P/P Photoweek: Jessica Sticktight (VIII.25.08)

FOUR MORE METAPHYSICAL MINIATURES

(I)

We shape the world and the world shapes us. Have
you ever noticed how by now even presidents hold a
microphone as if they are were hosting the Tonight Show?
Or how presidents now patronize members of the media
by using their first names at press conferences. They are
supposed to be buddies, one understands, and a buddy
would never be too critical of a friend, now, would he
or she?

(II)

We shape the world and world shapes us. The universal
commercialization of discourse is the bane of real dialogue.
We don't take a crook seriously when he demands the keys
to the bank, the safe's combination, and free gas for the
getaway car. So why do we listen seriously to the highly-trained
spokespeople of fantastically moneyed, vested interests?
Truth and clear reasoning do not begin with conclusions
intended to greenwash our brains into a deep soporific state,
hoping thereby to gain permanent access to some resource,
or maintain some profitable status quo. Truth and clear
reasoning begin with real problems, real listening,
contradictions, troubling facts, and above all, with honest,
civil, disinterested debate.

(III)

We shape the world and the world shapes us. Who was the
first man to look straight into the lens of a camera and lie to
the whole world without the slightest trace of remorse? Was it
Presidents Johnson? Nixon? No, it must have been the first
soap commerical. Or the first rockstar singing about lost love.
Now, even children do it.

(IV)

Ws shape the world and the world shapes us. Putting a young
person behing the wheel of a car turns the key on an equally
powerful, self-reinforcing, set of illusions: of control, of freedom,
of independence.

How different is the reality that no one wishes to see, as the car
itself takes control of our thought and perception, or bank account,
and as the illision of independence begins to flounder as we
discover we have chained our souls to the sinking ship of a
quickly disappearing resource, one which is harmful not only to
ourselves, but also to all those around us.

Reason enough to pause in a moment of quiet reflection
before turning the key.

Camp Lost & Found,
Eagle Cap Wilderness,
Oregon, VIII.17.2008