All Posts Tagged ‘photography’

Post

War and Barbaric Friction

March 22, 2019
1 comment

 

 

Wars, for humankind, have been going on for eons.  War is where and when we often spill each other’s blood over systems and ideas.  Apparently, in war, systems, ideas, (and control) often become much more important than any universal brotherhood, any universal oneness.   

Countries of the world are divisive and most are based on (and extensions of) an antiquated feudal system; “you pay us money (i.e., taxes) and we’ll protect you from ‘others’; we’ll be your ‘leaders’ with power and authority.”  

It is so easy to be lead by ignorant men who, themselves, have little or no deep understanding about order and the wholeness and fullness of life.  It is so easy for sloppy disorder and hatred to trump order and compassion and then be “followed” by others.  We aren’t solving the fundamental problems concerning human against human friction, overpopulation, and environmental degradation but, rather, are chaperoned to dwell in relatively superficial realms that deal with barbaric, mundane things.  We were miseducated to stay quiet and to keep quiet and to “fit in” and keep our mouths closed.   Most of us merely blindly conform and see nothing wrong with it.  It is easy for dullness to accept dullness.  It is easy for mediocrity to accept mediocrity.

 

 

Crab Spider with Butterfly Prey … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

Post

Texting While Driving

March 18, 2019
32 comments

(Not long ago, while driving home, one observed people texting — with their heads facing down — while driving; (this was observed, that day, in two separate automobiles).  It is observed happening, while on road, all too frequently.  What is fundamentally wrong with people these days?

 

 

I perceive a so-called human being
driving from the opposite direction
with an
indifferent, addicted head 
facing down;
blundering stupidity and callousness
thinks that it can multitask while driving.
There are families
with precious children
on the road that that immense stupidity is gambling on.
What messages are so important (so profound) 
that they warrant perilling multiple lives?
Thanks for putting 
us all in 
dire
risk!

 

 

Wasp coming head-on… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

Post

Questioning

March 14, 2019
15 comments

 

 

We all need to question more.  Many of us, as we get older, lose the joy of deep questioning and become dull and stagnant.  Many of us, as we age, begin to merely accept what others have poured into us.  Then we look with secondhand eyes (which is really not any kind of real looking).  Boredom and mediocrity, then, set in.

If a philosophical question is merely a spring-board to get a result (i.e., a quick answer), then it is giving more emphasis to the end rather than the beauty of the means.  Real questions have a life of their own; they are not merely a shallow means to an end.  The indoctrinated, the blind, do not question deeply enough.  They have embraced superficial answers and have become hardened by inflexible, statue-like, rigid traditions and old, stale viewpoints.  Then they become rather apathetic, indifferent, and subservient.  Of course, they’ll come up with a million reasons to “justify” such behavior.  Blind conditioning works in ironclad (though malignant) ways.

If questioning is merely limited by the language (or languages) that one happens to use, and limited by traditions, then such questioning is very circumscribed and tainted.  Deep questioning goes beyond the cage-like barriers that language impales, beyond the confines of tradition.  Profound questioning — being true intelligence — is often accompanied by deep empathy.  What is pure and unsullied often naturally radiates compassion.

 

 

 

Crab Spider in Wildflower Foliage … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

Post

I am a kid!

March 11, 2019
44 comments

 

 

I am a kid
trapped in an old man’s body
i fly kites
i perpetually chase insects and frogs
i still often gaze in wonder through a magnifying glass
i still think that grown-ups are yucky
i love watching toads in the woods
i keep fish and shrimp as pets and stare at them for hours
i hunt fossils and love everything about dinosaurs and prehistoric life
i unendingly question
and i still learn best away from
boring school

 

 

Mr. Toadster … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

Post

My Visit with T.S.Eliot

March 1, 2019
21 comments

 

 

 

Let us go then, you and I,
Eliot said, and so we went,
After the cups, the marmalade, and tea,
Beyond the porcelain, beyond the talk of you and me,
When the evening was spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
We went, we went through certain half-deserted streets.
We went to the bright retreats that muttered endlessly.

Some overwhelming question always had to ask,
Though it didn’t have to ask, “What is it?”
We went along and made our visit.

And at the first turning of the second stair
We turned and saw below, not far from the rose garden,
A familiar shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapor in the fetid air
Struggling with the business fool of the stairs who ascends
The deceitful steps of hope and despair.

At the second turning of the second stair,
We left them twisting, turning below;
At the third turning of the third stair
We finally went past all of the melodious distraction,
Music of the flute, stops and steps
Of the mind over the third stair,
Fading, fading; wisdom beyond hope and despair
Climbing and being the third stair.

We were the stairs,
We were the shapes and distractions,
And at half-past one,
The street-lamp sputtered
The street-lamp muttered,
The street-lamp said, “Regard that woman
Who hesitates toward you in the light of the door
Which opens on her like a grin.”
My visit with Tom in the rose garden never came to an end.

 

 

Jumping Spider in the rose garden, near the door we never opened. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

Post

Exams

February 25, 2019
29 comments

 

 

When i was a student, i thought,
“Exams can go to grass!”
I never really deeply cared about exams.
They never could measure me
and they never will measure me.
As an adult, i still say,
“Exams can go to grass!”

(Sorry grass, you deserve
dandelions and insects,
not cadaverous exams.)

 

 

 

Damselfly with the Insect Prey that it caught … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2019