Another Day of Travel

I wrote this post earlier, since I am traveling once again, this time, to New Jersey to see Mom and my two brothers. My anxiety level is not too bad, since my wife made prior arrangements for ground travel. I hate doing that kind of thing. I am taking my journal along to jot down […]

Practice Roll

I haven’t shot a roll of film in quite a while. In fact, I had to drive 20 miles from home just to purchase some. Today I went for a walk and took some practice shots. I didn’t trust the in-camera meter reading, so I brought along my hand-held meter. I haven’t used that in […]

Three Pumpkins

[Note: I’ll be taking a little break from the heavy topics I’ve been discussing for the past few days (Death, Uncertainty, Questions of Faith). Don’t worry though, I will be back with more heaviosity soon enough. Thank you all for reading!] Sometimes Mom just had enough. Typically she’d had it with Dad. Too many pictures, […]

Sticky Mike

The pictures below are among the first I took of my brother Mike in my adult life. I started taking his picture on his 40th birthday at the Developmental Center. I wanted, somehow, to document his life, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to do it. I wanted to include relationships between Mike and the […]

There’s Something About Orange Juice

The great race Dad always liked to have his orange juice. Once when I was a kid, about 4 or 5 years old, he challenged me to a juice race. I don’t know if this was a way to get me to drink my juice or not, but I accepted the challenge. My Dad, not […]

Ways to Look at Old Family Snaps

Family pictures from one’s own childhood are tricky. The pictures of ourselves before we had the ability to form memories are useful only to the extent that we can say, “I have my father’s eyes,” or “I look just like my mother.”  But in general, this is for others to say. What about family snapshots […]

New Project

Current project Those of you who follow my blog know that my older brother is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. On his 40th birthday I started a long-term photography project to try to figure out my relationship with him. It may be hard to believe, but I was never sure if my brother knew who […]

Talent

In looking to improve my writing skills I am thumbing through some of my books about writing. Chapter I of Brenda Ueland’s ’If You Want to Write’ [1] is entitled: ‘Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say.’ It struck me that this is equivalent to the statement in the Declaration of Independence, […]

Dream Writing

Semi-conscious writing For a time I used to write down all my dreams. I would wake up in the middle of the night and write them down in my journal. Writing upside down was a problem. The ink would flow away from the ballpoint tip, and no ink would come out. Then I discovered the […]

Abandonment

It’s funny how words can change meanings over the years. During my childhood, most of the attention went to my older brother, who was diagnosed with autism and profound retardation in addition to being nonverbal. Mom would take us into New York City every day and drop me off with a family friend while she […]

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