About Gifts That Created Joy

The WordPress community provides a daily prompt to get bloggers thinking about what they can write and post. There is also a weekly photo challenge, accompanying the daily prompts, a weekly essay that invites photographers to put a new photo for others interested in the daily prompts to see.

This week’s essay, written by Ben Huberman, has the title “smile.” Ben says to illustrate a moment of joy.

For my birthday this year, the day of March I celebrate my birthday, my parents got me a nice new camera to supplant the one I was shooting with for years, often photos to show what we were doing at the not-for-profit for which I help provide operations. Even though it is already April, I am still learning how to shoot with the new camera, building on the knowledge I already had with the point-and-shoot model that was quite a few years old, several years anyway. I am finding out I am not as good a photographer as I thought, but I hope to improve– https://www.facebook.com/LouthUnited

A friend reminded me of times past when she showed me photos on her phone of a gentleman who was a good friend to me when he was alive, a man in his sixties named John. In the last several months of his life, we were close and he did me a few favors by getting me things for my home that I needed.

He was proud he was good at “finding” things if you asked him, and he knew for example that the Salvation Army thrift store discarded items which they didn’t feel they could sell to anyone and that he could grab the odd item of value that they didn’t see the value in. And he knew that sometimes neighbors in the complex would put out items for the garbage, which occasionally still had value in them for the purpose of reuse.

I do a lot of my work on a Windows 10 PC, but I never had speakers for it until the day John brought me a pair of computer speakers that positively thrilled me, speakers that both reminded me of the past when I was younger and more exuberant, and in the age of Windows 10, speakers, that gave me the ability to play music with Spotify, for example. It was the best of two worlds.

Of course, I smiled–I took a photo today of John’s gift to get me thinking music. You can see the speakers–and I don’t think the fact that they’re an older model means they’re “rusty.”

They sound nice. I’m not an audiophile, but music helps with a bum mood.

You can’t say the gear’s rusty yet

You can see a lamp, as well, which true to form John got for me the same way, picking it up when it was headed for discard. John was real and he was cool and he knew how he could help me out.

I shouldn’t overlook my parents’ help, either–the first photo I took with the new camera, when I was still literally learning how to turn it on, was a photo of another lamp, which lights my way to this day, and my favourite chair, and believe it or not, it was John who outfitted me with both of these.

A reading chair

Of course I miss John and everything he contributed, which was as about life lessons as about material goods. There is an adage that people come into our life for a day, a season or a lifetime, and if you see life in those terms you can enjoy gains that simply wouldn’t have been there if you never trusted.

The Treasure that Reminds Me to Laugh

In personal ads, it’s not surprising to someone advertising GSOH–a good sense of humor. I see TV ads promoting services like eHarmony or Match.com. I know from the pace of those kinds of services that a gentleman needs to represent that he is a good guy in order to attract a mate.

To start the New Year with something new on the horizon, I have been doing a free ten-day course from WordPress called Developing Your Eye–I am a week late, but mostly on schedule. Today I’m doing the exercise for the eighth day of the course.

The theme of today’s photo is “treasure.” I reflected on this and realized I could take a photo both literal and figurative. I photographed a clown ornament at which I regularly gaze. The clown was given to me by a dear friend, and it both reminds me of friendship and to remember the humor in life. I admit I am not a keen fan of comedy nor see much mirth in day-to-day life, but some days the best times I have are when I again find a reason to laugh.

Clown ornament

The clown is playing the “world’s smallest violin,” that joke, and I think of that from my father’s perspective. As to make your bed and lie in it.

I realize the clown is a touch creepy, I suppose, but reflecting on “treasure” I think the ability to laugh is dear and also that if I have tried anything at an evocative decor the clown in the photo is among what I cherish most.

I’m not a funny individual, and I can’t put the abbreviation in GSOH across the Internet or in the newspaper.

Remember that the personals can sink you.

Solitude I Can Justify

Not to be idle, and also to say farewell to 2017 and to welcome 2018, I am doing the free WordPress course, ten days long, called Developing Your Eye, to help me get a little better as a photographer. Honestly, I am a week late, but there has been holiday fun, the intense winter weather, and other reasons to procrastinate.

To complete the exercise for Day Six of the course, I took to the idea of solitude. How I thought to illustrate solitude is to show the vantage point of a walking trail up the street from where I live, between an elementary school where some of my education took place when I was little, and a gospel chapel on the other side of the trail.

A gospel chapel the last day of the year

While I don’t attend the chapel, this point of origin symbolizes for me the distance between my home now, to the road to where my parents live, and where I spent my teenage years and most of my twenties. Down the street I live alone. The solitude is having left where I resided in my younger years.

On the path beside the gospel chapel

In 1978 DC Comics gave us the big screen adaptation of the Superman comic starring the late Christopher Reeves–I realize the film belongs to a generation older than mine. Superman, reflecting on his power, travels north to his Fortress of Solitude to find answers about his fate and his obligation as a hero.

The silver screen images of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude became so iconic that even in the present Henry Cavill version of the Superman saga the recreated Fortress of Solitude in his films strongly resembles the design of the 1978 film with Christopher Reeve. The nineteen seventies Fortress of Solitude has been translated to the current Superman films with a similar design that remembers Superman on film in the seventies and eighties.

Why does the caped superhero require solitude? Solitude can permit a person to approach life with his own direction, unimpeded by the feedback of others.

The town here is small but it is a city–it is never that lonesome. There is contact with people each and every day.

It doesn’t mean that I don’t cultivate an attitude of preserving solitude, and I imagine it shows in the style of the blog I write and in the appearance of the photos I take. I imagine many humans likewise treasure their solitude, particularly in that as adults there are so many demands and requirements for living in a Western culture that we have little choice but to conform.

When there is an opportunity for solitude, in contrast to what we are tasked with doing in the course of day-to-day work, solitude becomes extremely valuable, at least in small measures. In other words, silence is golden.

I realize it is ironic I am writing that when blogging can be seen as a search for a community (and WordPress is an inclusive community). Blogging is a given in this day and age–if you have even a basic amount of computer literacy, it is not surprising if you are blogging.

If you are doing business, and you personally have some computer literacy or otherwise a member of your team is computer-literate, you should have a blog. Even as I assert my blog is not making me money, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to pursue it. I suppose I am trying to have my cake and eat it, too, but I have the solitude that I think makes me truer and I am likewise active at participating in the Internet, which is millions and millions of others.

I don’t think foregoing solitude is the answer, but I respect those people for whom blogging is not just satisfying as an opportunity to make discoveries, but who profit financially by being business-savvy with the blogging that they do.

You can find my church at https://www.facebook.com/LouthUnited

A Simple, Elegant Victory

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” -Charles Darwin

Two years ago I felt the world’s people could have victory; today I feel not.  The observation asks so much a complicated mire that I wonder if it will ever be resolved, and I’m not sure about it.

I remember being young, making decisions, feeling that the future would be cheery.  Experiencing some maturity, if in short bursts, solving mysteries that confronted me and remaining interested in famous literature, music, and art were all part of the journey.

It is such a wearying experience to think about time lost and that the best of what could be termed intellectual is lost to time.  But there remain others who do the contemplating.

The machination of insight doth crumble.

A number of famous persons for whom I held enormous respect were celebrated certainly in their own right.  There was for many the very strong pull of events connected to ongoing victories which steered people in the direction of victory.  These aren’t forgotten to history, but for the individual who lacks focus:  likewise, some of the vision of the past has dimmed to a haze.

It no longer seems the times were defined by what interprets a victory, whether a top-selling album’s reissue with new songs, a recording artist’s return to form, or a novel’s adaptation for film.  I suspect, honestly, they weren’t, but my doubts could be daftness in me that has come on with age.  I remain unsure.

The times were at least signified by what had been done some dear, favorite pop icons, I think.  You will have your own.  Thank you for reading.

Shield Your Eyes and Dissolve the Most Troubling Condition that Plagues You

I was very humbled last night by a comment on the post I wrote and published yesterday, found at pity-for-loss-and-unfulfilled-expectations/

You see, I was speculating that were I to choose a favorite poet of the past, I would choose Percy Bysshe Shelley for his brilliant repute. It was kindly explained to me many things about the death of the renowned poet with which I was barely acquainted. It is possible I should be apologetic for saying so much about the lettered man of two hundred years ago. You can find a recent post by William Pierce who provided assistance to me at https://walkwithgod.blog/2017/07/23/pray-to-be-one/ William blogs regularly, publishing passages of text from The Bible along with his devotional poems and with prayer. I am grateful for this emotional support of my efforts and am considering repenting more often such that the work I do is not in vain.
Today’s WordPress Daily Prompt is the word Trance. As you must know, the Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017, which is I understand is visible across North America, must be treated as the dangerous phenomenon it is but also recognized as an important occasion that will mark the days for a long time to come. I think of trance as something in Black Magic that brings the dead back from the grave or as a hypnotic state induced in order to remember the distant past or to cope with a problem that troubles one’s self-conscious. For the most part, though, the thing that occurs to me the most is the underground trance music of clubbers that I think was characteristic of dance music in the 1990s. I don’t mean the radio-friendly pop music, I mean the beats and the electronica, like Orb or other people doing music like that. I probably know as much about it as I do about Shelley, but those ideas are what the word suggests to me. Naturally enough, I am sure there will be many entering a trance state at some point today and tomorrow, as the solar eclipse is widely held to be an important twenty-first-century event. However the state of mind that is trance is accessed, if you see this it may be of benefit to you to reflect on events which happened on and about the time of the 2017 Solar Eclipse.  

It is a difficult decision whether to blog, but I am in favor of it as I feel it is a regular part life and has been years now, and I am going with this blog post, as it doesn’t have a very large readership and it is unlikely to be scrutinized too closely. I do recognize, especially with the help of William Pierce, who has been gracious enough to respond to several of my blog posts in the past, and who seems positively in favor of gentle guidance onto the path of The Lord. It may ultimately be the path I tread, as I feel there is much comfort to be had in the arms of Jesus Christ, and with all of the rewards that accompany a life in Christ.

If you are okay with this post, click like, follow, and/or subscribe. I’ll see you soon. Good luck to you, and don’t forget too soon what has come August 21, 2017. It’s the Dark Side of the Moon. I believe you are owed the freedom that accompanies the decision to recognize 2017’s Solar Eclipse. Change can happen and is real.

Unofficial Church Army

This week’s WordPress photo challenge is, oddly enough, about your personal moments of distraction when you are about practicing your self-discipline (i.e., when you are working). I help a little with operations at a small cemetery in Ontario, in the city where I live.  We care for the grounds, etc. (you can find us on the Internet here).

However, to be totally honest, but it could be therapeutic, I am completely distractible by my own thoughts, which typically drift to my activities on the Internet, not so much Internet dating or the like, but being active on the Internet, and, more often, accessing music on the Internet.

It distracts me to no end and I begin to wish for it.

It is a terrible practice when I am expected to be solemn.  I regret this and try to conceal it.

However, for example… there is a church in front of the cemetery which disbanded in 2006 (you can find Louth United on Facebook here). One of the things that preoccupy is music by a band that was classic in the 1980s, The Church (see the similarity?  There’s a church. I think about the song Under the Milky Way).

Even my mother has encouraged me to stop that.  However, I feel I am nearly part of the Church Army.

In fact, the other day I saw the band’s tweet announcing their North America tour of 2017.  Even though there is only one stop in Canada, and it is far west, in Vancouver, I thought I would put this in place because if you are in the United States, in a major center, here is when The Church is back in your town.

2017 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

I’ve thought about the possibility that I am doing a disservice to the religious, by speaking of The Church, which clearly utilizes ideas about space and time in its music, which is somewhat heretical in the sense that ideas of that kind typically preclude a normal interest in God. It really isn’t like that. Steve Kilbey, who sings Under the Milky Way, knows quite a bit about Christian history, as I’ve observed in his blogging on The Time Being.

Other than that, he’s a major recording artist who has a classic song from the 1980s and he’s thoroughly cool. I have that interest in him that I can’t shake, and it’s been years (feels like my whole life) that I’ve been feeling happy when I remember to play songs by his band The Church.  I realize that this is a far cry from what’s hip in my stretch of the sea, but I am consistently wowed by all the intellect, talent, and creativity that goes into Kilbey’s music, with and without The Church.

For example, Starfish from 1988, which includes Under the Milky Way, is full of great music that betrays that it’s a staple of the 1980s, but also a little more removed from stylistic touches that dominate most music of its day.  There was tons of tacky music in the 1980s.

Look at the tour poster for The Church in 2017 in North America. You can find The Church on Twitter here. If you are interested in any of this, feel free to ‘like,” “follow,” and/or “comment.”

Thank you for visiting and good luck this autumn.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Like Sunshine the Future is Welcome

WordPress provides a series of supportive prompts, including Daily Prompts which these days are typically one word, designed to get participating bloggers writing about similar themes at the same time (often unbeknownst to one another).  I check the Daily Prompt when I think of writing a blog post, and today’s prompt is the word, “glaring,” which interests me because I immediately think of what is glaring that is obvious.  I relate the word glaring to the phrase glaringly obvious.  The prompt is here:  glaring

 

I think some about video, which is an extraordinary innovation in 2017, and which is provided for consumers at many levels, both amateur and professional (and in between).  The word video, as I understand it, typically refers to video content, which is videos that are assembled in relative entirety, or in sequential formats, possibly to inform, and often to entertain.  For example, the king of social media, Facebook, is debuting today original video inside the “Watch” tab on your Facebook account.  I presume this debut is coming across the U.S., but I think I have to wait to teach myself the “Watch” tab rather than seek out too much additional instruction (and thus feel the element of surprise), as I am at home in Canada.  You can learn a little more about the “Watch” tab on Facebook in the U.S. here:  https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/09/facebook-watch/

 

00001. While the news doesn’t make the same waves in Canada, it is just one more aspect of video in 2017 that indicates that if you are marketing content for business purposes, you need to be afield in video content.  Personally, I help operate a not-for-profit with a small following on Facebook, and while we’re short of the mark where the potential to show video content exists, at least we are somewhat informed as to what is happening with small business and the Internet and we are persisting with some hopes for video in the future.  Visit us here:  

https://www.facebook.com/LouthUnited

Peter checks that the cemetery plot is complete the day of the funeral.

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