Community

Dear Diary,

I love to find little photographic metaphors in the landscape and after Ulrich and Lar's visit I thought this one was just perfect.  At the end of the stairs in my garden is a little patch of Hens and Chicks, a sweet succulent plant that forms a tight mass.  The word "community" immediately popped into my mind.

Blipfoto is a wonderful community that is tied together by our love of the photographic medium.  It is a very egalitarian community too, professional photographers share space with us rank amateurs and it all works.  No one is excluded or felt to feel less important.

It was fun to sit and exchange views with my guests from Norway.  It just reinforced something I have found continually as I traveled the world through the years.  We have so much more in common than we have differences.

I've added an extra photograph I made a few years ago in Kentucky at a contemplative photograph retreat.  It represents the opposite of community, division.  That is the political climate in America today to an extreme degree, we simply can't find common ground it seems.  If we could just focus on what we share rather than on how we differ we would be a much happier and productive country I think.