Walk in beauty

[Roger Hicks]

The 'all the grey people' quote appears to have been misunderstood by some. It was of course lifted from the Photo.net thread about what a terrible load of grey conformists we are in this forum: I meant it, of course, entirely ironically, because I had received so many splendid replies. I apologize from the botom of my heart to anyone who thought otherwise.

As for JLW's point that an economy has to produce a lot of surplus in order for people to live outside the realm of getting and spending, this is something I have thought long and hard about. It comes quite close to Marx's theory of superabundance.

To a considerable extent, of course JLW is right. But my own suspicion is that we -- that is, rich western nations -- reached that point quite a long time ago: possibly as early as the 1950s in the United States, probably the 1960s in Britain. Although it is plainly mpossible for everyone to drop out of the rat race, I really do believe that ten times as many people could do what they wanted, if they were brave enough and if they had different priorities.

I fully take the point that dumb luck plays a very large part in anyone's success or failure, but equally, I'd not rank it as high as 95 per cent except perhaps as a function of where and when you are born. My lifesyle may sound idyllic but it's very poorly paid and I just don't buy a lot of the things that many take for granted: expensive clothes, new cars, and so forth. Fortunately my wife fees exactly the same way, though I think she bought some make-up in 2000 or 2001.

But a lot of people prefer security and a guranteed income. The best of luck to them. I was thinking more of those who think that it's impossible to do what several people on this forum have indeed done. I have long been a firm believer in "be careful what you pray for, for you will surely get it."

Cheers,

Roger

 

[Roman]

jlw,
very well said - my sentimetns, exactly!
If it wasn't for having to find a job where there are none, and not having a savings account to rely on while looking for one, I'd be out of here in a minute.
OK, there are a few personal ties, but those can be sorted out, usually...
Roman

 

[Paul T.]

I dropped my four-yr-old son at school this morning amidst the usual mayhem, picked up an orange juice on the way home, and walked back via Greenwich Park, a place I've really come to love deeply, ever since I spent a few months working in San Francisco. Up the top of the hill is Christopher's Wren's observatory, at the bottom there's Inigo Jones' Queens House, at the other side is Vanburgh Castle, the first 'modern' Gothic building in, probably, the world. I'm very lucky, particularly as, like Roger, I don't have a regular 9-to-5.


Saddest thing, though, is that Britain is not quite over an insane housing boom, which makes people think they're waelthy, but it's a wealth that it's generally impossible to capitalise on. And now my area is being over-run by merchant bankers (to use the rhyming slang). I won't lose hope, though, a photographer has just moved in next door, a guy I bump into on the school run is making a decent living as a painter and illustrator, and after lunch I'm working with a graphic designer, an ex-Mod who got his first break designing the sleeve of Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere for The Who. Somehow we've all bamboozled the world into letting us make a living and, yes, we are lucky, even without a Mercedes parked in the drive, like some of our new neighbours.

 

[bmattock]

I have just awoken, tired and cranky after getting my laughing gear wrapped around entirely too many beers last night, eh? Our neighbors came over, they brought their friends from South Africa, a new couple who just moved to Wilson - a teacher of the deaf, and an artist who paint, carves wood, and does photography. He is just having his first one-man exhibit at a gallery in Raleigh. We had a smashing good time and got to bed much too late. My wife and I fell asleep discussing Roger Hicks. I showed her his photo in the back of AP, with the monocle and looking like someone just applied 10,000 volts to his snarglies, and she commented that he doesn't LOOK like a stuffed shirt, she can hardly imagine him acting like one. My broken tooth is paining me something awful this morning, so it's a handful of Advil again.

I let the pooches out to make their commentary on society, made a lovely pot of Harrar coffee, and flipped on my laptop to see wot cheer the morning hath wrought. Lo, and behold! It would appear that my wife was dead right about Roger's comments about 'grey people'. Ah, glad I didn't go off half-cocked last night, especially as I was half in the bag.

I am sitting here on my couch, listening to the various bird calls and watching the sun come up over my neighbor's house, and it is still and peaceful. And I hardly want to throttle anyone at the moment, my soul is at peace. I could not make a decent photograph at the moment if I tried.

To those like me who work for a living - yes, well, and here we go again, eh? However, as I learned in the Marine Corps some 25 years ago - "Don't sweat the small shit" followed by "It's all small shit." Any day spent above ground is a good day, and a bad day for picnics is a good day for photographers.

Funny old world, innit? We all have such different lives, and yet we share a love and passion for photography - further, we're all afflicted with that disease that makes us perversely prefer a rangefinder camera in many circumstances. To the rest of the world, we may as well be hunting mastodons with sharp sticks...yet we persist.

Roger's statement about 'grey people', though misunderstood and not what he meant at all, did stir something in me that perculated through my inner being as I slept last night, so I'll just say it here...

Yes, I am a very small being - nearly invisible on the radar scope of humanity, living an undistinguished life in a small town, working for an unappreciative group of yobs for not enough money, and scribbling my thoughts and taking my photographs in the perhaps mistaken belief that someday, somehow, they will mean something to someone besides myself.

And while there is nothing especially noble about being a working stiff, there is nothing wrong with it, either; particularly if we are satisfied enough with it. When we working stiffs become dissatisfied with life in general, we're generally an unruly lot, and bad things happen.

And I like having a little house with a little backyard and a metal bucket with water in it for the pups to wade in. And I like taking a bologna sammich to work every day or coming home to heat up a can of spaghetti-o's or a frozen burrito. And I like playing at journalism and photography and spending my weekends trying to hone my art so that perhaps someday, somebody will do a 'restrospective' on my work years after I am dead, and a couple of people will come to see it and say "Wow, he was good wasn't he?" as they leave to catch a train home.

Yes, I am a very small being. And given coffee and beer from time to time, with a camera and film and a place to point a lens, I'm a pretty happy guy about it.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[jwcat]

Well said Bill. One of my older sisters makes her living painting, another has a Masters in pottery. I have the want to do that, but I have a technical bent instead so photography works for me.

Another of the Great Unwashed...John

 

[FrankS]

Very well expressed, Bill!

 

[Roger Hicks]

I am very, very upset that the comment in question was misinterpreted by anyone: sheer stupidity on my part.

But Bill is right. We're all pretty small really, and anyone who pretends otherwise is due a reality check. What are success and failure? Financially I'm a failure. But compared with a lot of people I know, I prefer the life I live.

That's what meant about being careful what you pray for.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[FrankS]

Roger, I understood your post and your reference. Your point is valid and powerful: that one should examine one's life and make conscious decisions, within one's means, on how to live it, rather than just being taken along by the current.

 

[bmattock]

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

"F**k all that, we've got to get on with these." - Roger Waters, "Not Now John"

"Boisson directement de la bouteille." - Bill Mattocks

Best Regards,

Bill "I got a million of 'em" Mattocks

Mon Dieu, mon automobile a été mangé par des rats.

 

[BJ Bignell]

... And now my area is being over-run by merchant bankers (to use the rhyming slang).

😀 LOL


I haven't made that type of move, yet...

I'm a software developer/consultant for a medium-sized international engineering consulting firm, based here out of Edmonton. We do a lot of very exciting work for oil & gas, pulp & paper, mining, discrete manufacturing, forestry, petrochemicals, etc etc etc. I make decent money, and after six years with the same company (I started here right out of school), I feel like I have my place and I've never been happier with the company. My girlfriend is just completing her Master's degree (only a month to go).

Edmonton's a nice place, not a really remarkable city, but surrounded by farm land and trees, and close to Jasper and Banff in the Rocky Mountains. This fall, we're outta here! We're going to Europe on a backpacking/travelling trip, and our plan is for at least six months. We want to see new places, and stay in different towns, meeting people and learning local culture. Of course, we'll go to the tourist areas, as well.

If we find a place we like, with some prospect of making a living, we'll likely stay. (Hey Roger, you have any neighbours moving out? 😛 ) Honestly, I'm terrified of the whole thing, but I can't wait to go. If we don't do it now, I don't know when it'll happen.

Photography for me is a hobby, a healthy way to keep an addicitive personality busy. I'd love to be able to make a living from it, but we'll wait to see what life brings.

 

[BJ Bignell]

"Boisson directement de la bouteille." - Bill Mattocks
Mon Dieu, mon automobile a été mangé par des rats.

That's deep, man... LOL 😀

I'm starting to get pretty good at French. Maybe one day, I'll actually get to use it for something useful, instead of just laughing at silly comics: http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=421

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Nice seeing you post here often, Roger! And don't worry about the "gray people" reference. Many of us knew where it came from.

I came from Guatemala. All my moves were determined by employment or studies, but I haven't regretted any, as I have the bad habit of finding the silver lining in everything I do.

First, from Guatemala city to Buffalo NY (6 weeks)
Then, to Champaign-Urbana, IL, for graduate studies (8 years!! 😱 )
One year almost, spent in Europe while my wife (whose name is also Frances) taught English as an exchange student in Barcelona
Then, Kokomo IN for 18 months,
Back to Guatemala, for 2 years and four months. Rewarding and weird: I felt too American down there... but managed to build an MA in Spanish American literature from the ground up (my first experience as administrator). It's still open and cranking out graduates.
Back to the US in the year 2000, as an assistant professor of Spanish and Spanish American literature in this town of Illinois, which, like Kokomo, is Bill's favorite size of 40K.

What a life...

If I manage to retire well, I'd like to move to either Oregon, in the US... or Cadaques, a small port in Catalunya, where the skies and the Mediterranean fight over the little white houses on the coast, and the fishing boats have rather poetic names.

Of course, I'll be there with my Leicas! 😀

 

[Honu-Hugger]

....must resist....America....bashing....nice forum.....must be....polite......no comments about unelected presidents and freedom.......infant mortality rates.........AARRRG! *

😉 Where I live there aren't too many buildings that existed much before a century ago. There is lots of natural history, but nothing of the deep rooted cultural history that seeps into a place after a thousand years of sustained (and validated) habitation. Canadian history, for what it's worth is sort of boring, but maybe that's a good thing after all.


*note: the above section was intended as humour and gentle neighbourly teasing and was in no way intended to point out how much better Canada is than the US...**


**note: ok, seriously this time, the note explaining the text above was not intended to inflame any political debate, nor to insult or cause harm. You all are so nice I don't even think of you as Americans***


***note: clearly I suffer from the Canadian inferiority complex. :angel:

This might be a good time to resurrect Pherid's joke (please note: it is only a joke) about the choices Candians made. I don't remeber it well and would ruin it by attempting to retell it, but it had something to do with having the opportunity to embrace British culture, French food, and American technology. Instead choosing British food, French technology, and American culture -- or something like that 😉

P. S. On a more serious note, I am never offended by criticism leveled at America -- perhaps we should be more critical of ourselves as well. In any case, I welcome it and always find it interesting, especially from residents of other countries.

 

[cp_ste.croix]

😀

i'm not too attached to the idea of Canada, it has never made much sense to me anyways. thanks for the light hearted response!

 

[doubs43]

**note: ok, seriously this time, the note explaining the text above was not intended to inflame any political debate, nor to insult or cause harm. You all are so nice I don't even think of you as Americans***
***note: clearly I suffer from the Canadian inferiority complex. :angel:

Y'all just keep bringing those Canadian dollars South and we'll overlook any shortcomings you may have. 😀

Walker (With tongue firmly in his cheek) 😉

 

[cp_ste.croix]

Yeah, my grandparents are funding something down there i'm sure of it...they spend over 1/2 the year in the US.

 

[Pherdinand]

i apologize for that joke once again.
In fact i've read it on photo.net and i have found it so funny (by the fact that it's a weak attempt to insult four nations at once) that i posted it here, not thinking about the possibility of really insulting some people :bang:

 

[jwcat]

My city population goes down by 30% when the rivers go out in Canada. 🙂

"Yeah, my grandparents are funding something down there i'm sure of it...they spend over 1/2 the year in the US."

John
__________________"

 

[FrankS]

Pherdinand, and I apologize for over-reacting to reading your joke here, back then.


Oh, so many cats, so few recipes! 🙂

 

[nwcanonman]

Pherinand,
Most of us can laugh at a good joke, many are started by ourselves.
What gets tedious is the constant nik-picking, while very few comment on who sends the world's largest contirbutions when any nation needs assistantce. I not just talking about money (that's too easy), but real humans, who volunteer their time risking their lives to help others. Doctors, nurses, EMT's, builders etc. pour from the USA to help in any way they can, with no expectation of pay or even thanks.
It would be helpful if more people could look at the whole picture.