I remember my parents always arguing. My father especially was angry often. I never could figure out what good it did.
I remember being very attracted to this one young woman after college. We didn’t argue or fight in our relationship. I liked that so I married her.
I remember having a conversation with her about me being angry about something. She said she didn’t understand why I was angry, ranting and raving about whatever it was. Her question to me was ‘What good does it do?’
I remember my answer. It doesn’t have to DO any good. The good is in how good it feels to just get it out, to just express myself. That by doing that, I let go of the anger and it goes away. She said, ‘Then why does it come back? It doesn’t actually seem to do what you say it does. You don’t get rid of it.’
I remember so many years of my first marriage, thinking we were doing well and she was happy because we didn’t argue or get angry very often at each other, if at all.
I remember realizing that wasn’t true. She wasn’t happy, she was just unwilling to argue and get angry about the situation, bottling it up instead until it was too late.
I remember when we got divorced. I was explaining the situation to a friend. I was going over our thought processes and how we communicated various things. She got mad at me because we weren’t getting mad at each other. She said we should be angry; yelling and arguing about all these things we were discussing calmly. I told her I didn’t do that because I couldn’t figure out what good it would do.
Flint Creek in Fog, New Life Ranch, Oklahoma, 1990s
My daughters went to camp here for many years. We also went to family camp a number of times as well. It was down in a valley so the fog would often settle in pretty thick in the mornings.
Cadillacs and Barbed Wire, Amarillo, Texas, 2009
The Cadillac Ranch is an art installation in an empty field west of Amarillo. We always try to stop there on our drives to California as sort of a pilgrimage.
Sunrise as if I Were on the Plains of Africa
Amazingly enough, this scene was out my back door in Glenpool, Oklahoma. But it was like nothing I had ever seen before and it led me to imagine it was on the savanna of Africa.
Infinity Marsh, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2009
It was a perfect day for a marsh visit; cool, overcast, misty, and humid.
The City and the Mountains, Seattle, Washington, 2011
We had a tourist pass to a number of sites in Seattle, including 2 trips up the Space Needle. The girls weren’t interested in going a second time so I went by myself with my camera at dusk.
Golden Gate Silhouette, San Francisco, California, 2007
My family has a long history in the San Francisco Bay Area. I first went across the bridge when I was perhaps 11 or 12 years old to visit my cousin who lived in Marin County just to the north of it. I lived in SF and San Jose for a number of years and went over the bridge many times, walking and driving. This was a new view for me though. We took a ferry to Sausalito and Angel Island. I was able to see the bridge in relationship to the shore, hills and homes along the route in ways I had not seen before.
Composition with Saguaro Skeleton, Saguaro National Park, Arizona
My daughter and I went to San Diego to pick up a car that my father was giving to us. On the drive home through Arizona we stopped at the National Park. Caitlin started her love affair with Cacti at that time.
Curve of the Earth with Dead Tree, Volcano National Monument, New Mexico, 2000s
A little known spot in the scheme of all the great national parks and monuments, Capulin Volcano is a perfect circular cone volcano that you can walk up. The view from the top, with nothing but flat land all around, was pretty spectacular.
Landscape with Birds, Trees and Horses, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 2009
One doesn’t have to go far from home in Oklahoma to see scenes like this. This spot was just about a mile from my old house.
Why do those thunderstorms come and ruin our crops?
Why did that friend betray me?
Why did that other friend save me?
What caused all these animals to be alive?
What caused me to be alive?
What makes a seed grow?
Why do we die?
What happens to us when we die?
All these used to be religious questions because religion started out as science. It was the thought and the act of trying to figure out why things are the way they are, why things happen.
It did a pretty good job of it too, for a long time. But religion got stuck because it did not have a method for self-correction. Too much was invested in the answers they came up with to allow those answers to change. It is pretty much the same way now.
That is when religion and science split. Science moved forward with the addition of a way to self-correct, the scientific method, and religion did not.
Drawing, quote and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
I love quotes that bring up something I had never thought before. I love the simplicity of this one. A constant refrain you hear from opinionated creationists who are uneducated about the theory of evolution is something along the lines of “I ain’t descended from no chimpanzee!” I hadn’t thought about it before but really, how much more embarrassing is it to say “I’m descended from dirt!” Dirt (more commonly translated as dust), as you know, is what we are said to have been made from in the biblical book of Genesis.
Of course the truth is that in evolutionary theory we are not descended from chimps. We are descended from a common ancestor. The chimp ancestors went in one direction from that common ancestor and humans ancestors went in another direction. But whether a creationist likes the idea of it or not, our DNA proves we are the closest of relatives. Human and chimps have anywhere from 95% to 98.8% DNA in common, depending on what statistic you choose to believe. But the point, no matter the exact percentage, is that we are much more likely to have been descended from a common ancestor of the chimp than a common ancestor of dirt.
Monday Question: Do you know why, in the biblical story of Genesis, Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden?
Answer: Genesis 2:22 – And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden…
So, it wasn’t because they ate from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There was punishment for that, but it did not include getting kicked out of the garden. They were kicked out so they would not be equal to the Gods (notice it’s plural when it says ‘become like one of us’), by becoming immortal through eating of the tree of life.
The argument for Creation Science is ‘WOW, life is so incredible, there just has to be a designer.’ That is not science, that is awe. Awe is good, but it isn’t the end of an investigation, it’s the beginning. However, if you start your investigation with a foregone conclusion then you are, of course, forbidden to reach any other conclusion at the end of your investigation. Can anyone honestly say that Creation Science is open to follow the evidence wherever it may lead? I think the answer is pretty obviously no. It can’t and it won’t. Because it starts with the statement that there has to be a specific type of conscious being as a creator, it can never freely look at evidence that might contradict that. It might give the appearance of a neutral look at the evidence, but it will always be forced to squeeze whatever is found through the filter of a conscious designer. That in turn will both skew the evidence and skew the direction any further investigation will take.
Now, it is true that legitimate science can, on occasion, also skew evidence. But the great thing about legitimate science is, in spite of individuals wanting to push a certain theory, it is ultimately self-correcting. A theory that can’t be backed up over time is eventually discarded and replaced with one that is more in keeping with the evidence.
Creation Science can’t, and never will be, ultimately self-correcting because it can never allow for evidence that threatens its foregone conclusion.
Let’s start at the very beginning…of Creation vs Evolution Week at the NDD!
Would you enjoy life without the knowledge of good and evil? Not just evil mind you, but GOOD and evil. What would life be like with out EITHER of those things?
When the story of Adam and Eve was written, approximately 3,500 years ago, it was explained that the desire to have knowledge of good and evil was a bad thing, a heresy so to speak. It was then a fatal misconduct on the part of Adam and Eve to act on that desire. It was an explanation for why humans are the way they are.
Now we know there are many other reasons as well for why we are the way we are. The sciences of zoology, biology, chemistry, physics and cosmology all have contributed to our more advanced (though not yet complete) understanding of these things.
And guess what? Each one of those sciences and their early (and in some cases later) discoveries were first seen as heretical and those who practiced them were seen as guilty of misconduct. Many were thrown in jail and killed as a result of their investigations. Many who weren’t treated so harshly were still sidelined and dismissed for their ideas. Our evolution doesn’t come easily it seems. A question: Do you know why, in the biblical story of Genesis, Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden? I bet the reason is not what you think. The answer tomorrow.
Starting back in the 1980s I developed a photographic fascination for backs. It started when a model I was photographing for a project got cold feet about doing the nudes we had planned. We were already the location, a beach with dramatic cliffs and incredible textures and colors. At first it seemed to be a bothersome restriction but I soon found unexpected creative opportunities spending the day photographing her and her back.Since then I have always looked for, and found, great backs everywhere I go. The broad, subtle landscape of the back, especially when combined with clothing that overlaps it with beautiful designs, textures and colors, or tanlines that create elegant layers, always offers beauty. In the last decade the prominence of tattoos has added another element of significance and interplay that keeps me interested.
Here is a slide show of a few of my ‘Backs and Straps’ over the years.
Which one are you? Or which one are you married to? Do you think women are the same way?
Quote by Will Rogers, 1879-1935, American humorist. Did you know that Rogers was in the Guinness Book of World Records for successfully throwing 3 lassos at once?
