July 23, 2022

Reflection

JAMMED  CAMERA

I grabbed  my camera - digital. 

I started taking some pictures of some men - painting way up near the roof of the Carrol House - next door to us at St. Mary's  Annapolis.

It was to be unique picturing of people working.

I took about 23 pictures - but I wasn't counting.

Enough already.

I think I took 10 more pictures. 

In the meanwhile, the men came down and went inside the house.

In the meanwhile people came along and wanted their picture taken. They posed, so I took their pictures.

Flowers wanted their pictures taken. They posed. I took their pictures.

Sailboats in Spa Creek wanted their picture taken.  They too posed. I took their pictures.

Finally, after taking at least 100 shots, I was shot.

So I stopped.

I sat there and looked at my 127 pictures - on the tiny peek in screen.

I liked about 7 pictures.

I rather have my old camera  - with film - and the wait - and the going to the drug store to see my pictures - 5 days later.

I realized in this transaction waiting is better - as well as the old.

 

July 23, 2022

Thought for Today

"Ten years after your death                                                                              I meet on a page of your journal, as never before,                                        The shock of your joy."

Ted  Hughes

Visit  (1998)

 July 22, 2022

Reflection

LIFETIME  MANTRAS

Do people have lifetime mantras?

I was driving with 3 people going to a funeral. One of the 3 said 300 times in a 3 hour trip, "You have no idea."

Was that her lifetime mantra in a lifetime sentence?

Was she always saying to herself: "My husband has not idea how hard I work all day"?

Did she say as a teenager - after getting a B on a paper she had to write in her junior year of high school, "Teacher you have no idea - how much work I put into this paper. So and So got an A and did so little work on her paper."

"It's not fair."  Is that another life mantra - people going through life saying that?

I hear others saying, "I was just wondering." Then they say what they are wondering about.

Or, "Can I ask you a question?"

Or, "How am I doing?"

Or, "Are we there yet?"

Or, "This is crazy."

Or, "I'm out of here."

Or, "Isn't this wonderful?"

"When are they going to get it?"

"Unbelievable."

"Do you hear me?"

"I'm amazed."

"Can you do me a favor?"

"What's happening?'

"I don't get it."

"Listen."

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry."

"We gotta ...."

"I'm tired."

"I'm dead."

I have no idea if people have lifetime mantras - lifetime repeats - lifetime little sayings that they say over and over again. I don't know - but it's something that I think about over and over again.

July 22, 2022

Thought for Today

"Come mothers and fathers,                                                                          Throughout the land                                                                                        And don't criticize                                                                                            What you can't understand."

Bob Dylan

Song: The Times They Are - A-Changing

1964 Song

July 21, 2022

Reflection

IT  ALL DEPENDS     

We are so different.

We are so the same.

Sometimes it all depends.

Twins look so much alike - especially identical twins - but slowly - we get to know who's who?

It all depends.

Someone driving down a highway gets a phone call right in the midst of three lanes becoming two. They reach for their phone, so they can say, "I'll call you right back. However, in that split second - so they can look down to reach for their phone - it  was just  enough time to be side swiped at 56 MPH.

Two hundred cars are now backed up for a half-hour. If  someone didn't have a cell phone .... If someone didn't call....

And the domino effect from that one phone call rippled into four thousand different situations.

It all depends.

My parents were in the mood and here I am.

They chose to go to a soccer game 12 years earlier and that's how they met.

It all depends.

I didn't get married - so I didn't produce any children - so somebody from my loins five hundred years  from now won't be jotting down something like this on a Thursday morning. 

Sorry.

Does God think about all this?

I do have choices - and every choice has repercussions - from picking up a phone - choosing to go to this game - driving down this road,

Being the fourth child - and last child - I pinch myself in gratitude.

Thank you mom and dad.

Thank you God.

 

 July 21, 2022

Thought for Today

"Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor ... not that men are wicked ... but that men know so little of men."

W.  E. B. DuBois [1868-1963]

The Souls of Black Folk

(1963) Chapter l2

 July 20, 2022

Reflection

BUT WHERE?

But where can we hide?

Where can we escape?

Where can we put everything down, so we can gather ourselves up?

I like driving alone in a car - no radio on - just quiet - and I find myself seeing things in my life - people. places, situations, unfinished business, neglects, problems, as I drive along.

It's a drive within to drive out my demons - sometimes on my way to visit people - I don't want to visit - worse people - I want to avoid.

It's a chance to sit with God - provided traffic isn't crazy or jammed up.

Quiet churches and chapels are also wonderful places.

Walks - like driving - are also excellent. 

There has to be a saying, "I walked away from my problems and they weren't there when I returned."

Treadmills aren't the same as walking outside - at least for me - so I prefer  good weather - good walking weather.

Plane rides are special - perhaps its especially great to get away from my regular haunts, my regular obligations - perhaps  because of the metaphor of climbing above everything - like on a mountain - and as I look down below - everything looks so small - as from a plane window.

So when people ask me about prayers, I ask them about their hiding places.

We have them.

Jesus had them.

Of course they tracked him down - but in the meanwhile he had some moments and places to hide.

More.