Passing of a Legendary Photographer

Posted on December 14, 2017 by cdsmiller17
glenn-drycreek-09cr

Image courtesy of WordPress

 

Glenn Capers (1950 – 2017)

I heard yesterday that Glenn had died on Monday of this week, in Colorado Springs. He was 67.

I had the honour of erecting his birth chart, with his permission. Here it is:

 

CapersGlennWREJC1

 

If ever there was a man who wore his heart and his mind on his sleeve, for all the world to see, it was Glenn.

His social commentary through his photo journalism was a wonder to behold. He didn’t bother with the rich and famous, he photographed the downtrodden, the ‘normal’ and the eccentric.

But, more than that, my favourites are the photos he took of nature. I aspire to his art.

Thank you, Glenn, for living your life so vivaciously. We will miss you.

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Marriage

Posted on December 13, 2017 by cdsmiller17

marriage

 

Let’s face it, I’m scared;

Although I know I could have fared

Better the first time if I’d been

With someone as loving as you:

But the trepidation, that’s unseen

By your eyes, is all that I can view.

 

What’s caused me to be afraid?

They say it’s the bed that I made:

Obviously, I felt unable to lie

In it, so I began to run,

Wishing I could die,

Neglecting my son.

 

Was this what I wanted in my life?

Frankly, no, considering other’s plight.

I just wanted to be loved as I was to be

Later in the arms of a lover or three.

But, in the meantime, I took to flight

To escape the angry clutches of my wife.

 

What had I won?

Nothing with which to try

To have a little bit of fun,

While trying not to cry

About the big, fat goose-egg I’d laid

Of my life, knowing I’d be repaid.

 

Every word I say is true:

I’m not saying this just to be mean;

I want to attempt a union, new,

But I don’t want it to become something obscene;

I may try it yet, if I’m not dared:

But let’s face facts, I’m still scared.

 

(written in 1978)

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It’s a Sign of the Times

Posted on December 13, 2017 by cdsmiller17

 

 

Just Stop Your Crying

Two things happened last night: Noah Mac was eliminated from The Voice after singing “Sign of the Times” and ‘Harry Styles: Live in Manchester’ was aired on CTV. Harry’s final tune was (you guessed it) the same song. Now it’s an earworm for me.

Yes, I’d heard this song on the radio, but I’d never paid attention to it before, mainly because of Harry’s being part of One Direction previously.

But, last night, I began to ‘hear’ the lyrics for the first time.

 

The Bullets?

 

Sign of the Times

 

“Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets?”

It’s a damn good question. Now, if only we could get a damn good answer.

Harry may have been reflecting back on his breakout role in Dunkirk. War is Hell: not a new concept, for sure, but, for someone as young as Harry, a new reality. With all the terrorist attacks the world over, and especially the Las Vegas shooting this year, these words strike home, literally.

 

We Gotta Get Away from Here

“They told me that the end is near.”

It would seem that everyone in the world is starting to think the same thing: climate change is showing us that we have caused a massive amount of ecological damage and that soon, earth won’t be habitable for human life.

But, don’t worry, the 1% have a plan to save themselves by moving to a new space colony until a ‘new’ earth can be located. The remaining 99% of us will have to tough it out.

 

Remember, Everything Will Be Alright

 

Sign of the Times 2

 

Spiritually, this is absolutely true. Physically, not so much so.

The idea that we are separate is the part that’s keeping us apart. Here are Harry’s lyrics that make the most sense to me:

We don’t talk enough
We should open up
Before it’s all too much
Will we ever learn?
We’ve been here before
It’s just what we know

We know what to do: we need to remember that we are all in this together, even the 1%. Until we do that, the story goes on, and on, and on. Will we ever learn?

 

 

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Back to the ‘Hood, Babyhood

Posted on December 12, 2017 by cdsmiller17

Christopher June 1951

 

I Am Born

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. (David Copperfield)

My mother recorded my birth details in my photograph album:

Christopher David Thorpe

Born February 9 1950

at Wellesley Hospital, Toronto

Weight 6 lbs. 11 ¾ oz.

Born on a Thursday at 3:40 am

or 3:49   (I forget which)

She must have known I was going to grow up to be an Astrologer…

 

I was an Overweight Infant

I have not located my first baby portrait. You know the kind: you’re plunked on top of the sideboard and someone distracts you while the photographer does his bit.

It shows me to be a bit chunky. I blame the Carnation Evaporated Milk that my Mom used in my baby formula for my extra fat. But it should come as no surprise that I still like the taste of it.

Because of the weight, I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) walk unassisted until I was almost two years of age. The picture shown above was dated June 1951. I was sixteen months old. Another photo taken the same day shows me hanging on to a trash basket as I tried walking around it.

 

The ‘Flu Shot

I have a very early memory of my Mom getting a ‘flu shot in the cheek of her buttocks. Since doctors still made house calls in those days, this was administered in her bedroom.

Mom said that there is no way I should have remembered that event. She said it took place in the early winter of 1951. I would not have yet been two years old.

But it is a very vivid memory for me, mainly because I got a ‘flu shot, too, that night.

While researching any residual outbreaks of the Spanish Influenza during that year, I came across this Toronto Star story of a polio outbreak. Might we have been given a polio vaccination instead?

 

Speaking in Tones

No, that’s not a typo. From my earliest days until my late toddler years, I spoke a tonal singsong version of words.

Mom, being intuitive, and my mother, was able to translate what I was saying, thereby meeting my needs and fulfilling my requests.

Years later, when I had an autograph book (I wonder where that went?) Mom wrote out this little rhyme:

A B C D goldfish?

L M N O goldfish.

O S A R!

I wonder now if she was also referencing my tonal language as an infant.

 

Conclusion

 

Mom and me

 

Mom and I have always been close. I guess that comes from being the first born.

But since her death in 2003 at the age of 80, she has continued to watch over me.

Maybe she’s hoping to keep me safe, until it’s time for me to leave, too.

 

Mom and I

 

I love you, Mom.

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Snow as Metaphor

Posted on December 11, 2017 by cdsmiller17

Disney's Frozen

Disney’s Frozen

Can you believe it’s been four years already since the greatest grossing animated movie was released by Disney?

It was on television last night, and I just had to watch it again to see if it still packed the punch of a frozen slushball.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:

Frozen is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 53rd Disney animated feature film. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen”, the film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on a journey alongside a rugged iceman, his loyal pet reindeer, and a naïve snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

Archetypes

The sisters are very different. Elsa is cool, almost frigid, in her approach to others. Anna is warm, emotionally open, and vulnerable to rejection.

When juxtaposed, they show the range of emotional response that all individuals have, although some are more prone to one or the other, but mostly a mix of both.

The rest of the characters are incidental to the story. The sisters are the heart and soul.

Warm vs Cold

Weather-and-MS-Is-Hot-Cold-or-Changing-Worse-722x406

I live in a town in Central Ontario, Canada. In Summer, the weather is hot; in Winter it’s cold. We get a great deal of variety because of those two extremes. The Spring is warm; the Autumn is cool.

But we wouldn’t have it any other way, because whatever the weather, we feel alive!

So, what has this to do with Frozen? It’s the extremes that show us what matters.

Fear vs Love

Elsa is the Snow Queen because she is afraid of her reactions. She wants to stay away from everyone in order to keep them safe.

Anna is full of love, especially for her estranged sister. In her world, everything will work out, no matter what the obstacles.

Conclusion

Children the world over were given a beautiful story in this film. And the reconciliation of the two sisters helps to tell us that love is stronger than fear.

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Relativity

Posted on December 11, 2017 by cdsmiller17
escher-relativity-670x639

Relativity
by M C Escher

 

Time races away

All traces that stay

Of Youth and Truth;

Climb replaces a pace

That has no place

For quests or rests;

Rhyme without a base

Becomes a race

Of fools for jewels.

 

Pain kills all thoughts

Concerning lost lots

Through any more war;

Insane have fought

As if they taught

Lessons from Life’s strife;

Cain had been caught

But they will not

Because of no mere fear.

 

Dead cannot say

Why they passed away

Without a soul or goal;

Fed care in no way

For those who pay

Such a price for their rice;

Reds or West may

Somehow stray

And on that day, we’ll all become clay.

 

Time and Space

Will soon lead to

Climb and Place or

Rhyme and Race

Unless freed to

Find its own pace.

 

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Staring at the Sun

Posted on December 10, 2017 by cdsmiller17

dogday-49

 

Speeding Up Your Metabolism

In 1978, I read a book (whose title I have since forgotten) that suggested that staring at the sun could prove helpful to your general well-being.

For those who doubt that anyone would suggest that there are health benefits, this is an extension of the principle that sunlight is good for you. But when it’s taken too far, damage can occur.

 

The Experiment

Following the author’s advice, I sat quietly while the sun was setting (in late September, when the rays weren’t as strong) and stared at it steadily as it dipped below the horizon.

I had no way of knowing if this did the ‘trick’, but I started to notice a missing piece of my vision: I started to see a black hole in the centre of whatever I was looking at.

 

Solar Retinopathy

 

amsler_gridthu_jpg.ashx

 

The image shown above is the closest approximation  of the effects I was seeing (or not seeing, to be precise). Only, my experience of it was a bumping out effect, similar to looking at Venetian blinds that run parallel until the centre of my vision and then they begin to ‘wow’ outward.

Yes, folks, even for sitting such a short length of time, I had burnt my retinas. It’s the same issue that would happen if you were to stare at a solar eclipse without eye protection. (Remember your mother’s warning?)

However, in a month’s time, the retinas were healed and ‘normal’ vision was restored, but something else may have started to happen.

 

“X” Ray Vision

the-man-with-x-ray-eyes

 

Science fiction always tries to scare us about the future, in much the same way that history scares us of our past. This film, first shown in 1963, tried to demonstrate what it would be like to have X-ray eyes. Of course, it’s first and obvious use would be the ability to see beneath clothing, a la Superman. But what happens when you cannot control the vision, and you start to see too much?

I’ve highlighted this before, so I won’t bore you with the details: what if you could start to see subliminal messages everywhere? Would that drive you crazy?

 

Conclusion

To say that “X” marks the spot would be an understatement. There is no way to shut off the flow of insights that one can get when one’s eyes are open, truly open.

All I can suggest is: take note of what you’re getting and then relax in that knowledge.

 

 

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Attention

Posted on December 10, 2017 by cdsmiller17

trigger warnings

 

Tense:

A frown was forming

Over a worried eye.

 

“Nonsense,”

Says the tongue, warming

To a hurried cry;

 

Yet the teeth began grittin’

As the splintered nails were bitten;

 

The neck became strained and cruel

As its blood turned hot then cool;

 

While the fist was clenched tight

With its knuckle wrenched white;

 

The heart started to burn

And the stomach to churn,

 

For the gut was full of knots

As the muscles pulled taut;

 

But in the head,

From the brain was fed,

“My patient resistance

Has been stretched

To a thin line of time

Between sanity and sadness,

Between profanity and madness.”

 

 

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Centering Prayer: Praxis Makes Perfect

Posted on December 9, 2017 by cdsmiller17
The Wisdom Jesus

Cover courtesy of amazon.ca

The Wisdom Jesus

Our Faith and Science group has been studying this book for more than a year. We meet twice a month on a Friday, and yesterday, Ray, our leader, took us through a 20 minute quiet period based on Cynthia Bourgeault’s chapter on Centering Prayer.

“Be Still and Know that I am God”

Four Guidelines

Four Guidelines courtesy of itunes.apple.com

I’ve been an active meditator since late 1989, when I first joined Fountain International. But I learned how to work with energy in Cynthia’s group in Berkshire in 1987. That is the basis of my ‘awareness’.

The colours I see on the ‘screen’ of my inner sight help me to be alert to changes in the energy that is around me.

With a group of 23 individuals, this can be a very interesting process. My point is that I would not be engaging in thoughts, but recognizing the process through the colour changes.

(Twenty minutes can seem like a long time, but in this instance seemed to be just about right.)

Amethyst

amethyst

My ‘normal’ set of colours has at its base a pulsating lava lamp look of an amethyst cloud. Sometimes, blue and then green will pulsate through that field of vision. Sometimes, it will remain constant. I have been told that this is my major aura colour.

So you can imagine my surprise to get this colour after about ten minutes:

Ruby

3.03ct-Oval-Ruby-from-Winza

This is a first for me. I never see red on my visual screen. So I can only surmise that I was absorbing the energy of the person sitting next to me. Base chakra material?

Then the colours alternated between the amethyst and the ruby for about another five minutes, and then another colour showed up.

Dove Grey

White Grey Mourning Dove

When I saw this shade of grey, I registered the thought that this was the blended colour of the whole group, and then let it go, while just luxuriating in a blissful feeling of peace.

Conclusion

Meditation is a powerful tool. It helps us to follow Jesus’ instruction:

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:6)

The reward? God’s Presence.

There are no words that can express this, trust me.

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Intifada: Awakening

Posted on December 8, 2017 by cdsmiller17

Third Intifada

 

It was 30 years ago today

On December 8, 1987, an Israeli civilian truck driver lost control of his vehicle as he passed the Gaza enclave’s large refugee encampment of Jabaliya. The truck smashed into an oncoming automobile filled with local Arabs, killing four of them. Instantly riots broke out, this time of unprecedented magnitude. Wielding knives and axes and hurling rocks, huge throngs soon overwhelmed the single, isolated detachment of Israeli troops. The soldiers responded with tear gas and gunfire, wounding 30 Arabs and killing one. The crowds finally dispersed. The next day, however, violent demonstrations erupted on the West Bank, in Nablus and the Balta refugee camp. Again military gunfire inflicted several casualties. During the ensuing week, additional thousands of troops had to be rushed in to confront riots that were exploding elsewhere throughout the territories, assuming the character of a spontaneous mass intifada, an “awakening.”

(from A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Times published by Alfred A. Knopf)

 

At the Last Trump?

 

trump2

Images courtesy of The Indian Express

 

Donald Trump made an announcement yesterday that put the Palestinian situation back into the spotlight. He kept his Presidential campaign promise to relocate the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Why?

Because the conservative Christians in the States believe that this will be the precursor of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And it seems they voted for Mr Trump because he would be the ONLY one who had the nerve and naïvety to do this.

 

Hell in a Handcart

So now we must wait to see if a Third Intifada erupts in the Middle East: perhaps after Friday Prayers, today.

Is this really the Beginning of the End?

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