Many engaged in public affairs are often doing so by the mere act of paying attention. We aren’t at town hall meetings and we aren’t calling our representatives over every issue. But we are paying attention. And just like in so many areas of life, we think if we do something then everyone must do that same thing. I watch the evening weather forecast every night so everyone else probably does the same. But as we get older and wiser we realize that is a fallacy. It is not true that just because we do something everyone else does it.
This is especially true regarding public affairs and politics. I pay a lot of attention to it but I know many people who pay almost no attention to it. If I mention something egregious that a leader says or I mention a certain bill was passed there is a good chance they don’t know about it.
Sometimes I think that can be a blessing. It’s nice to just go about ones life and not be inundated by the constant noise of public and political activity. It can be distracting, distressing, disturbing. And more often than not, there is not a lot one can do about it. So why spend time paying attention to it?
Here’s why. Because there is evil in the world. My definition is this: Evil, like sin, is an attitude and an action that hurts, condemns, treats unfairly, cheats, murders, denigrates, and hates. But evil, unlike sin, is not only individual, it can be corporate, it can be organized and institutionalized. It can get big. Very big.
If you aren’t paying attention to the public life of your community, state, nation and world, then you might miss a lot of noise. But you will miss seeing evil being done. It might not affect you at first, but evil has a way of spreading and before you know it, the evil that was inflicted on the person who isn’t like you will be inflicted on the person who is like you and then on you. And then what will you do?
We often talk about how we can’t unsee something. Whether an assassination on TV, a bomb being dropped, or a predator attacking its prey, it sticks with us when we see something horrific. But what about how we see? That matters because whatever we actually see we see through the filter of our mhat tells us how to interpret what we are seeing. It tells us what to pay attention to, what to ignore, what to believe, what not to believe. It tells us what is good, what is evil, what is dangerous, what is safe.
There is a common theme in much of Christianity and that is seeing things through the ‘Christian world view’. It is how they see the world and how they think the world should be seen. If people saw the world that way, the correct way according to them, then the world would be a better place. It is a filter through which they interpret the world. All religions do the same as do political and social movements. We all have a point of view and I don’t see that as wrong, up to a point.
That point where I think it goes wrong is when all other world views are either ignored, ridiculed, condemned, hated, or dismissed. This usually happens not because those other world views deserve it but because the person doing the seeing is afraid or ignorant of those other world views.
What would happen if you weren’t afraid of others ways of seeing the world? What if you allowed yourself to see through those other filters? Would you become one of those people? Would you suddenly convert or abandon how you see the world? Evidence shows that is not the case. Just because you listen to someone, even someone with good arguments, does not mean you are required to overhaul your belief systems.
What most people who are open to ‘seeing’ other views actually do is understand better. I think that is a good thing.
Violence is a Confession of Ultimate Inarticulateness
It doesn’t matter if you agreed or disagreed vehemently with Charlie Kirk. You had the opportunity to debate and argue with him, or anyone else, about those issues, or about methods, character, truth, God or any other subject.
That was what he was doing when he was murdered – debating and arguing.
If you can’t or won’t educate yourself enough to do that, then the fault is yours, not his.
The same goes for ANYONE else you disagree with right, left, or center.
You don’t have the right to take your inability, that intellectual or emotional impotence, and murder someone because of it, no matter what absurd rationalization you cover it with.
Her eyes were closed during the sermon and I was worried about her coffee on the ledge so I decided she was worried about it too.
The Sermon About Money
I imagined her speaking one and thinking another.
The Sermon About Barabbas
The young women listening closely to the guest pastor preaching about Barabbas being set free instead of Jesus on the order of Pilate who washed his hands of the whole thing and went home to a good dinner.
Uh Uh Uh
Um
Um Ahh Hmm
The doctor studied the patient and diagnosed she was a snake and prescribed and apple a day
Most of my collages end up being in series, but not all. Just as with the horizontal collages I posted prior to this one, many times I am not focused on a theme, I’m focused on a person. In each of these cases I met these people serendipitously. While some of the people I knew before hand, there were no planned shoots, no advanced warning. I saw them, (in some cases just meeting them for the first time), asked them to let me photograph them at that moment and they said yes. That was it. They and the environment they were in gave me the raw material and I built the collages from there.
The Texture of the Truth
I was looking for an estate sale in a neighborhood and happened upon an open house on the same block. I went in just out of curiosity and met the realtor. When I finished looking around I found her out on the front porch. She was lit beautifully with front light and since I had my camera with me I took a chance and asked her if I could take some photographs of her right there and then. She said yes. The clarity, texture and contrast of her skin was perfect, especially her hand against her teal colored shirt.
The Circles Around Her
I was at an art opening in Downtown Tulsa when I happened upon one of my daughter’s closest high school friends from many years before. I first saw someone lit from behind by the circles of a giant interactive Light Bright and took a quick picture. It wasn’t until I came up closer that I realized it was her. She had seen plenty of my artwork in our home over the years so she knew exactly what I did. She was game for me to take some quick pics of her in the middle of this outdoor art scene.
The Natural Function
I was at a coffee house in Tulsa when I noticed a high school friend of one of my daughters from years before sitting at a nearby table working. I eventually went up to her to say hi and noticed she was doing math homework. She had the late afternoon sun hitting her at that point and the color was amazing. I asked her if I could take some photographs of her and her surroundings and she said yes.
The Mind and Heart
I met this woman at a cafe in Tulsa. She had on some gorgeous jewelry that caught my eye. I introduced myself and had a nice conversation about many things including the jewelry, which was of her own creation. I asked if I could take some photographs of her and the jewelry and she said yes. We also talked about using both your head and heart to create and when I went outside I found a very colorful pile of trash inexplicably on the side of the road and a single cloud all by itself in the sky. They seems a metaphor for the head and heart so I put them in the middle of her portrait.
The Jewelry Truth
This woman was a student at the medical college where I worked and I would see her again and again with incredible jewelry. Finally I asked her if I could take some photographs of her and her jewels for a collage. They seemed to be so much of an organic part of her that I wanted them coming directly out of her.
Pretty Angst
I met this woman at an art opening in Tulsa. I was single at the time and we made plans to get together. We did a number of art oriented things together though we never actually dated. She ended up posing for me 2-3 times for collages. She had a complicated and convoluted life situation at the time and this collage was meant to express that fragmentation.
What Surrounded Her Smile
I was in Shenendoah Valley, Virginia for a wedding and visited a medicinal herb shop. The proprietor explained some of the items for sale with such a positive, smiling attitude that I really wanted to do a collage of her and all that surrounded her. And so I did.
Boat Gabardine
She was a co-worker of mine. When I photographed her she told me her dress fabric pattern was called Gabardine. I made a collage of a photo of the fabric/skin and it reminded me of a boat.
Relative Construction
It started out as a portrait of a relative of mine and it still is but sometimes a portrait becomes abstract and it’s all about the formal elements of color, texture, contrast and composition, not a face or a body.
Portrait in a Garden
I was in Colorado for a wedding when I met this woman in the lobby of the hotel we were staying at. She asked about my camera and that led to me telling her about my photography and photo collages. Next thing I know I am in the garden next to the hotel taking photographs of her and her surroundings. In particular I loved finding leaves in the garden that echoed the texture of the skin on her chest.
The Beauty Blend
I met this mother daughter duo at a wedding. The more I looked at them the more I saw how, even though they dressed and styled themselves differently, they still retained a strong connection. I asked them if I could take some photographs for a collage and they said yes.
The Good Dream
For many years I worked at a restaurant in San Jose, California. One co-worker was a music student at the time and later became a professional singer. She posed for me in an opera gown for a large drawing I was doing at the time (early 1990s). Years later I met up with her in Boston where she was performing at the big central church of her denomination. I was able to go to the service and hear her. Afterwards I took some photos of her, the sanctuary, church and details that I later used for this collage.
