What Takes Your Breath Away?

I follow a number of photography pages online. 

Recently I got a friend request from a retired physician who is also an amazing wildlife photographer. He has been posting photos of leopards and other wildlife from his recent travels. To mark World Leopard Day recently, he posted a breathtaking photo of a male leopard walking directly down the road toward him. 

That is the kind of image that takes my breath away. It's also the kind of image I dream of capturing. Sadly, that leopard was killed by lions, a fate that happened to my most favorite Kenyan leopard named Fig. Fig is pictured to the right, the first time I saw her in Kenya. She had a daughter named Figlet who is still thriving in Kenya. Figlet has raised several beautiful cubs.

Lions and leopards hate each other. So I'm not surprised when I hear about lions killing a leopard. But it still always saddens me.

Another thing that has taken my breath away is viewing (and photographing) some of Mother Nature's handiwork -- landscapes. I confess, however, that as beautiful as some landscapes are, nothing can compare with the amazing wildlife I have been fortunate enough to photograph.

My preference for landscape photography is mountains, the bigger the better. Pictured here is Shiprock, the remains of an ancient volcano on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. This monadnock is a mountain that rises abruptly from a flat or gently sloping plain.

Finally, certain singers and music take my breath away. Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand come to mind immediately. I recently saw a video of three sopranos singing with Andre Rieu's orchestra. The song, Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, is such a moving song. And one of the sopranos, whose name I don't know, has an incredibly beautiful voice. 

When I was in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, at the conclusion of walking the Camino de Compostela pilgrimage route, a soprano known as the 'soprano of the arches' was singing outdoors. I bought her CD so I could enjoy her incredible voice at home. That was the first time I had heard Cohen's masterpiece, and I was hooked.

I hope you find, and enjoy, things that take your breath away.

Never Too Old

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. -- CS Lewis

This quote seems very timely and appropriate right now. A couple of days ago, I signed up for a photography trip to Sri Lanka in 2027. The thing that caught my attention in a major way was the opportunity to photograph leopards, which are my favorite predator, Asian elephants and sloth bears. The opportunity was just too good to pass by. So I put down a deposit.

The trip is a full two years away, and I suddenly started wondering whether I still will be in physical shape to go. Sri Lanka is a really long way from where I live in America’s desert Southwest. A quick check of an airline website shows that it’s likely to take between 35 and 40 hours to get there. And as the saying goes, I’m not getting any younger. I’m in good health for someone my age. But I’m not as strong or flexible or resilient as I used to be in my younger days. 

The trip itself is listed as a level one, which means there isn’t a lot of strenuous activity or walking while carrying photography gear. Of course, just getting there will take a long, long time on an airplane. That definitely will take a toll. But, travel helps keep me young and engaged. So I will pack up my cameras, tripod and my lenses, and hope to have a very successful expedition to Sri Lanka.

There are still so many places I want to visit. Among them are Rome, the Scandinavian countries, the Baltics, the Balkans, and other places in Italy. 

I just hope I can maintain, or improve, my current level of fitness, and that my health remains good.

Service and Humility

The world has lost two great but humble men in the past 4 months. 

Former US President Jimmy Carter died in late December at the age of 100. Pope Francis died on the day after Easter at the age of 88. 

Jimmy Carter was a southern Baptist. Pope Francis was, of course, a Roman Catholic. But these two men had many things in common despite their different religions. 

Carter served one term as president. He then devoted his life to traveling the world to monitor elections and guarantee their fairness. He and his wife devoted countless years to building homes as part of Habitat for Humanity. He taught Sunday school at the Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia for many, many years. He and his wife lived in the same modest home in which they had lived for decades. 

Pope Francis, the world's first pope from Latin America, was born in Argentina to Italian immigrants. As he rose through the ranks of the church, he remained a humble man, taking the bus to work every day. After his election as Pope, he refused to live in the richly appointed 10-room quarters reserved for popes, instead living in a Vatican guest house. He had a warm, outgoing personality, caring in particular for the poor, the ill and young children. Francis was also working to modernize and liberalize the church, despite opposition from other members of the clergy. 

Both of these men devoted themselves to making the world a better place. Both were models of humility and simplicity. Both never forgot where they came from, their ordinary roots. We need more men like Jimmy Carter and like Pope Francis.  Service and humility were the hallmarks of both.

We need people who don't focus on accumulating great wealth, but in serving the world and the forgotten and overlooked of the world..

Did You Ever Wonder?

Did you ever wonder what this country would be like had JFK not been assassinated and had he gone on to serve one or probably two terms? 

Did you ever wonder what this country would be like had Kamala Harris won the presidency in 2024? She was incredibly qualified to be president. She served 4 years as vice president. She had 4 years' experience as a US senator. She was the attorney general for the state of California for six years. She was the district attorney for the city of San Francisco for seven years. She is strong, but she is dedicated. She is honest. She loves people. She cares about this country. She brought such a sense of excitement to the political arena. Sadly, her gender and her ethnicity caused the country's racists and misogynists to vote against her. 

I know that if we had a sane and experienced president, we would not be in a massive trade war with the world. We would not have a president suspected of insider trading. We wouldn't be rounding up people and shipping them to a horrible prison in El Salvador without providing them with due process as required by law. We wouldn't have the most inept, unqualified cabinet in recent history. We wouldn't have a president using the White House Lawn to sell cars for a multibillionaire.

The stock market wouldn't be on a roller coaster ride caused directly by the insane whims of the occupant of the White House.

We wouldn't have removed all mentions of women and minorities from government Web sites. We wouldn't be dismantling federal agencies and their programs that provide life-saving care to millions around the world. We wouldn't need to bail out America's farmers because a trade war and the cancellation of programs that buy American food have left the farmers with fewer global markets for their produce. 

We wouldn't be wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on endless golf trips.

We would be tackling our problems in a sane, intelligent manner.

Now I Understand

That's right. Now I better understand how a dictator can take over a previously democratic country. 

I've often wondered how the Germans in the early 20th century could stand by and watch Hitler and his fanatical followers take over their country. How could they have allowed this to happen? 

Sadly, I now understand exactly how this happened. It's not that the German people of the early 20th century were necessarily bad. They were simply responding to a leader who promised them things they were lacking. 

Germany and its allies had been defeated in World War I, and the Treaty of Versailles placed some really onerous obligations on postwar Germany. A worldwide economic depression and the rising power of labor unions and communists caused an increasing number of Germans to turn to the Nazi party. Bank failures and unemployment further bolstered Hitler's claim that democracy was not working for the people. 

Then along came Hitler, who promised to rebuild and strengthen the German state. The Weimar Republic had lasted 12 years. Hitler promised a thousand-year Reich. He promised to restore Germany to greatness and to expand its territory.

He also gave voice to Europe's simmering anti-Semitism. All of Germany's problems, according to Hitler, were the fault of the Jews.

Hitler, by all accounts, was an amazing speaker He was animated. He shouted. He got his audience riled up. He had his personal photographer take pictures of him as he rehearsed various dramatic poses. I don't speak German, and I haven't read translations of his speeches, so I don't know exactly what he told the massive crowds who went to hear him. But I do know that he was a mesmerizing speaker. 

No one could ever call the current occupant of the White House a mesmerizing speaker. He rambles. He is incoherent. His speeches are full of lies. He speaks in a monotone. He drones. He jumps from topic to topic. But he tells his rabid, often poorly educated, followers what they want to hear. They want someone other than themselves to blame for their lack of education and skilled jobs. It's the fault of the 'libtards.' It's the fault of immigrants. But of course it's never their fault. Why should it be, when the leader of the cult never accepts responsibility for anything?

Clearly, critical thinking is not among the attributes of his followers. And the current occupant of the White House also plays to the fears, insecurities and prejudices of his cult followers. Rather than blaming the Jews, he blames liberals for the economic problems his followers face. He blames minorities for the struggles of his followers. When a commercial airliner collided with a military helicopter not far from the White House, he suggested the crash, which took the lives of nearly 70 people, was probably caused by DEI hires. And those "very fine people" he praised after riots in Virginia marched through the streets chanting "Jews will not replace us."

He also gives voice to the fears and insecurities of his followers. Women don't belong in the military; they should stay home and be mothers while serving their men. Women also don't belong in positions of power. Gays should be kept in the closet. In his view, and the view of his followers, only manly white men should be in power. The rest of the world has been taking advantage of America, according to the occupant of the White House. He claims that the tariffs he has imposed on goods imported from other countries -- that will be paid by consumers -- not by the exporting countries will make America wealthy beyond measure. Of course, his followers can't or won't recognize that these tariffs will cost average Americans thousands of dollars every year.

Like Hitler, the current occupant takes advantage of the state of unrest in the United States. And he doesn't just take advantage. He foments violence among his followers. Demographics are changing, with white people becoming a minority, something his followers fear. Already hundreds of migrants in the country illegally have been rounded up and deported without due process, something to which everyone who lives in this country is entitled.

Now that I better understand, I am even more fearful of what will happen to my country.

What Is Wrong with People?

Seriously, I ask myself this question frequently.

I was walking my dog early one morning shortly after sunrise. We were at the edge of the only paved road in my area, where there are no sidewalks and often nowhere to step off the road. Suddenly I spotted a small car approaching us very quickly, far above the posted  25 mph speed limit. The driver was driving into the sun, and there was no shoulder onto which we could step. Did the driver see us? We moved as far to the edge of the road as we could, but I was worried that we might be hit. Fortunately, we weren't, but it made me wonder why the driver didn't slow down until he passed us.

A few days later, a white pickup truck passed us so closely I thought we would be hit. Again, we stepped as far to the edge of the road as possible, but the driver didn't slow down or move into the other lane.

Too many people these days are just plain rude, selfish and self-centered. If I am driving and see someone walking along the road, I slow down and move a bit to the left to give him/her some space. But all too often, I don't get the same courtesy. I am left in a cloud of dust by drivers speeding along the dirt roads in my neighborhood.

A couple of years ago somebody broke into the offices of the local Make-A-Wish organization, which grants wishes to children with serious medical diagnoses. The thief or thieves stole gift cards and other things of value. Thieves have broken into a storage area holding Christmas gifts for children, collected by the US Marine Corp. How low will some people go? Apparently there is no bottom.

Online nastiness is everywhere. And this nastiness has nothing to do with the common politics-based anger and hatred so prevalent in our country.  

Lack of compassion isn't limited to the United States, of course. I remember falling on an ice-covered sidewalk in Moscow, Russia, years ago. Sidewalks in Moscow, unlike in the US, don't get shoveled. Several people walked past me or stepped over me as I lay sprawled on the ground. A nice elderly woman then approached me, offered me her hand, and helped me to my feet. 

When and why did so many people lose their sense of compassion? It takes so little effort to help others. Most of us aren't neurosurgeons rushing to perform brain surgery on a critically injured person in the hospital. We can take the time to perform a small act of kindness, but too many choose not to.

I recently came across an obese man whose electric scooter had become stuck in the loose dirt on one of the dirt roads in my area. I had my dog with me, but I asked if he needed a hand. He was able to step off the scooter and extricate it from the dirt, but he appreciated my offer to help. What did that act of kindness cost me? Nothing. It cost me nothing. 

Maybe it's the way I was raised, but I have no problem holding a door for someone, or letting a shopper with only a few items go ahead of me in the checkout line. It's common courtesy, and it costs me nothing aside from a couple of minutes of my time.

Again, I have to wonder why we are so self-centered and rude? All of us can, and should, do better.

Freedom of Speech?

You know, never in my more than 70 years of living in the United States have I ever been worried or fearful about what I wrote or posted online.

After all, the very first amendment to the US constitution provides for freedom of speech. Sadly, we can no longer count on the protections is of constitution. I am an American citizen. I have always been an American citizen. I worked for the federal government for some 23 years. I have never been arrested. I have had zero, zero arrests or other engagements with law enforcement.

But after reading multiple stories about US citizens and others legally in the United States being grabbed by border patrol and other unidentified, masked people, locked up and held for sometimes weeks with no charges brought against them, no explanations, and no ability to contact an attorney or family members, I am no longer confident that what I write may not come back to bite me. This is proof positive that we are now living in a dictatorship.

So now I wonder whether I will be allowed back into the United States when I return from my overseas travel this year. Or will I be thrown into a jail cell and held without explanation or the ability to contact anybody?

The other thing I wonder, given how unpopular the US regime is internationally, except for a few dictators, is what kind of reception will I get from people in the countries I’m planning to visit? I certainly hope that people in other countries will understand and except that not all Americans agree with what the current US regime is doing. There are tens of millions of us who strongly disagree.

Despite the guarantee of freedom of speech in the US Constitution, it now seems very evident that freedom of speech applies only to those whose opinions and writings are acceptable to the current regime. Those with dissenting opinions don’t enjoy freedom of speech any longer. We must all take a knee and worship the dictator currently occupying the White House.

I am incredibly saddened by what has become of the United States in just a couple of months. And I am incredulous that after 250 years of nationhood, we have sunk so low, where we collude with dictators and attack and abandon our allies.