Welcome to the rt tulley photography blogIt features photos, text, and poetry.July 13Trials and Tribulations
I am thankful for trials and tribulations. I know, nobody wishes for them, but they help define who we are. They are God's way of saying, don't take things for granted, don't stay stuck in a rut, and when things get disrupted from your everyday routine and disaster occurs, get up off your booty, get to work, and make things better. I am amazed at the way people come together to help others in need. With all the disappointing things that I've learned to expect of people in general, it is perhaps the one overiding goodness that I see in my fellow man. That certainly restores my faith in humanity.
Several years ago, my son John told me about this broken glass he saw on the median of Sherwood Forest Boulevard in Baton Rouge and asked me to photograph it. It was a complete car window pane which had been shattered, presumably from an automobile accident. I got this as well as several other photos. John used the idea for the title of his band Lucid Soule's CD A Crack in the Glass. I use this photo to represent trials and tribulations.
Another photo, shown below, has been published on this web site but I have not really mentioned what it was before. A year after Hurricane Katrina devasted New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, my family was returning from a vacation in Florida and decided to take a ride along the beach road of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We came upon this near Gulfport, Mississippi. It is what was left standing of a Waffle House. The sign was also still intact but nothing else was except for the foundation and these barstools. It struck me as symbolic for the resiliance of people to get through trials and tribulations. Much still needs to be done but New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast are on their way to recovery from that horrible disaster.
trials and tribulations
i know the term “trials and tribulations” is cliché, trite, and so much overused but there is nothing trite about suffering so perhaps for this i can be excused the suffering and disasters that are played upon unwary mankind are a rallying cry for others to come to the aid of those so maligned. © rt tulley July 12Miracles
I am thankful for miracles. Miracles are those things that don't happen very often (or else they woudn't be called miracles) but when they do, they hit us in the face as very unusual, spectacular, or very rare. However, miracles are present all around us and we generally take them for granted. Life, for example, is one of the greatest miracles ever "invented". Just imagine the improbability of life, and yet it is everwhere around us in the form of single celled organisms, insects, animals, fish, plants, and humans. As a biochemist, I am amazed at the intricacies of life, the completely amazing integration of events and controls that occur in our biochemistry to produce our daily living. The three dimensional folding of proteins and enzymes allow them to function as they do. A single amino acid substitution can create havoc in that folding and make a lesser functioning enzyme or protein. Witness, sickle cell anemia, in which a single amino acid substitution in the beta chain of the hemoglobin protein produces abnormal folding, and thus, abnormal function. There are other substitutions which are not life sustainable. So, although these mutations occur, for the most part only occassionally, they just go to show how everything has to be just right for life to happen. I am continually amazed by the miracle of life.
This is a photo of a baby dove (called squab or chick) behind an unhatched egg. My family watched closely as an adult dove, whom we named Dovey, built a nest on top of a storage box in my carport, laid her eggs, two of which eventually hatched. I climbed up on a ladder to take this photo. A week or so later Dovey disappeared, leaving behind her baby chicks. Later, they disappeared. Perhaps her leaving was the impetus that caused them to leave the nest also. Oh, the miracles of life!
miracles
miracles some say happen every day all you have to do is learn to pray the proper way you’ve got to believe but miracles wouldn’t be if they were as common as you and me the laws of nature are seldom broken can’t you see
but a well placed miracle is motivating and captivating it’s invigorating and regenerating it strengthens faith and love you’ve got to believe
miracles surround us and envelop us every day they stare at us and slap us in the face but we go on and fly on oblivious lost in our reveries you’ve got to believe
miracles are classified according to their art there’s healing there’s saving there’s matters of the heart rescue from danger there’s visions inspired and improbable coincidence but the greatest miracle which is heaven sent the miracle of life we are lent you’ve got to believe. © rt tulley
July 11Optimism
I am thankful for optimism. I would much rather be naively optimistic than realistically pessimistic. It makes life more fun and less depressing. Call me Polyanna if you'd like. But, hey, I liked that movie. Polyanna played the "glad game" in which she found something to be glad about in any situation. A quote from the movie attributed to Abraham Lincoln but actually made up by the Director of the movie, David Swift, was "When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will." Polyanna makes it her daily goal to look for the good in all things. She told Reverend Ford about more than 800 "glad texts" in the Bible, which the reverend could talk about rather than the Hell and Brimstone he continually yelled at the congregation about before. The next day, Reverend Ford said he counted them himself and there turned out to be 826 "glad texts". I'm not sure how accurate that is but, whatever... the point is it is much more fun and productive to be an optimist than a pessimist.
Today's photo is a glass of wine which is "half full" rather than "half empty", referring to the old addage of whether you look at a glass half full or half empty. I took the photo to make it look more full than empty to try to show it is strictly your vantage point which determines whether you see it as half full or half empty. An optimist sees it as half full. A pessimist sees it as half empty! I know the glass is half full (or empty) because I measured the volume accurately with a calibrated liquid measuring device. The glass held 10 ounces and I put 5 ounces in. So much for the scientist in me!
half full, half empty
mr. tomlinson was a half full kind of guy he always saw the positives and preferred a smile to a cry mr. jones however was a half empty bloke he always saw what could go bad that of course is no joke mr. deville in contrast was NEVER a happy man to see he scowled and scolded and sulked for his own glass was almost empty. © rt tulley July 10My Daughter
I am thankful for my daughter Beth. Today is her 22nd birthday. It's hard to believe that that much time has elapsed since she was a newborn. Beth is an amazing person; she's bright, athletic (she played on her softball high school team), artistic, organized, and compassionate. She simply loves colors - she taught me all about color coding. She took a while in college to figure out what she wants to do with her life but now is majoring in Sociology because she wants to be a social worker or counselor. I think she will be very good at it because I have seen signs of her giving of herself to help a friend who is troubled. She has made her father very proud.
This is a photo of Beth that I took today. I thought of the following poem because one of my favorite things to do with Beth is to go shopping with her for clothes. The analogy of a credit card to a father's love came to mind (Beth, don't get any ideas about limitless credit cards - it's only symbolism, ha ha!).
daughters
daughters are like credit cards that entice you to spend piling up debt end on end but in return you have all the goods the merchandise to show for the exchange that is no falsehood
but with daughters there is no amount of money that could max out that card for this one has no limit it keeps on spending it keeps bringing in the gifts of love of pride of charity of compassion and these are sure to uplift
daughter take my card take my wallet spend to your heart’s content for credit is limitless replaceable is money but daughters are not that is my testimony that is my testament. © rt tulley July 9Upgrades
I am thankful for upgrades. By that, I am referring to any kind of improvement. This applies to computers, other electronics, power tools, and yes, even myself.
I got the idea for this Photo of the Day Blog in reverse order from my usual way. I usually either begin with a photo and come up with a title to fit it, or vice versa, the title comes first and then I take or find a photo to fit that. The poem is usually the last thing I do, unless I've got one already written that fits. In this case, the poem came first. It came to me during my half sleep-half awake state this morning. The photo is of my lawm edger and its woefully shortened blade and a new blade showing the difference. Seeing as it is only a nub of a blade, it is no wonder that it was not doing a good job of edging last Saturday. It just goes to show that we all can benefit from upgrades, in this case a replacement of a blade.
upgrade
my motherboard is antiquated its logic circuits have become demented my RAM is all scrambled my hard drive is nearly full and fragmented it takes so much longer to compute the load times are no longer fun it seems that i need an upgrade to rt version 2.1. © rt tulley |
