abruption

reflective abstract, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Fewer and fewer Americans possess objects that have a patina, old furniture, grandparents pots and pans / the used things, warm with generations of human touch, essential to a human landscape. Instead, we have our paper phantoms, transistorized landscapes. A featherweight portable museum.

-- Susan Sontag

distance

marbled moon, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish: it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.

-- William Makepeace Thackeray

another rubber tree plant

monona terrace ironman set up begins, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Most of my advances were by mistake. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn't.

-- Richard Buckminster Fuller

six of one

six tomatoes , a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

There are 6 admonishments in the Bible concerning homosexual activity and our enemies are always throwing them up to us usually in a vicious way and very much out of context. What they don't want us to remember is that there are 362 admonishments in the Bible concerning heterosexual activity. I don't mean to imply by this that God doesn't love straight people, only that they seem to require a great deal more supervision.

-- Lynn Lavner

carefree(er)

empty swings, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

A lot of parents pack up their troubles and send them off to summer camp.

-- Raymond Duncan

I am feeling so blue today I can hardly stand it.

that which we must tolerate

love, taggers, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.

-- Dan Rather

cape a'flapping

charlie's lego dude, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

You can't relate to a superhero, to a superman, but you can identify with a real man who in times of crisis draws forth some extraordinary quality from within himself and triumphs but only after a struggle.

-- Timothy Dalton

contentment

blissed out, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

-- Socrates

of the many, one

fungus , a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.

-- Helen Keller

beginner's bite

violet snuggles, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Adam and Eve had many advantages but the principal one was, that they escaped teething.

-- Mark Twain

stepping inward

sandhill crane, family of four, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

-- Tao Te Ching

counting little things

butterfly id?, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

growth cycles

ripening, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Private victories precede public victories. You can't invert that process any more than you can harvest a crop before you plant it.

-- Stephen Covey

playing together

up and over , a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.

-- Richard Bach

persona(el)

palace suite, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

The personal life of every individual is based on secrecy, and perhaps it is partly for that reason that civilized man is so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected.

-- Anton Chekhov

bang a gong

heteros love homos, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

There is a spirit in us that makes our brass to blare and our cymbals crash -all, of course, supported by the practicalities of trained lung power, throat, heart, guts.

-- Sir Lawrence Olivier

focus

photographing the photographer, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.

-- Anthony J. D'Angelo

we can do this, together

blind rider, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them - these are the best guides for man.

-- Albert Einstein

triathletion

liz, end of swim --> bike transition, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.

-- Walter Elliot

start small

You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.

-Saint Augustine

response to landscape

bodyscape II, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.

-- Lawrence Durrell

hello? hello?

beeting hearts, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again.

-- Bill Bryson

that which you can, you do

(hospital) room with a view, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.

-- Leo Buscaglia

brother

quinn , originally uploaded by McBeth.

The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out of his nose.

-- Garrison Keillor

let's do lunch

bright eyes, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.

-- Mitch Hedberg

masked

settle down kitty, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We were that generation called ''silent,'' but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period's official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man's fate.

-- Joan Didion

purple

fresh breath, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

-- Alice Walker

stand up

protest in madison: 02/26/11, originally uploaded by McBeth.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

to be fair

Above all., originally uploaded by McBeth.

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

once upon a time

swerve, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water, and a million years gone by.

-- Beth Nielsen Chapman

high height

Mad Rollin' Dolls 2011: Bout 3, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

if you look closely

over there, originally uploaded by McBeth.

When you are describing
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don't state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things
With a sort of mental squint.

-- Lewis Carroll

interrelated

chair boss, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative.

-- Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

darned if you don't

this that, originally uploaded by McBeth.

What then after the medications, psychiatrist, despair, depression, and overdose? All those incredible feelings to sort through. Who is being too polite to say what? Who knows what? What did I do? Why? And most hauntingly, when will it happen again? Then, too, are the bitter reminders..... medicine to take, resent, forget, take, resent, and forget, but always to take.

-- Kay Jamison

take a seat and wait

swimming is not advised., originally uploaded by McBeth.

I saw a human pyramid once. It was very unnecessary. It did not need to exist.

-- Mitch Hedberg

draggin' wagon

Davina DeVille, originally uploaded by McBeth.

As an artist, all I need is my paints and brushes - and someone to drag me away when the canvas is done.

-- Pablo Picasso

opened up

washington state, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We all experience many freakish and unexpected events - you have to be open to suffering a little. The philosopher Schopenhauer talked about how out of the randomness, there is an apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you are an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone.

-- Viggo Mortensen

inflate your life raft

persimmon's art, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I don't understand people who like to work and talk about it like it was some sort of goddamn duty. Doing nothing feels like floating on warm water to me. Delightful, perfect.

-- Ava Gardner

Mister Owl, how many licks does it take?

three tomatoes, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

-- Buddha

wide open

blue sky barney, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The greatest religious problem today is how to be both a mystic and a militant; in other words how to combine the search for an expansion of inner awareness with effective social action, and how to feel one's true identity in both.

-- Ursula K Leguin

dispersion

dolly, originally uploaded by McBeth.

What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -it's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.

-- Jack Kerouac

risk assessment

recycle h2o, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.

-- Henry Ford

sunday dinner

sunday dinner, originally uploaded by McBeth.

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

-- Hunter S. Thompson

faraway

hornby island twilight, originally uploaded by McBeth.

How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will.

-- Albert Einstein

this is how it is done

fly away, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

-- Douglas Adams

consolation

watch over, originally uploaded by McBeth.

In our sad condition, our only consolation is the expectancy of another life. Here below all is incomprehensible.

-- Martin Luther

depths

ice water, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.

-- Sigmund Freud

locker up

pink padlock, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three.

-- Elayne Boosler

domesticum

domesticum, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I have no hesitation in saying that although the American woman never leaves her domestic sphere and is in some respects very dependent within it, nowhere does she enjoy a higher station. And if anyone asks me what I think the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity and growing power of this nation, I should answer that it is due to the superiority of their women.

-- Alexis de Tocqueville

reflection

reflection, originally uploaded by McBeth.

For light I go directly to the Source of light, not to any of the reflections.

-- Peace Pilgrim