the role of snow and truth seeking

post #525 

    Today, by sharing the beauty of snow, I honor the change of administrations in America. 

     So much that's difficult and dangerous could have happened this past week.  Instead, what traditionally happens -- on January 20th the fourth year after a previous inauguration in the USA -- took place.  The President and Vice President with the most votes, in fact the most ever in any such election, have become our duly elected 46th President and V.P..

      This election was held during a tragic and challenging pandemic. Even so, this year ours was one of the best conducted elections ever.  So many hard working and dedicated people across the land made that happen. Only a man who can't bear to lose, for his own personal inner reasons, could be so distraught as to lie over and over and over to his fellow citizens about the truth of the election's outcome.  Losing happens.

       I see the snow of this season as an image that speaks to me of a covering over of what is past, what willl quietly be feeding new growth, like underground roots.  This provides what's needed in order for there to be new growth in the spring. It actually mirrors what happens in our lives and with our committment to democracy.  This year there may not be vast amounts of snow in Kentucky, where most of my photos are made, but I think the idea of a rite of passage still exists.  I hope these snow photos do convey something about how nature faces the need for renewal. It’s work, but that’s what’s required for the huge rebuiliding task ahead of us.  

 

a visiting Coopers hawk , 2015

goldfinches, in their winter mode, 2015

2015

 

cardinal, the bird of Kentucky, 2015

2015

2015

 

 

 

Even the guest has to work for her keep --- THANK YOU red bird MELVA! (2015)

 

 

        The last two photos are by Rebecca, in February a year ago!

 

    May winter's job work its wonders and do the same for the humans -- who don't always give nature credit for what we can learn by paying attention to it.  

    Stay safe, seek truth, and let's practice being kinder to one another.

a very full few days in early fall 2020

post #508

        Have been busy trying to make sense of the personal and the public, and I've been very emotional about the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In general I try to keep track of things by more or less following the news, but it's way too hard to believe how power hungry people can be.  Our nation is supposed to be a democracy with fairness and with ways of cooperating.  Dog fighting does nothing to move us forward. 

        FIRST, here's the photo I said I'd "include next week." However, I didn't find it until today. It shows a rally Amy McGrath had during her first run for office. We were in a former high school gym, and Joe Biden had come, and he too gave a speech.  It was crowded, with good energy, but she didn't win the election.  Anyway, I'm tall, so I was able to get this photo.  (I've posted it two years ago on this blog.)       Now, Find Amy. Find Joe:

      SECOND, Here are two photos taken from the TV screen during this time of honoring a most remarkable Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I know that many of us have found her to be a determined and visionary leader in the path toward a place on earth where men and women have equal opportunities. She died Friday evening, and now her spot is empty on the Supreme Court and there is great drama about the future. She contributed so much for our nation over a lifetime of brilliant work, and now she is not even being given the respect of an acknowledgement of her contributions and achievements. It's shameful. Dog fight.

        I took both these photos as snapshots from the TV.  The first one is RBG, sharing the screen with Dahlia Lithwick, one of my favorite commentators about the courts. I greatly admire her. The second one is the MSNBC host, Chris Hayes, with someone who is showing how so many of us feel about the wrenching loss of this great defender of equal rights and our democracy. 

       The following photo comes to me via my daughter -- it was taken about a year ago by Moira Duvernay, in California, who is the niece of one of her close college friends. Thank you, Moira, for permission to share this wonderful moment in a young girl's life..

 

 

      A few days ago, I sent in for my ballot for voting in November, like I did in the spring for the primary. Just sayin, but I am SO TIRED of our president proclaiming that mailed-in ballots will be rigged!  HE IS JUST SETTING IT UP SO THAT IF HE DOESN'T GET THE MOST VOTES HE CAN BLAME IT ON CHEATERS [TOTALLY UNPROVEN AND NOT HAPPENING] instead of on his poor leadership and all those needless Covid 19 deaths.

        I guess I will spare my visitors tonight from more of my concerns about what lies ahead. At least for now.  I have had several phone calls this evening, including a Norwegian friend who lives in Canada, where procedures for dealing with the virus are way more stringent than in the USA.  And the border between Canada and the USA is still strictly monitored.  No crossing allowed. She had planned to be in Paris this week, but of course that's not happening. Her son is a commercial airplane pilot who reports the planes are seldom full. 

          Well, one last photo, in honor of the season and Sandy, my friend and neighbor.

 

                       HAVE YOU DONE THE CENSUS?  DO YOU HAVE A VOTING PLAN? 

 

narcissism and reflections

post #319

     Today is a quiet day for me, in the company of my own personal head cold, but I am determined to touch on a serious topic – which is narcissism. Although my blog is about photography and Appalachia, visitors here do know I sometimes think about other things as well.  In fact, I have already mentioned in a recent post that narcissism is not a personality TRAIT, but rather it’s a personality DISORDER. 
       I now feel I need to speak up some more about this condition. In fact I was encouraged to do so when yesterday I read that it’s one of the things film maker Michael Moore is also concerned about as far as this presidency is concerned. We are a democracy after all, and caring means participating and speaking truth to power.
      I am not talking here about who should have won the election. I am mostly confused why few politicians seem to have bothered to research narcissism to find out for themselves what the word actually means. Do they really not know? Do they think narcissism merely means being full of yourself? Are they denying the possibility that such a mental health impairment requires vigilance?
     I don’t claim in the least to be a mental health professional. Instead I have an overactive curiousity gene, and I have had occasion in my life to learn as much about narcissism as I could. It’s not a pretty picture. And by its very nature is very hard to treat. For one thing, admitting a mistake is apparently almost impossible to do for someone with serious narcissism.

                   We as a nation seem unwilling to explore the true reality of many things, including narcissism, therefore it doesn't get enough due respect. Quite simply, while no one wants to make fun of anyone’s mental disorder, we should at least be willing to become well enough informed to admit that being narcissistic can cause major problems. I am not listing the symptoms here because they’re easy to look up. I’d wager it’s not the only issue Trump has, but I don’t claim to know as much about whatever the others might be.
                 The consequence of so many heads in the sand is that someone who exhibits every sign of serious narcissism will soon be our president. The real question is what the backup plan is when a president ends up being potentially unable to handle his job.
                How many of his cabinet choices are willing now to take responsibility for what difficulties lie ahead! How much enabling is going on by his “team” and by others who should be better informed and show more backbone!  To me, it seems like too many politicians are overlooking this devastating reality for some reason of their own. If they do understand the facts but don’t mention it, then each of them becomes partly responsible for how this truth affects the future for all of us. We have to hope that some of them are working behind the scene to stem the chaos.

Donald Trump can’t change, and he won’t change. This condition has nothing to do with  how much money or how many buildings around the world a person has.  Or how smart he is or how rich.  Or even how many votes he managed to secure. However, it may have everything to do with how much he wants to think Vladimir Putin likes him.

All I am doing here is using my small voice to speak up on this topic, one I just happen to know something about. As much as I hope I am proven wrong, it feels very serious to me.  NOTE: my sister has just sent a link to an excellent article on this same topic. I highly recommend it: Narcissism

I want to end this post with two wonderful photos my daughter took this week. The second one is literally and figuratively a call for personal reflection, which I obviously took to heart before writing this post. Thanks for taking the time to read these concerns of mine....    
         Today's post is not like any other I've done, so next week I plan to share with my blog visitors how I usually pull a post together.

 
     

five years old and on the pond the day before -- the rope is for being pulled over the ice by her dad --

and the next morning -- still enough ice below to come close to walking on water!

  

hay rows and sycamores

post #312
        After posting last week's blog, it occurred to me how much I love that sycamore tree, almost as much as I love watching hay rows take shape on their way to being bales or rounds.  So this week I am going to pull more photos of these "themes" in my work, and see what shape I can give them by doing so.

our field, in progress

a nearby field, finished

 Then here are four different perspectives from the field I showed last week:

curving rows and road

Sycamore, more or less by the season:

        Maybe more another time, but this is a busy week - still processing the election, looking forward to Thanksgiving this year with my son-in-law as super chef, and appreciating all the help I am getting while I continue to move in  --- while giving away as much stuff as possible, including books.  Today I will say just one thing about Donald Trump -- there is one lie he was making that I hope he didn't believe at all. He proclaimed that he would win, but in the meantime he made no effort whatsoever to be prepared when he did win!  If he really did think he would win, and this is the amount of preparation he made, we are in for a lot of trouble just on organization alone. Instead there's not much forethought, and certainly no creative use of America's talent in the choosing of cabinet members. I for one don't see any worth in having a cabinet of only angry white men. All those egos will be fighting for dominance, and not for us citizens. I'd shudder even if I were just a fly on the wall. 
         Sycamores and hay rows bring me a feeling of some kind of harmony in the world. I hope everyone has such delights in the world he or she notices each day.

last of the autumn photos from Mauk Ridge

post #311
      It sounds like winter chill might arrive later this week.  I do have some photos of fall left -- the ones on my iPhone (6s) -- and sharing them seems as good a way as any to close out the season in the spirit of the political upheaval we've had from Tuesday's election. Big changes ahead, and big coming to grips with reality.

       So here goes! The first photo shows my friend Melva who came to help me get ready for the move.  We took a hike break since she had never before been to the big waterfall. The creek on the way there was dry, and still is, actually.  All of eastern Kentucky needs rain even more than I needed Melva's help -- which was a lot!

Asters and leaves:

        There were not many signs up along our road, so I decided to get one for Hillary -- I had to do it while in Lexington.  The sign stayed there until the night before the election.  For the first time in 144 years, my county didn't vote for the Democratic presidential candidate.  But they did vote Democratic for the US Senate race, one of 7 counties in Kentucky to do so.

Two photos made at the pond:

Looking west from our drive way:

 
        I am going to end with three photos of the season that I have not yet been able to share on this blog. As I have written earlier, we have not the usual spectacular fall display, but there is beauty none the less. And the Hallowe'en tradition by Eddie and Darlene:

this year's showy sycamore

         This last photo is a favorite view of the season: hilly rows of hay curing.  I appreciate it this year as something that happens annually, saying something about how much we depend on this farming and caring for the land. It literally grounds me. I just can't help thinking that this election's turmoil will somehow take its place in the flow of things. However, as someone who despaired at the enormous number of lies Trump threw around so irresponsibly, I do think many Americans are going to be pretty disappointed by some of the realities ahead, no matter what was promised. I know in the same way I will be severely disappointed if we choose to look backward for greatness instead of looking ahead. 
         I hope we will start by listening to each other as much as we can. I know I will have more to say because we all have to pay attention to what is really happening around us, but this is enough for now as we all get ready to welcome winter in the weeks to come.

Blog highlights, for the second year of the four

post #216
        The big election is over, and the candidate I have supported didn't survive the onslaught of money and meanness.  I am still proud I could vote, and for her.  My rural county and several others near here gave her the majority of our votes as did the big cities. (Kentucky has 120 counties, so they are small enough that we think of ourselves primarily as part of a county.) 

       Well, today I return to blog reviewing, for my blog year #2.  I'm just mentioning my most viewed posts -- popular for whatever reason.  Who knows why.  In fact, who ever knows what makes anything or anyone "popular!"

• On 3/25/12, I talked about the different cameras I use.  The post is called "a plethora of cameras." (I liked the way those words sounded together.)  My tools haven't changed much since then, except that my best Canon camera is now a really better one.  I continue with my iPhone 4G as well as the Lumix point and shoot I can take out in the rain or under water.

• On 1/8/12 I titled a post "The privilege of living in Appalachia."

• On 6/10/12, my topic was part of the draft of the Appalachian Alphabet book George Ella Lyon and I are still working on.  Specifically, it's the letters Q, R, S!   If you have time to check out just one of these former posts, I recommend this one -- it has the greatest variety of photos. By the way, George Ella's latest book has just been released:  What Forest Knows, illustrated by August Hall and published by Atheneum.  It is getting some fine reviews!!

• The post that got the most views was my tribute to Mike Mullins, from Hindman, KY, who died very unexpectedly.  He was the Executive Director of the Hindman Settlement School, and the power behind the annual Appalachian Writers Workshops there. I knew that many people who appreciated Mike would not be able to make it to Hindman for the funeral, in late February, 2012, so I am glad I was set up to be able to share some photos with them. 

      To finish this post, I'm going to yesterday.  I left home early to attend a conference in Midway, KY, just west of Lexington.  The topic was a report about energy options for Kentucky.  I found each presentation truly riveting.  And there was also discussion about the election, led by former Governor Martha Layne Collins.  I'm so glad I was able to be there.  
       I did take my camera with me, of course, and the first two photos are near home, showing that I indeed  left early!!)  The two maple tree photos are mid morning in Midway.  We don't see trees like that so much in my part of Kentucky.  A great day -- except I would have loved to have more morning time for photos in Midway, which is horse country beautiful.

the neighbors, untouched photo

 

behind me at that same spot

Midway College campus

      Today is sunny here, lovely, leaves keep falling, our wood cookstove is back in winter position, and I will be back here in a week....

midway between Halloween and the election....

post #215

"Well, here she comes again, with that black thing in her face!"

    I saw this goat on my way to visit my clever neighbors who always have an amazing Halloween display.  The family hay ride and party had to take place two weeks ago, but LUCKILY two of their creative creatures were still there to greet me the day after Halloween:

   










 The leaves have been changing all through October.  Here below are three photos from last week:

fallen leaves on the driveway, facing the way we "leaf home":

the barn, behind the sycamore

the chicken house/tool shed building, with sign

       My milkweed project lasted a year, but I have been keeping an eye on the plants this year as well, out of habit.  I have seen hardly any of the fluffy, sailing seeds!  This year would have been a bust as far as following the plants month after month.  
      Then, just the other day, I noticed a single milkweed plant in a totally unexpected location, with seeds opening!  At last.  I took this first photo Thursday evening, with its lovely sedate artistic display. 

  
      This second photo was taken after our Friday night storm: wind! rain! first freeze!

       Many thanks to someone for the comment on my blog last week about my letter to the editor!  I'm sorry not to be able to write back, but I don't see the email address the comments are sent from.  
    
       The sun is shining today which is why I decided I would not continue my blog review until next weekend.  I want to get outside!!  But I do have one last democracy directive to throw your way.  The election is soon, on Tuesday, though the political shenanigans continue.  My hope is that if enough people get to the polls to vote, Kentucky might actually elect Secretary of State Alison Grimes to be our US Senator and change the course of history. 
      
      Alison came to nearby Morehead Thursday night, for some speech giving and photo taking.  She could so entirely do a great job as our US Senator.  I will be calmer next week once this whole thing is decided.  

       PLEASE VOTE, where ever you are, and bring a friend with you!!  We need to make a special effort this year to do so to honor the many citizens who are being shut out from voting because of repeated Republican attempts to make it harder to pass muster at the poles, despite hardly any voter fraud anywhere in the nation.  In Kentucky, we also need to honor the convicted felons who have done their time but are still blocked from voting!