Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Never



Amida



"Force does not work the way its advocates seem to think it does. It does not, for example, reveal to the victim the strength of his adversary. On the contrary, it reveals the weakness, even the panic of his adversary, and this revelation invests the victim with patience. […] The victor can never be the victor: on the contrary, all his energies, his entire life, are bound up in a terror he cannot articulate, a mystery he cannot read, a battle he cannot win—he has simply become the prisoner of the people he thought to cow, chain, or murder into submission."


~ Jame Baldwin ~
"No Name in the Street"



~


Monday, July 29, 2019

Redeeming Love








Redeeming Love

It's too late to tell
The damage done
Too late to find
Where the source came from
Forgiveness calls
It beckons me
To find the courage
And let it be

I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes on redeeming love

You can't turn back time
Can't erase the truth
Can't relive the things
You want to undo
So fall forward
Let it mark your soul
Your heart tender
And your thoughts bold

I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes on redeeming love

Love, love, love
I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes
On redeeming love
I fix my eyes on redeeming love

~ Amy Stroup ~ 




~



Brownian Motion



Decordova museum




~




Done...



Drain - Gloucester Marine Railway



Be Nobody's Darling
~ Alice Walker ~


Be nobody’s darling;
Be an outcast.
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl,
To parry stones
To keep you warm.
Watch the people succumb
To madness
With ample cheer;
Let them look askance at you
And you askance reply.
Be an outcast;
Be pleased to walk alone
(Uncool)
Or line the crowded
River beds
With other impetuous
Fools.

Make a merry gathering
On the bank
Where thousands perished
For brave hurt words
They said. 

But be nobody’s darling;
Be an outcast.
Qualified to live
Among your dead.



~




Friday, July 26, 2019

What the (actual) Fuck?



Everything Is Fine



These two have been sitting on the side of Route 63 
in western MA for weeks now. Weeks. As 
if it's the most normal thing in the 
world for couches to loiter
on the side of Route 63
in western MA.


What the (actual) Fuck? 



~



Sunday, July 21, 2019

So long to devotion




Everything is fine



Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance
They always did the best they could
And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You've got to let me go.

Are we human or are we dancer?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer?



"Human"
~ The Killers ~



~



You never showed



You never showed




After all this time, you'd think I'd learn.



~


Friday, July 19, 2019

zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero nine nine zero five three four eight eight eight eight three nine nine seven percent

East Saugus


This place is just across the railroad tracks from where I grew up. Forty five years ago, this shot would have been of a barren strip of land bordering the Saugus river. Today - you can't see the river because of all the trees that have grown in over the decades.

Forty five years  - that's all it took to make this place look so completely different. And - those forty five years went by in an eye-blink. It sobers me that it went so quickly. One year, I'm playing street hockey here, fishing in the river (which really is there, I assure you), and practicing the discus - and then in a flash - I'm a beat up old white dude shambling along listening to the birds and the bugs on a hot July evening..

It made me think about how small this life is.. Take for instance the forty five years it took to overgrow this plot of land... Then take the age of the earth - 4,453,000,000 years old. You want to know what percent 45 years is of the age of the earth?

It's this: 0.00000099053488883997%

It's a slice so small it's like it never existed at all.

Then there's my own life span - maybe with extremely good luck it could last another 20 years.. another staggeringly small percentage of time compared to the age of the Earth..

How small - how insignificant - how completely miss-able..

In the face of such vast timescapes we are with great exaggeration  - dust motes - or maybe miniature fireflies - winking in and out of existence against the backdrop of the infinite void...

zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero nine nine zero five three four eight eight eight eight three nine nine seven percent



~


Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Everyone, everywhere



Chenrezig / Kannon / Kwan Seum Bosal



May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes.
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes.
May all sentient beings never be separated from sorrowless bliss.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity free of bias,
attachment and anger, and share 
with others compassion.


~

From: The Significance and Benefits of Six Syllable Mantra Recitation

~





Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Saturday, July 13, 2019

Shoot low.



Behind the Green Door




You ain't been happy for a lotta years

Cuz your expectations are way up here.

Shoot low.

Shoot low.



" Say It"

~ Houndmouth ~



~





Orange Crush



Gloucester




~




Thursday, July 11, 2019

Ex Ex




Ex Ex


Abandoned Fish Processing Plant

Gloucester MA


This used to be a place where people worked. Now it's hollowed out and crumbling. Probably an excellent place for a drug deal other such shenanigans.

The floors are suspect, so it's a walk while you walk, look while you look kind of place. The bigger holes in the floor have been patched with great steel plates - but still..

There was a big trawler tied up out back. The wind kept shoving her up against the dock - grinding and banging..

The rats scratched their heads, wondering what I was looking at.. 




~



Alienation Nation



Abandoned



Abandoned Fish Processing Plant

Gloucester MA



~




Sunday, July 7, 2019

Friday, July 5, 2019

The most dangerous idea of all..


Slats @ the Addison


The enduring story of the Empire is that our lives are nice neat silos of accomplishments. These are mine. Those are yours. I did that. You did those things.

I am proud of my silo. I decorate it and polish it so that it glints in the sun. People admire it. I think it's taller than your silo. And - oh - I think I see some dents in yours, maybe even a hole or two. 


And yours is leaning. Too bad. Your own fault though....


The way it is


Nothing of the sort exists.

Our lives and what we can make of them are forever linked to everyone else's lives. Sometimes the links easy to see, relatives, spouses, friends, enemies even. But - most connections go unnoticed - ghostly, gossamer strands - but stronger than steel.

We are swept along - sustained - supported - by an all-encompassing web of interconnection. Because of this - there is nowhere to stand where we can point and "be proud of our accomplishments."

There is no personal "ours." There is only the global, the planetary, "ours."

This fact is not useful to an Empire bent on promoting exceptionalism and personal wealth - in fact it is anathema. And so the Empire (we) take interconnectedness out back, dig a hole and bury it. Then - to make sure people don't dig up the one thing that would take down the whole shooting match, we guard it with national myths, religious myths, media myths, and corporate myths of the dauntless individual.

Even thinking or reading about interconnectedness is a subversive act in the twenty first century.

You should probably clear your browser cache after reading this. Throw away the email.

On second thought - never mind.

It's too late.

They're coming.. 


~




Growing apart




Gloucester Marine Railways




~




Thursday, July 4, 2019

Boundary Issues



Rose




~





Wrong?



America



What could be wrong?


~



Happy Inter-dependence Day 2019



X-ray



"Each particle of dust interpenetrates every other one.
Moment by moment, each is perfectly complete."

Morning Bell Chant
Kwan Um Zen Translation



"When we try to pick out anything by itself, 
we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

John Muir




~





Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Rockport Steeple



Rockport steeple



~




Bittersweet nighshade - Rocky Neck - Gloucester



Bittersweet Nightshade - Rocky neck



Beautiful, delicate little blossoms.

Brilliant red berries.

Very inviting.

But

Toxic to adults.

Fatal to children and pets.

Birds, however,

love them.



~



Visitations



Breakwater - Pigeon Cove - Rockport


This is the breakwater that protects Pigeon cove from the Atlantic Ocean. It's tall at around twenty feet and long at well over one hundred yards. The granite boulders it's made from provide a perfect perch for a Jizo.


Jizo


In early June, I placed one in a protected nook on the lee side of the breakwater - way out at the tip. I figured he'd be out for quite some time, since not too many people clamber out to the end of the breakwater.

A few days ago I went to visit him, and as the last stanza of the Heart Sutra says - he was:
Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone far beyond!  Hooray!
His cozy nook was empty. He's in a new home now, or was thrown into the sea - either way - on to the next part of his mission - protecting all beings - releasing all beings from whatever hell realms they find themselves in.

Very fine.

Jizo - Gloucester Marine Railways


Not finding Pigeon Cove Jizo, I went to visit another one I had placed at the end of May at a very (very) busy location. I was sure he would be gone, because dozens of people walk right by him every day.  To my surprise, there he was - still on station.

He wasn't all that happy to see me. He said didn't want undue attention drawn to himself, because he felt that his window sill provided him the best spot to keep an eye on all those who did the beautiful but dangerous work in that beautiful but dangerous spot.

"Move along, move along." he said.

"Can I get a couple shots?" I asked.

"Fine - fine - but make it quick. I am not a roadside attraction, after all. I have a lot of important work to do here. I don't want you mucking it up just so you can show everyone what a good boy you are.." he replied.

Chastened - I took a couple shots.

Walking back to Carl, I turned back and tried to say good-bye to him, but he didn't say a word in response. Instead, staring straight ahead, he shoo'ed me away with the tiniest wave of his hands.. 




~