Be human

A personal note:

I began posting to my blog, ‘Walk to the river,’ more than seven year ago. I began using Facebook to link to my blog and to post other thoughts and photos about five years ago.

My primary intention has been to pay attention to the world within my reach – especially the Kaw River and its environs - and then to share my experience in words and pictures. But I have also branched out in other various directions.  And this too: I enjoy just having a little fun now and then. I try to follow the advice of Wendell Berry: ‘Expect the end of the world. Laugh. / Laughter is immeasurable.’

But now I must lament.

Original content on Facebook is increasingly being drowned out by advertising and ‘shares’. Where have all the faces gone? And where are the words in your own words? All the ‘sponsored’ posts are bad enough. And then it seems that there comes just one more shared post after another. If you like cats, I’d rather see yours. And I do sometimes read a shared article - if you have told me why it was important to you.  And yes, I’m interested in thoughtful political discourse, but will the raging never end?

Oh my – my dear Facebook friends! Sometimes I can’t scroll fast enough.  

What to do?  What to do?

My intention has been to share with you what I personally  think and how I see the world around me. I have tried to do what I can within the limits that Facebook and Blogspot present. After all, waddya expect for nothing, rubber biscuit?

And yet, among all the superfluity and clatter, my posts have indeed reached you now and then. I hope that you have found some of them to have been worth your time and attention. I hope that you have occasionally laughed. And I especially hope that I have encouraged you to walk out into the natural world within your own reach for yourself. 

The river awaits.

And so now this this personal post makes me chuckle just a little bit to myself. Most of ‘you’ will not even have seen this ‘note’ as it sails out onto an endless sea of posts. And in that incessant stream of posts which is Facebook, many personal posts simply swirl down the ever swirling Facebook drain.

This will hardly be news to you, but it should never be forgotten: Facebook is a faceless, unfeeling, behemoth that plays by its own rules for its own ends. Only individuals can care. Only people can be human. And if we aren’t careful, parts of our individual humanity can be stolen or submerged – not just by Facebook – but by various technologies and a culture that is increasingly dehumanizing.

Still, here we are. 

I am glad to see your faces on Facebook and to hear what you are up to now and then. Those personal posts of yours are like the prize at bottom of a box of Cracker Jacks - except that instead of caramel popcorn and peanuts, the Facebox has been filled with rocks and rabbit pellets. Please do not share this if you agree.

And I do wish to thank you for your likes and comments over the years. Especially the comments.

So, now, for those of you who have gotten all the to the bottom of this barrel, here are a few of the human faces of the man himself behind the ‘Walk to the river’ blog - more or less in his natural habitat.

And as they say: see you in the funny papers.

The ordinary and extraordinary

To my good friend,

It was a fine winter afternoon. As I crossed the bridge, I saw the Kaw River running very high for this time of year. The lowly island of limestone boulders just beyond the dam was completely submerged under the rushing water. But as I looked again, I saw a handful of white seagulls standing up to their ankles on the summit. 

Now, you and I have walked to the river frequently and we often remark on the changing river current.  But this seemed somewhat beyond remarkable.

I had my device camera along and I have taken countless photos in this place. Still, I thought to myself, why not take just a few more so that you could see what I saw. The day was entirely its own, after all, and not any other.

As I wandered, I saw the familiar and the unexpected woven together. In front of me, the same old river was running in quite a hurry between its banks. I was taking my time. The cold air was biting my exposed fingers, but I was bundled and warm. The sun, nearing the winter solstice and heading downward to the gray fringe of bare branches on the far side of the river, shone with an extraordinarily fine light. And yet, as it often is, it was just me and the river just rolling along.

I took shots from every angle, but not that many. I knew my subject quite well and with very little editing, I think this series of photos came out quite well.

So, Mike, I began by taking these river pictures for you, but I’m sure you won’t mind if I share them with a few other folks.  After all, but we don’t own any of this, but we are indeed most fortunate to be part of it.

bert

P.S. Click on first photo to see all of them as full-sized slideshow.