Applying The Law Of Silliness
In the previous post I provided a rationale and suggested a guideline for how much any person should indulge in silliness. On reflection I want to elevate that guideline from the status of a “suggestion” to that of a “law.” Like the Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Unintended Consequences, or the newest rage among laws, the Law of Attraction. I’m tempted to call it “Richards’ Law” in the hope that the name will catch on and forever tie me to this important principle (like Murphy), but I’ll be happy enough to let go of that presumption if the law becomes famous and does some good.
The Gifts Of Age: Part 2
[This is the second part of a two-part post co-authored at my invitation with Deb Call and Dan Oestreich. Read Part 1]
Whatever we believe to be our gifts of age, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that they derive from experience. This is true not only for the gifts mentioned in Part I — freedom from making judgments, inner confidence, acceptance, and fruition — but for so many others unmentioned so far, such as wisdom, peace of mind, continued commitment to a purpose, or enjoying the fruits of former accomplishments. It also seems impossible to conclude that these gifts are given to all. There are many who have them in great measure, and who revel in them and use them wisely, but there are also many cranky and unhappy old men and women who seem not to have them at all. If the gifts are truly gifts of age, then it is probably more accurate to say, rather than that the gifts are not given to all, that all are not able to receive them.
The Gifts Of Age: Part 1
[This is the first part of a two-part post co-authored at my invitation with Dan Oestreich and Deb Call. You will find the same post at their blog sites.]
Life has a way of stripping away the nonessentials one year at a time, until we’re left with our real selves, unashamed before the world, refined by experience, shaped by the things we’ve learned and the passions we’ve pursued… — Author Unknown
Making Weighty Matters Light And Light Matters Weighty
As it is with making photographs, so it is with the pictures we make of our lives…
That pictures should be balanced is another general compositional rule. Subject elements are weighted and assigned different degrees of importance depending on their size and their tone or color. (Patricia Caulfield in Capturing The Landscape With Your Camera)
I assigned weight to elements of the three pictures in this post by using color selectively. My choices about where to assign weight were deliberate, but in our lives we often assign weight to objects or events out of habit or predisposition, or because assigning weight in one way or another serves a purpose of which we are unaware. Thus we make weighty matters light and light matters weighty, and sometimes we know it and sometimes we don’t.
A Wonderful Thing Someone Said About You
Listen carefully and you may hear the sound that I make when I read the words below from Geetali Tare. It is a whooshing sound, a strong but gentle out-breath that begins deep inside me. I can’t seem to stop doing it right now.
Geetali, who lives in and writes about the town of Shimla, India, at her blog, Shimla Gallimaufry, offered the words in her latest post, Spreading The Love:
Accepting Reality…Maybe
Over the last months, three different versions of the same story showed up in my world before I finally paid attention. When I am dense or merely inattentive the Maestro has to point at me more than once before I take my cue. I first ran across the story in Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth. A friend who had not read Tolle’s story told me a second version. A few weeks later I heard a third version, told by Phillip, a wheelchair bound character played by Forest Whitaker in the film Ripple Effect. OK, then I was listening. The versions are different but the message is the same.
