[Stefan S]

Originally Posted by ThaMaestro

Not great news, but not bad news either. I hope everything turns out good for you. Just bust out the water bong and leave all your worries behind.

Thank you, Sir!

In fact, it's good news even if not perfect. Especially, I have two kick ass doctors. That is two more than most of the people in the world. That's a good reason to be grateful, for sure.

[Stefan S]

DRIFTWOOD (July 06)

* * *

They always arrive here in bunches, frequently after a storm, even a distant one. High tides and winds push them on the sand where they rest until the nature takes its course. Sometimes they are gone after a while, perhaps sinking into the sand. Or, who knows, maybe the Dragon Clan adopts them as protecting guardians, share with them the cloak of invisibility through which only children and other poets can see.



Sometimes they pretend to be animals from some unknown species. The Ladies bark at them, especially if we encounter them at dusk. But, eventually, things get settled and they kind of adopt these strange creatures, treat them as if they can become members of our pack, even start playing with them.



Sometimes people come, drag them away, perhaps as decoration pieces for their gardens, perhaps as material for firewood.



Like I said, they almost always arrive in bunches, usually after a storm.


* * *

The one we found recently is unusual. No one knows where it came from but it surely travelled long ways. Its battered body proves it as it is full of wounds and scars, covered by clams and shells. But it also shows its strength, and resolve, and dignity. It arrived right after the hurricane Arlene landed in Veracruz, some 800 miles South. So, we have expected more. But, though we walked half a way to Port Aransas (no, not in one stretch), we have not found its company. Maybe, it is one of those free spirits comfortable just where it is, not caring about the company of others, not worrying about the future. No one knows where it will go.

searching for meaning
on the entire island
lone piece of driftwood

About the last two. I was focused on the line of pelicans when, all of the sudden, Sappho stepped into the frame. So, I am not sure how much credit I deserve for this composition. By the way, please, check out her paw. No, she is not hurting or anything (in fact, they have been in marvelous shape and mood recently). It is a hunting-playing pose (can be an invitation for Molly to play and it can be stalking the birds, too.). I am glad how I was able, accidentally or not, to capture her motion.

[Dave Bing]

That last picture is great for a point-and-shoot. Composition is impressive, if accidental.

[hack]

Are you suggesting that Stefan's dog actually ISN'T shitting birds?

[Stefan S]

Originally Posted by hack

Are you suggesting that Stefan's dog actually ISN'T shitting birds?

bwahahaha! That is funny!

[Stefan S]

Originally Posted by Dave Bing

That last picture is great for a point-and-shoot. Composition is impressive, if accidental.

Thank you so much!

Definitely an "accident" but somewhat controlled (I knew where the pelicans were and I knew were she was, and I was taking all of this into consideration while shooting). In a similar way, when you do (e.g., Japanese) calligraphy, some of the movements of a brush and marks it leaves on a paper are also accidental. So, you play of the spontaneity of the medium, so to speak, you use it.

Also, accident or not, there is still some work (sometimes lots of work) before you get what seems a final product. Just to illustrate this point, here is the rough original shot as recorded by my camera (no edits of any kind):



^ The rough unedited "original" shot.



^ The line of horizon is straightened up (so it is actually horizontal rather than tilted).
Of course, you pay a prize for it, some of the stuff on the edges is lost and
the photo is not any more rectangular (strictly speaking, it is a very irregular octagon) .



^ The "final" version after cropping out the margins.

[Stefan S]

calmly
he gazes at the mountain --
the frog

- Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1827)

Stef's renku:

calmly she stares
at the rising full moon --
the dog

[Stefan S]

SUDDEN CLOUDS ON THE LAGUNA MADRE

Well defined clouds and a clear horizon -- a photographer dream. I am so psyched up for this sunset, it's almost unhealthy. An alternative is a low tide roam on the East shore which we would love. Sometimes it is better to just walk, sweat, work out. The low tide and semi elastic yet firm sand are ideal.

The crucial bulky issue is always my big cannon. Mostly, because of her huge kicks ass tele-lens (18-200, 13x, with the internal image stabilizer). This is the state of the arts lens created for my cannon by the genius of canon. The downsize is that if I really want to stretch out, the way we sometimes do, this extra weight puts lots strain of on my arthritic knees. So, when I take her with us on a walk I know I will be in pain later on during that day and sometimes night, too.

If I am not going to take photos, it's best to leave the camera at home. Well, maybe in the car, but this does not feel quite safe.

At first, I did not think I had anything in the eight photos I took that evening. But then I realized I have made some mistakes in framing, trying to put the sun in the upper right strong point. So, I reframe everything bringing the sun to the lower right strong, or even below, and showing much more clouds. New versions of the photos really grow up on me. And, yes, my knees suffer late into night.

last moments of the day
the veil of clouds
thickens

hoping for gorgeous sunset
I almost step into
dogs dung

sudden clouds
as if by chance I step into
early sunset

tacked in the golden
veil of light, my sweet dogs too
love this sunset

____
* By the way,in the first two photos, upper right corner, 'seems like possibly
definite dragon... (possibly even having some human ancestors, too.

The first try at something new (two photo haiga):

[Stefan S]

'been kind of quiet
someone dear is taking
the longest journey

flying away
yet never leaving home
the wild geese

I post this series, also, because I just found this poem:

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press

It feels like perhaps the universe and the wild geese
are trying to tell me something.

[Money23]

Those are gorgeous. The second pic of the birds is amazing.

[Stefan S]

Thank you!

Also...

WILD GEESE AGAIN (The Mustang Island, Agust 22, 2011)

Unlike the (some time ago) geese headed North (straight to Austin)
these wild geese are headed South

coming and going
I miss my mother wild geese

[Stefan S]

A dawn with a piece of driftwood and the dogs (the Mustang Island, September 12th)

Finally, a few "medium-low tide" photos of recently my favorite subject:

having taken two baths
my dogs too have
a good night rest

I could not move this magnificent trunk even a fraction of an inch, no matter how hard I tried. I could not even tilt it by standing on the longest branch and using it as a lever. Yet, few days ago, a very high post hurricane tide easily lifted it, flipped it around, and pushed it further on the sand. So, it looks now quite differently than in earlier photos. Now it is more like a dyno rather than a whale or a sea serpent.

The Ocean's power is amazing. And it's quietude, when it is quiet, just as amazing. A great metaphor for that power, call it Brahman or Shunyatta or however you want to call it, that underlies the visible world. At least, thats how I explain some of the Eastern philosophy ideas to people who ask about such things, using the Ocean to represent (or, perhaps, as a metaphor for) the fundamental oneness and interconnectedness of all things, and using the waves to represent the individual things.

[Stefan S]

My friends Robb and Vanessa Jackson, English Professors at TAMU-CC, have just published another book of poetry, this time as co-authors, it is called "Crane Creek: Two Voices" (Daniel & Daniel Publishers, 2011). I love it how they not only have written it together but also how they shared the book at the reading; hence I called this sequence "Sharing the Book". Congratulations Robb and Vanessa! (By the way, these use only existing light, so I had to crank up ISO. However, I hate flash-lamp, in part as a matter of principle also it is too intrusive. Frequently, people do not even know when I take photos.)

[Stefan S]

CRAZY RANT ABOUT THE CRAZINESS IN THIS CRAZY WORLD

Sometimes, some of these funny things make me sad. Like "The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War", by Jaroslav Hasek, a great book in its own rights and a precursor of many other great books about the craziness of wars. Joseph Heller said he would not have written his "Catch-22" if he did not read Hasek's work. I am sure it influenced other authors, too. I can read 20 or 30 pages of "Soldier Švejk" laughing out loud but then reality creeps in. I rediscover that the book is really about the fact that, as a species, we are just plain stupid crazy irrational. And, no matter how hard I laughed a moment ago, I become sad. Lenny Bruce is another example. His humor may be a bit more subdued than Hasek's, still his dark irony and sarcasm can make one quite depressed.

Perhaps that's why I love the humor of absurd, crazy stunts of Harold Lloyd climbing up the Empire State building in "Safety Last," Buster Keaton's invariably straight face showing no emotions, Laurel's and Hardy's surreal humor and delayed reactions as if the real life were really but the game of chess... I can laugh with them at the very absurdity of our existence and never feel bad or sad about it.

Now, I understand that the terms like "crazy" or "absurd" have many meanings which sometimes cause confusion and misunderstanding. For example, some people say "I am so crazy" which drives some people crazy. For they think that people who are really crazy do not really think or say they are crazy. But I am not so sure. I think that some people who are crazy really think they are crazy. They learn that from their psychiatrists who, by the way, kill themselves three times as much as doctors who, by the way, kill themselves three times as much as ordinary folks. Which raises some interesting questions, like, "Does it mean that psychiatrists are nine times as crazy as the rest of us? Then why do they claim we are crazy?"

I asked about it my friend shrink. She winked and said, you are having some crazy ideas, aren't you? Perhaps we have enough time to have some ice-cream before going to <strike>bed</strike> see a movie. So, we did. It was crazy and fun, it was crazy fun, it was really crazy. But it didn't answer my worries. So, next day I asked my friend, a philosopher, the very same question. Are our experts about the craziness crazy? He smirked and started to put some mysterious symbols on an old wooden black board, like P, ~P, ~(P & ~P), ~(~~P -> P), ~Ax(~~Px -> Px)... Then he looked at me and said "Even if it’s not the case that psychiatrists are not really crazy then it still does not follow that they are really crazy." This sounded really crazy. I looked at him as if he was... into something deviant. Yes, he was. It was a deviant system of para consistent intuitionist logic without the pseudo complement from the double negation to affirmation. No doubt, some philosophers are crazy.

(If you are not philosophically inclined, please skip this paragraph.) Take, for example, John Locke who wondered whether there is a sound when a tree falls in the woods and there is no one around to hear it. Now, if it sounds crazy to you, wait because a) in reality it is not crazy and b) some shit down the road is even more crazy. Rather, Locke tried to distinguish two kinds of qualities. He thought some of them do not depend on perception or minds, they are really "out there." He called them the primary qualities. The shape of something and all kinds of movements, including the vibration of air, are in this group. Other qualities, however, seem to have some mental or even phenomenal component built into them; they seem to be dependent on perception and the perceiving minds. Locke called them the secondary qualities. Colors, tastes, and feels are in this group. So, his question was about the nature of sound; i.e., whether the sound is a primary or a secondary quality; not a crazy question at all. His follower, Bishop Berkeley, took it however to yet another level and maintained that the entire world is made of perceptions and ideas in someone’s mind. That is, literally, everything depends on mind, everything is a secondary quality. That's why we call him a Metaphysical Idealist. His position seems to imply that everything would disappear if no one were watching it. Now, that's crazy. To mitigate for this absurdity, Berkeley postulated that there is God who never falls asleep and constantly watches everything. When we perceive the world as objectively made of physical matter, it's but an illusion. In reality, the world is the set of thoughts and ideas in God's mind. It sounds quite mystical. Also, to me, it sounds a bit crazy. But it builds a certain objectivity into the Berkley's world. When I explained this idea to students in my philosophy class, one of them said "Now I understand why beer in my fridge disappears when I fall asleep and am not watching it." "Really?" I asked, "Do you mean that Berkeley was wrong and, sometimes, God falls asleep, too, and in those moments beer disappear and then mysteriously reappear at exactly in the same position when God wakes up?" "Oh, no!" he answered, "This beer never appears again." How do you mean, I pressed. "Well, when I fall asleep and do not watch it, my roommates drink my beer. Well, when they drink too much of it, the beer sometimes appear back, so technically speaking I misspoke a moment ago..." With every moment he was digging himself into more and more gross story for a simple reason that he was one of those who are not philosophically inclined. He is one of those people who would have, perhaps even should have, skipped this paragraph. That's why he started to confuse the issues of human health and plain human stupidity with the issues of metaphysical idealism. So, I attempted to returned our discussion to the issue about the place of God in Berkley's metaphysics, and why Berkley was an Objective Idealist. Now, postulating the existence of God is always a bit of a stretch. Some think there is no proof of that. Still, just like the lack of proof that you are crazy does not prove that you are not crazy, the lack of proof that God exists does not prove that God does not exist. That's obvious. What may prove that God does not exist is that there is so much crazy shit going on in the world, like for example suffering, wars, deaths and other bad things. Some philosophers think that believing in God is contrary to reason, just share absurdity. And yet, Tertullian not only took the leap of faith but also urged us, " Credo quia absurdum, believe it because it is absurd."

Like I said, some philosophers are crazy.

My mother disagrees. She thinks that all philosophers are crazy, beginning with Berkeley and ending with her son. I almost interjected that philosophy really began with Plato. But then I realized that, with his idea of unchanging substantial forms, Plato was some crazy cat, too, as was his teacher Socrates and many of the pre-socratics. So, I held back while she continued, "sane people pursue careers in engineering, law, medicine, psychiatry." "Mother," I asked her, "how come that so many psychiatrists commit suicide? Are they more crazy than the rest of us, nine times as crazy? Are psychiatrists really really crazy?" She looked at me as if I was crazy.

Now, honestly, I have no evidence to think I am crazy; I think I am not crazy, well, at least, not crazy enough to attempt to solve problems of others before I solve mine. That’s why I am not a shrink. Then, again, maybe I am crazy. Perhaps I am a crazy philosopher ranting about the craziness in this absurd world in which people who are crazy do not think they are crazy, while people who are not crazy say "I am so crazy." And if you think about it, that's really crazy.

a crazy day
the huge crab on the beach
stares me down

[Stefan S]

Solar eclipse on the Mustang Island, Texas, May 20, 2012