My wish. I live in a neighborhood and in a City where I am surrounded by people of every color, race, creed, and religion. I am able to spend time and benefit from daily interactions with people of all faiths and races. Just yesterday, I was able to buy beef from my whole grass farmer, honey from a farmer in the Finger Lakes, travel to buy bacon from my German Butcher, get lunch from a Spanish restaurant, sit with my rainbow colored neighbors to hear two RPO cellists at my local library, and celebrate the lunar new year with neighbors at a neighborhood Asian restaurant. Today I was able to protest with Rochesterians of all colors, races and religions, and hear my black female Mayor talk about how my city will stand together and continue to embrace all of our residents. This diversity does not weaken me, or my City, it strengthens it and me.

As Americans we have so much, but we let people make us feel so afraid. Maybe we are afraid because we don’t want to share what we have. Maybe we have been sold a vision that we must have more and more and more. But really and truly in America we have enough.  It is certainly not evenly distributed, and it should be.  The problem is because we have it, and because so many of us don’t travel, we don’t appreciate what we have.  The vast majority of us, have things that many, many people in the world do not have. We have housing, and public housing, we have roads paved and otherwise, we have running water, we have public schools, we have a functioning government, and we have a court system.  

But we also have this fear.  Between this fear and the fact that most people don’t live in communities like mine, we have become soft as a nation and we have for to long let politicians and others tell us to be afraid.   Too many of us live in communities that are monocultures. It is as if we live in a giant field of tulips, just tulips everywhere.  While that is beautiful, a garden, a rich, and varied garden is healthier and ultimately more beautiful. No matter what the season, there is beauty and growth.   My wish is that my fellow countrymen could spend a week with me, and see what I see everyday, and not be afraid.  Not be afraid to be with others that do not look and believe just like them. Not be afraid to not have what others have. Just not be afraid. If we could, then you would see my world, and your world, as the beautiful garden, that it really is.

“But it is growing damp and I must go in. Memory’s fog is rising.”
― Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

1/22/17

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017

“Jim said he believed it was spirits, but I says: no, spirits wouldn’t say “dern the dern fog”.”
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1/22/17

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017

“One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shore and said, “We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I’ll make one. I’ll make a voice like all of time and all of the fog that ever was; I’ll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore. I’ll make a sound that’s so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and hearths will seem warmer, and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in the distant towns. I’ll make me a sound and an apparatus and they’ll call it a Fog Horn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life.”

The Fog Horn blew.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Fog Horn

1/22/17

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017

“The air, the water, and the ground are free gifts to man, and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink, breath, and walk – and therefore each has a right to his share of earth.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Prairie

12/16/16

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2016

In the winter the days end early, the sun shines, and the shadows fall.

1/1/17

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017

I wake.

I breathe.

The day begins.

What adventures does it bring?

Morning walk.

Mist and fog,

before the dawn.

Sunrise as I walk.

Sun illuminates the mist and fog,

another glorious day.

Coffee with a loved one,

morning conversation.

Bike ride in the fog.

The world looks different,

there is no distance,

everything is up close.

Take pictures in the fog.

Talk to random strangers,

discuss the world.

The fog also seems to muzzle the sounds.

Can’t even see across the river.

Talk to other photographers,

each of us catching altered views of reality.

Message some friends who like to take images.

Say its a beautiful day,

come out an play.

Bike by a man,

I’m homeless and hungry, he says.

Turn the bike back,

He tells me a same old story,

I must have heard a 100 times.

I’m not from here,

I need to get to NY.

Think about a friend whose,

brilliant homeless sister just died,

give him money for breakfast,

and we shake hands.

Swim at YMCA,

in the locker room,

the TV is on.

We all talk about our reality,

versus the latest from Trump,

different views,

but same reality,

a few really insightful comments.

Ride home,

the fog is lifting,

manage to catch up with my loved one,

switch to tea, and write more words.

A great start to the day.

.

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017

 

The beauty of outdoor stairs is that they extend the rooms of the house onto the street.  They provide a porch for people who do not have porches. They provide a space to sit and watch the street, that is not on of of the street.  You are and are not in public when you are on a stair.

11/30/16

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2016

For more see this one minute relaxation video shot at the same location.

1/22/17

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017