we don't know
much of anything at all.

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We have to be grounded 
in what grounds us,
in what serves us 
as the grounding foundation 
of our life.

There is what we do for a living,
and there is what we live to do.
Sometimes they are the same thing,
sometimes they are worlds apart.

What we live to do
is the grounding foundation
of our life.

Maybe it's riding horses.
Or shoeing them.
Could be anything,
but it is without a doubt
OUR thing.

So.
What's your thing?
The thing you live to do?
The thing that is your 
grounding foundation.

I'm always surprised
at the vast number of people
who have no clue.

My parents had no clue.
And their ancestors.
And most of their friends
and acquaintances...

Not knowing what our thing is
is not knowing who we are
or what is ours to do,
or what is guiding our boat
on its path through the sea.

It is being lost without direction,
drifting from one "Why not?"
to the next
forever.

The solution is as near
as our butt.

Sit down.
Shut up.
Listen.
Look.
Know what you know
and what you don't know.
Wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

All of the answers
are to be found eventually
in the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence.

You can start by wondering
what you love to do.
What's the Ariadne's Thread
running through your life?

We are born into a maize
with a golden thread in our heart.
All we have to do is 
follow the thread
in a "Me, Not Me" kind of way.

And we have done that
without knowing we are doing it
throughout our life.

Now, we only have to become 
conscious of what it is
that has gotten us
to right here,
right now.

And start doing it 
with all our heart
and soul
and mind
and strength
from now on.

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We make our own peace with our life.
No one can do that for us.

We come to terms with our own 
responsibility for our responses
to the way things are,
knowing that how we respond
to what happens
can make things better
or make things worse,
and that our response-ability
is the key for things being
as good as they are capable of being
our entire life long.

And, "Okay. Now what?
is always appropriate
to every occasion,
voiding, as it does,
our tendency to be emotionally reactive
and mood-bound,
thereby deaf and blind 
to what our options
and opportunities are
in all circumstances
that come our way.

Our twin powers,
perspective and perception,
are superior to the Elder Wand,
in that even the Elder Wand
would be at the mercy
of our perspective and perception
(With perception being what we see
and perspective being how we see
when we look at everything).

Until we get perspective and perception
under control,
we are at the mercy of everything
that happens
over the full course of our life.
And nobody can do that for us.
It is all up to us,
how we see what's what
and what we do in response.

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Squaring ourselves up with the here/now,
coming to terms with what's what
and what is being asked of us
in order to meet the day
and provide what is called for
in each situation as it arises
is the day's work
each day,
in a "Here we are, now what?"
kind of way.

We adjust ourselves
psychologically,
physically,
emotionally,
intellectually,
spiritually,
in doing what needs
to be done,
when,
where
and how it needs to be done
with the tools of our original nature
and our innate virtues/attributes
out of the stillness,
emptiness,
silence
in dancing with what is asked of us
and maintaining our balance
and harmony,
growing up
some more,
again,
today
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction
of having done it,
day by day
all the way.

That's the process
we follow,
whether we are a member
of the United States Calvary
riding over the hill,
or a 10 year-old Apache girl
standing outside
of her family's teepee
watching them come,
with things about to be
radically transformed forever.

Sometimes,
there is no joy or satisfaction
to be found
anywhere in the day,
for days on end,
and we dance with that
as well--
as well as we can.

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If you want to be certain
of going to heaven--
or it's preferential equivalent 
to your way of thinking--
all you have to do
is be clear about what is important
in each situation as it arises,
and serve that with the gifts
of your original nature
and your innate virtues/attributes
throughout the time left for living.

You don't have to be right about it,
you only have to be clear about it.
And you achieve clarity
by waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear
from the vantage point
of emptiness,
stillness
and silence,
and the collective wealth
of your experience.

This sounds as though 
it will take a long while,
but with practice,
you will zip into clarity
just by recognizing the need for it
and applying the process
with confidence in the outcome
and enthusiasm for the adventure.

With time,you will become
increasingly right as well as clear
about it,
and you will take your place
along with Jesus and the Buddha
and all of those who have known
what's what and what's to be done about it
through the ages,
and live as a blessing
and a grace
upon all who come your way.

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