Category: Photography

My Credo, 2016

From my Facebook post a year ago right after the nightmare election. I’m actually more hopeful today than I was when I wrote it. Love is the only weapon that we have against hate.

Thankfully, it’s all that we need.

I will continue to work my ass off for the poor, the sick, the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty.

I will continue to attempt to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

I will continue to fight for the rights of minorities, women, and children.

I will continue to defend the my LGBTQ brothers and sisters against those who attack them in the name of whatever god they believe in.

I will continue to fight for healthcare for everyone regardless of their ability to pay for it because I’m convinced that’s what being pro-life actually means.

I will continue to fight tooth and nail for education for everyone because that, and that alone, is how we can defeat the darkness of ignorance.

I will do my best to make everything I do an act of love, but my primary focus will always be upon the least of these.

I will continue to stand up against hate no matter how powerful those spewing it may be.

I will, as Dylan Thomas wrote in the last century, continue to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

I will have faith that humanity won’t give into its bad angels.
I will have hope that together we can make our world a place where I’m not afraid to raise my children.

I will have love because that is the ONLY weapon we have against hate.

Life is Amazingly Good

When I take a step back
away from the mess of my desk with the precarious pile of bills
away from the house with the leaky tub
away from the bosses who seem determined to make education meaningless
away from the fears of what this country is becoming

When I take a step back
and watch them together
walking together, arm in arm—

I’m reminded of asking dad one day, when I was old enough to have learned of the complete nightmare that was the year of 1968,
“What were you thinking bringing me into that world?” and his reply,
“Well, your mom worried about it, but I thought you’d be okay.”

When I take a step back,
I remember, and
I believe he was right.

I am okay.

In fact, I’m far better than that.
So, thanks for your calm self-assurance, dad.
And your belief in the future.

They’re walking together in your steps.

Light It Up Blue

Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness

Today is the World Autism Awareness Day, and April is Autism Awareness month. 1 in 68 are on the autism spectrum.

If I could ask, as the father of a wonderful little guy who is on the autism spectrum, for one favor, I think it would be this.

Today or sometime this month, if, no save that, when you see someone who doesn’t behave the way you think people should behave, when you see someone who is too old to be holding Woody from Toy Story but is doing so anyway, when you see someone bouncing on their toes or putting their fingers in their ears, when you speak to someone who doesn’t speak back, or when you see someone who is just different, my favor would be to ask that you find it within your heart to accept that it is because of our differences that our world is the amazing place that it is.

Our world is a better place because there are those who never forget the importance of play no matter how old they are.

Our world is a better place because there are ballerinas who are gifted with the grace and skill to move through this world on their toes.

Our world is a better place because there are those who can hear the quietest whisper in the hurricane of noise the rest of us ignore everyday.

Our world is a better place because there are those who don’t feel it necessary to scream their opinions every time there is a quiet moment.

Our world is a better place because we are different from one another.

And the blue sky shines down upon us, hugging us, all.