On My Way Home

The long workshop in Namibia is over. I am sitting in the Johannesburg Airport waiting for another 4 hours for my flight to take me to Amsterdam and then finally home to Vancouver. We awoke this morning at 0500 and drove the 4 hours to Windhoek where I wasn't scheduled to take my flight until 1845 in the evening. However as luck would have it, an earlier flight was leaving at 1140 which I was able to get one. I then arrived in Johannesburg at 1330 rather than 2030 in the evening. It didn't make sense to sit around here for another day, so I was able to get on the evening flight departing at 2330 and arriving in Amsterdam at 1045 in the morning on Friday.

I have just over 4000 images to process and hope to make a good start in the next few days. So, loyal readers I will be sharing soon and passing on my impressions of Namibia.

Talk to you soon.

Live well and prosper

Dennis

Hello from Nambia !!

Hello Readers:

I am still in Namibia, but had a few moments in a hotel that actually has internet that works (at least so far:-)) I am nearing the end of my trip and as usual I am anxious to come home. A trip of about 1 week or so seems to work best for me. Any longer and I miss home and my life there including work.

I only have several days to go and I must say that this is one hot country except for the coast. The temperature today I would guess is near +40C with clear skies and no clouds for relief. This morning we photographed a Himba Village. I would say there were about 100 people all together plus cattle, chickens, and goats. Instead of giving them money, we went to the supermarket and bought cooking oil, flour, bread and the like and presented them to the chief who them welcomed us into his village. The only no-no we were giving was not to stand or walk between the chief and the cattle as he must at all times have a view of his cattle???

The above photo was taken near Sossussvlei from a helicopter that two of the ladies and I took. To enable better photography, the doors on boths sides of the helicopter were removed. I will be sharing more of my images in blogs to come.

In the meantime, live well and prosper !

Later,
Dennis

See You Later !!!

Just a short note to wish the many thousands of my readers a Happy September. I will be leaving for Namibia in south west Africa soon and will be photographing for the next 3 weeks. I hope to have many images to share when I return.

In the meantime, be good to yourself and continue creating a wonderful reality for yourselves.

Talk to you soon.

Live well and prosper

Dennis

An Angry Sea !!!

When I took this image some time ago on the west coast of Vancouver Island, someone remarked: "boy that is one angry sea !" I started thinking recently about the way we have of attributing human emotions and attributes to non human elements. I doubt very much if the sea in this case was really angry. To be more scientific about it, a large Pacific storm had entered the area with strong winds which resulted in the height of the waves being larger than normal and crashing on the shore of Chesterman Beach which is normally quite placid.

I guess as humans we have no choice but to see things through our eyes and the brain filters that we have put in place throughout the years. As a result, the great white shark becomes a "man eater", the Orca whale becomes the "killer shark", and hurricanes unleash their destructive force on human populations as if it were planned or intended. And yet we do exactly the same thing. We destroy the planet with pollution, non sustainable habits in our living styles, such as carbon emissions etc. I haven't heard us refer to ourselves as unleasing our destructive force on the health of the planet, or referring to ourselves as "cow and chicken killers" when we sit down to a meal. No dear readers, it is all about perspective. It all depends where you stand at the time. As I like to say: "It is all relative". Some years ago I either coined a phrase or "borrowed" from someone unkowningly as follows:

"Everything in the world is relative. Except that statement which is absolute"

If in fact that was my quote from years ago, good for me, if not I apologize to whoever came up with it. I recall further expounding on this quote as being a Divine Paradox. It is a totally correct statement, even though it has a conflict within. I took a philosophy course in University many years ago and the final exam consisted of one question: On the attached card, which statement is true and which is false? We were presented with a small card which had a statement on both sides. On one side the statement was: "The statement on the other side of this card is absolutely true." I turned the card over to read the other side and the statement said: "The statement on the other side of this card is absolutely false."

Dear reader, I leave the question with you, which is true, which is false???

As always live, love and be happy !

Dennis

"The Less You Know, The More You Believe"

The above quotation is attributed to Bono and I came across it this morning and have been wondering about it ever since. I am not sure in what context he said it, but my thoughts are unclear whether he meant it as a good thing for a bad thing.

I would tend to interpret it as saying that the less knowledge you have, the more inclined you are to "believe" something. In other words without direct knowledge of an event or situation, the more likely we are to believe someone else's comments about it. For instance, many people believe everything they read in the newspaper or see on television or hear on the radio. I think some (maybe most) of us agree that it is quite dangerous. We all know the media in particular is always looking to make a "story" where one may not actually exist. The more critical they can make an event seem, the more newsworthy it appears to be.

A recent example involved a Cathay Pacific flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong. As the aircraft took off, the crew was unable to retract the flaps. As a result the captain decided that he would not continue the flight, but would return and land at the airport that he had just taken off from. Of course the aircraft had a full load of fuel for the intended trip and was too heavy to land. As a routine procedure the captain went 40 or 50 miles offshore and "dumped fuel" to lighten his load for landing. This procedure took a little over an hour, and the media outlets were in heaven.

As an air traffic controller, I was aware of the situation, but was surprised when one of my colleagues on a day off phoned and asked what the crisis was at CYVR. He told me that on television they were interviewing people that were "evacuated" from the Macdonalds restaurant near the end of runway 08 right, and that emergency vehicles were standing by for this impending doom !! I of course inquired around the room and nobody knew of any emergency. Someone said: "they don't mean the Cathay flight do they?" Of course to the media that was the event that made it to "The Situation Room" !!!, "Breaking News", and "A Major Development".

Sometime later the aircraft landed without incident and it was revealed by the Airport Authority that no emergency ever existed and the Captain never declared one, but to the media this was "Hot Stuff".

So dear reader, when something major happens, take a deep breath and analyze the situation and inform yourself of the facts and make your own judgment.

Live well and prosper.

Dennis

"The Less You Know, The More You Believe

Piano Concerto No. 2

From time to time I am asked what is my favourite music piece? I usually answer that I am not sure how I could have a favourite with so many wonderful classical works along with a lesser number of modern scores. And if pressed, I thought to myself and forced to answer, I would have to choose Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. And while I know the melody and movements of the piece fairly well. I know very little about the composer and the background leading to this work.

Well, that is what the internet is all about. This work was written between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on December 2, 1900, and the complete work was premiered on October 27th, 1901.

Rachmaninoff's first was premiered in 1897 and derided by the critics. Although now it is considered a significant achievement. This along with problems in his personal life, let Rachmaninoff into a bout of clinical depression for several years.

It is interesting to note that such a wonderful piece of work was at first derided and then praised. This goes to show that breaking new ground and the life of a pioneer is not easy. Difficulty arises for us when we depend on the acceptance of others for our self esteem.

Dear reader, I think this is a lesson for all of us. Let's please ourselves in our work and artistry and if the rest of the world loves it, that is great, but if the world says "nay", then we have still done the best that we could.

Live well and prosper.

Dennis

Eliminate Stress and Worry !!

How to eliminate stress and worry from your life??? There are many ways that vary in effectiveness. Sit down in a quiet area with a nice rose or flower of your choice and contemplate each other. You can be sure that the rose is contemplating you:-)

I am lucky in that I have a close relative who is a great stress reliever. My almost 3 year old grandson has allowed me to be a part of his life on an almost daily basis. Yesterday he phoned in the morning and asked if I would take him to the airport on the new skytrain. I must admit that I had other things to do and also had to work the evening shift starting at 1:30 that afternoon. My adult self was saying "you don't have time", "you have been to the airport many times", "maybe we could just have a short visit", blah, blah, blah. My more adventurous child self was saying: "go and have fun", "you did say you wanted to see the world through the eyes of a child", "don't be lazy", and "it would mean a lot to Tyler". Well the long and short of it was that Tyler and I went off to the airport.

We started walking to the bus stop hand in hand. The short walk was punctuated with stops to examine various plants, flowers and waterfalls that connect our two apartment buildings. Tyler brought smiles to people walking and those on the bus when he exclaimed loudly: "Grampa look, a GARBAGE TRUCK !!!" Even more treasures were to be revealed to me as we stopped at each skytrain station and tried to determine where the people who were getting on were going. "Where do you think they are going grampa??" Much excitement ensued when a skytrain passed going in the opposite direction and when the airport came into view. Such small events and sitings became wonderful discoveries and time passed with nary a thought from me. The return trip was just as exciting as the outbound leg and there were no end of the adult smiles that Tyler created with his running commentary of life on our big adventure for the day.

To say that stress and worry were eliminated from my adult life during our journey may be a bit of a stretch, but I can tell you that they were relegated to the unthought of regions of my brain for the time. Who would have thought that one could get so much enjoyment out of riding on a bus, skytrain, looking at flowers and contemplating were other people were going.

If you want to see life in a different perspective, then take your grandkids, borrow someone else's for a few hours and see life as they see it.

I GUARANTEE, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND THE WAY YOU SEE THINGS !!!!

Much love, to the child in you.

Dennis