Lynn Harbaugh an American musician living in Canada (my old country) used some of my photos to create a little video expressing support for Barack Obama. It was inspired by Barack’s speech in Philadelphia on March 18. “There is a field……” features original music (by Lynn) + a Rumi poem + gorgeous photos of wheat fields in Washington (by Will).

Well Lynn, your very welcome. Remix deluxe.

I enjoy the opportunity to work with thousands of people to help create opportunity for hard working entrepreneurs in developing countries. You can too, check out KIVA.ORG

Here is a link to a YouTube video show just what can happen when just one person strives to change the world. Crank up the sound and enjoy! Another bodhisattva in action.

My results

I was a little surprised by the results of my test. Especially bad is the “If everyone lived like you, we would need 6.1 planets.”

http://www.myfootprint.org/
CAUTION: THIS QUIZ MAY SURPRISE YOU, SHOCK YOU, OR MAKE YOU THINK. PLEASE REMAIN CALM…BUT NOT TOO CALM!!

Photo by Will Simpson
Link to Original

Steve over at stevepavlina.com has a great posting on tithing. I’ve excerpted a small portion here. For those unfamiliar with tithing, it is the practice of giving away a portion of your income. How you give it away, to whom you give it to and what portion is a personal dilemma.

I was raised in the Mormon tradition and they emphasize the practice of tithing. As child I resented it because it was forced on me by my mom and her church. I felt I was being unfairly taxed. I felt I was getting less by giving a portion of my earnings. I never understood the value of tithing until much later in life. Plain and simply, giving returns more value than getting. Now that I’m working on manifesting true wealth in my life I feel the best way to start is to start giving myself away more and that means tithing.

Benefits of tithing include:

* Overcoming scarcity thinking. Tithing helps you develop a greater sense of abundance. By giving away 10% of your income, you’re programming your subconscious to believe in abundance thinking. This can make you more open and receptive to receiving money. If you think abundance, you’re more likely to experience abundance.
* Supporting a worthy cause. If the money you tithe is put to good use, you can financially support a cause that’s important to you.
* Achieve greater wealth. Whenever you earn more money, your tithes increase as well, so your cause(s) receive greater financial support. This can be extremely motivating for some people.

What is in your refrigerator?

I’ve been thinking about doing something great. I keep getting stuck thinking about my special privileges in life. I am richer than a vast majority of the world’s population. You can calculate just how rich you are in comparison to the rest of the world here.

Turns out well over 90% of the world is poorer than me. This fills me with tremendous sadness. Why wasn’t I told. I fault my education and the media for this. This should be the top story every day and every where. I live in comfort and safety, something many people don’t enjoy. Given this it seem silly to muse on ‘doing something great’. I first need to work on being my “best self”. The world is a mess because people are not their best selves, so I can start to help by being my “best self”.

Like a father that can only love his child when there is love in his heart, so I must cultivate love in my heart first. I have a special responsibility to do this because of my resources. In the end, will I have used my time and privileges for ego reasons or to make the world a better place. This must qualify as “doing something great”. More meditation on this subject required.

What really got me started with this is a post over on To-Done!.

This quote seems less appropriate now but here it is anyway.

“Some of my characters now fell more grateful about simple things - breathing, buying groceries, sunlight, because I do. We don’t have to live great lives, we just have to understand and survive the ones we’ve got.”

Andre Dudus, author (born 1936)

Earlier this month I posted about the great book “Radical Simplicity - creating an authentic life” by Dan Price and his wonderful zine called “Moonlight Chronicles”. Today several of us got a chance to meet Dan at Moscow’s independent book store, Bookpeople, and talk about simplifying our lives. I’ve followed the adventures of Dan for some time now. I first saw his photography work in an earlier zine he produced called “Shots” in the late 80’s. So it was great to finally meet him.

Dan’s van. I knew he had an Astro van but I didn’t realize it has a cool paint job. Decked out for the “Radical Simplicity World Tour”. We were Dan’s last stop before returning home to Joseph Oregon.

A little display of the copies of Dan’s books and Moonlight Chronicles zines. Quite a few had sold in the weeks prior to Dan’s visit.

Dan had camped out on Lolo Pass the night before but here looks all cleaned up and presentable talking with Bob Greene, the owner of Bookpeople.

Dan leading the discussion after his slideshow.

I got what I consider a special treat and saw a pre-production copy of issue 51 and 52. So cool to see how these little zines/journals are made.

One thing that sort has me thinking is Dan’s repeated remarks about photography. He said that he considers photography a “taking” and not as meditative as drawing. I’m not exactly sure what he means by this. It didn’t dawn on me at the time but this is sort of how some indigenous tribes must have felt when confronted with photographers. They were familiar with drawings and had seen them being made.

A photographer used to have to “take” an image and the subject might never see the image because the photographer would have to process it and in those days processing images was very complicated indeed. Now, with digital imaging, we can see the resulting images as quickly as we can with drawings.

Does taking a photograph subtract from our experiences? I think it can but I don’t think it has to. Like many things in life, the answer is complicated. It is easy to get lost in the technicalities of image making. It is easy to see the scenes before us and the people around us as subjects and the ourselves as somehow objective seers and therefore separate from nature, people and our experiences.

If instead we empty our mind of the ideas and notions that make us separate from our experiences and look for the proverbial “moon in a dew drop”, we can approximate our images with our experiences. Some images and some photographers can connect us directly with an experience. This transcends the notion of “taking” a picture.

I wish I could show an example here but I’m only a beginner.