An online journal sharing my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, spirituality and asking deep questions.
I made a return visit to campus the other day. I’d forgotten how serene it can be at the Lory Student Center (while students are in class.) This image was taken while sitting in the Legacy Lounge just outside the Ballroom Doors. With no piped music, it is a good place to journal or read. Hope you’ve had a good Sunday. It’s been beautiful here.
So, the question is multiple choice. Were the boots left on the porch because they were.:
a. wet.
b. muddy
c. rank as hell
d. All the above.
I was awakened about 4:00 am by the lovely sound of rain tapping on my bedroom window. Weather app says we can expect rain throughout the day and cooler temperatures. May you have a wonderful day!
After arriving at the Starry Night coffee shop and settling into my favorite chair, I realized I’d forgotten my phone. I’ve done this now a couple times over the past two weeks. It was interesting (almost frightening) to observe how often I reached for that phone but more frightening at how often I thought about it. These two episodes have sent a loud message as to how attached I am to that small device, as if its tendrils are wrapped around me. I made it through the two hours without it, no one got hurt and I actually was able to spend more time in my journal. Out of curiosity, I checked when I got home with the Screen Time Report on my phone (be warned of what that report may tell you) and it told me I was staring at the screen for an average of 2 hours and 56 minutes last week. In a posture of justification, at least 40 minutes a day is attributed to my meditation timer but still… In my mind this tells me I spend 2 hours a day not present to the world around me. Pretty scary to realize how attached I am to that thing. It also asks the question, “How did we survive without them?” Thinking I need to write more about this. Anyway, hoping you have a great day, with or without your phone!
This morning I noticed a young man in his early thirties strutting into the coffee shop1I am aware that I was immediately judgmental of him but this brought up some wonderful questions to ask myself and journal about it. His entrance was noticeable because of his tough guy walk. The demeanor offered a feeling of toughness, don’t mess with me attitude. Nor was I the only one who turned and noticed. As he ordered his drink it was then that I noticed he was packing a gun on his right side. So, the next time I see a police officer walk into a coffee shop wearing their weapons I’ll check to see if they have the same strut.
Anyway, this gave me some fodder for my journaling and also stirred this posting. What or who is he afraid of? Was his reality of life that foundationally scary and insecure? Did he feel the half dozen customers were possible enemies and that he needed to protect himself at any cost? I personally have never in my 20 some years of coffee shop life encountered a wild beast in a coffee shop. I have seen a dog or two. About the only life they could point a weapon at is another person.
My reality of life presents something different. Seems I have more fear, and am at a greater risk, from the driver who is trying to text message and drive at the same time than I do of being shot in a coffee shop. And, I also have more fear of politicians, corporate executives, and the wealthy who will do anything to attain more money, power and control due to the fear they will lose what they have or not attain what they want. And, in all honesty, I have a fear of the person packing the gun and how they will use the weapon under a stressful situation, will they use it with reactionary fear.
To end this post I must say we have no idea of the life experiences, the physical, sexual, verbal, emotional abuse and violence, others have had in life that presents their reality of life as threatening. So in my journaling and writing of this post I find gratitude for the life I have lived, the safety and security my family and community gave me and continue to give me and the innate goodness I see in this world. Reaffirms my belief that packing a gun will not prevent violence or put an end to violence and damn sure it will not bring peace.
wrapped in my blanket in the predawn darkness
ms
I read and meditate on words which
become seeds for my soul and mind
the new day offers a dusting of snow outside my window
so after my quiet time I bundle in warm clothing and
grab my backpack to venture to the coffee shop
am greeted by early-to-rise baristas as I enter the door,
they make my favorite, an Old Town mocha, extra hot,
perfect on this bleak and wet day
notice beads of water forming their own worlds
on the patio chairs warning me to sit inside
on this wintery sunday morning
… we are receiving some much needed rain this morning. It began raining just after I went to bed. Sometime during the night I could hear it pounding against my window. Awoke to lovely puddles of water. The little boy within was enticed enough to want to jump in them.
A light mist was falling as I walked to the bus stop. About an hour later it was a steady rain again. I sat in one of the lounge chairs at the coffee shop, looking out the window and watching the refreshing gift descending. Like snow there is a certain silence in gentle rain, when we pause and listen. I listened this morning. Everything smells fresh and new. I feel the coolness on my body and there is rejoicing in my spirit, even a giggle. Have a wonderful day!
“Let’s just sit quietly and listen to the secrets the rain wants to tell us.”
John Mark Green
The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world “picturesque”.
Susan Sontag, 1977
This morning I found myself writing the following in my journal, “I’m not a street photographer….” I immediately said, “Wait a minute dude, where did that come from?” I needed to ask what I meant by that, was that a true statement and what is a street photographer. I have over the years taken many images that are defined by Sontag’s definition of a photographer without the adjective of street or wedding or portrait or fashion, placed before it. The truth is I’m a photographer, period. When I have my photographer’s hat on, my camera and lens become an extension of me, and I am now the flâneur who finds the world “picturesque” whether that’s a street scene or sunrise on the prairie or a car show.
For any who want to know: Flâneur is a French term meaning ‘stroller’ or ‘loafer’ used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify an observer of modern urban life. The above image of the statue of the dog was taken at a street car show in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2008.