HEARTS BUSTIN' ... WITH LOVE

Euonymus americanus

This common shrub of the southeastern woods could be easily overlooked when it flowers NOW. 
The tiny flowers are pale green and yellow and give no suggestion as to the dramatic fruit they will bear in the fall. 
Yes, this image is a result of the scanning technique that is so simple and interesting.
The round reddish-purple husks really burst open to reveal Day-Glo orange seeds. Hearts-a-Bustin (With Love -my appellation since the ripe pods form hearts) is a favorite food for deer which may be good or bad for your particular situation.
My plants came from the woods of eastern Kentucky via the generous heart of Mrs. Mary E. Fraim. From the woods on the hillside of her home came a few little starts and they made NC home.
The leaves come and go but the stems stay green all year. They are easy to air or ground layer and need to have their cores thinned out at about the 4 year mark - otherwise they get root bound and begin to die.
Some of my plants have reached the 10 foot mark. I have also discovered that there are some variations of this plant with differences in leaves and blossoms - and I'd like to have some of each. 
Deer love them - maybe that is the secret of how they stay so trimmed and thriving in their natural state.
I had thought about showing you the fruit that will come in the fall and perhaps you have seen a picture or two before.
But, just for now, here is the plant and its buds and blossoms.
The wait is always worth it. 
Bless you with a happy heart! 
Now, if someone would share from their stash of birdfoot violets ...
© tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Happy Birthday To The Library Of Congress!


Audrey Fischer of the Library’s Public Affairs Office begins her guest blog for this week's celebration by writing, "April 24th marks the Library’s 210th anniversary. Let it be said that the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution keeps getting better with age."
If you do not regularly frequent the LOC, you need to sign up for eBulletins and also traverse the subjects they have available to YOU.
You can make your way there and sign up at www.loc.gov. You don't even have to tell them I sent you.
Many people are bibliophobic and libriariaophobic. This is just wrong. Make use of your local, state and national library resources.
I have indulged in many international libraries and gotten some really rich and wonderful material from them.
My dad would sometimes wax eloquent when he chose about this and that question I had asked. When he did not want to bother with an answer, his typical reply was, "Ask your congressman."
I learned to bypass asking my dad about a lot of things. When it came to needing information about matters of the male and female relationship and all matters of that regard, I wrote to the esteemed Representative Ken Heckler.
I used my best penmanship and explained what was on my mind. I was 14 and did not want to rely on rumors or hearsay about something that obviously was of great importance. I included things related to the physical nature of things, the social situations and proprieties and the emotional as well.
Lo and behold, within about 3 weeks I received, at my door, a box from the office of the more than honorable representative. The books were an exhaustive collection of information. The charts were graphic and his letter should have been preserved. He commended me on my choice to be an informed and aware young man and that he hoped to meet me on his next visit to the Appalachians he represented.
There were books and brochures from the military services, with cautions and recommendations for care and responsibility to be exercised when such opportunities for applying the information arose.
Many of these books were publications of the Library Of Congress. Others came from appropriate governmental sources.
I was not selfish with this material and was happy to incorporate the study and experimentation it invited into a couple of choice social circles.
I give my deepest thanks to the girls and boys who translated these resources into experience and now into sweet memory.
My deepest appreciation goes to my dad. He created a lifelong habit of my never hesitating, when faced with an issue of consequence, to "Ask my congressman." © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

Tools For Rescuing The Human Brain, Heart and Soul

Education may be a mess. Standard tests and ordinary conversation forces you to realize that students and teachers alike fail to possess vocabulary, grammatical skills and technical information and a horrid lack of historical and geographical understanding of what has been and is going on.

Whether on paper or on the screen of a Kindle or iPad, reading is an art that must be developed. However, let us resolve to do it well.

A very well done mini-series [Spartacus: Blood and Sand] came to an end last Sunday evening on Starz. In this finale, Spartacus begins the slave uprising by slaying the man that had bought him and had his wife murdered.

A dramatic encounter between a champion gladiator and the wife of the owner of the spectacular men found them alone. She had used him as property and for her pleasure. Without giving away all that happened, the gladiator addressed the woman and said, “There is still something between you and I.”

What writer, committee of editors and general cast and crew did not stop this aggression against language? 

“Between I?”

“In which eye?” My elementary teachers would quickly have corrected that sentence with a whack from a ruler or yardstick, whichever was closer.

Blood and guts – Oh, well … bloody bad grammar, NO!

Despite the continuing growth of the width and depth of the universal knowledgebase available through the Internet, people are choosing to know less and less.

Apps and tools are replacing dictionaries and thesauri.

A few books that I would deem essential might make things better for everyone. Any person ought to have at hand these resources and the knowledge of how to use them:

Pocket Reference Guide by Thomas J. Glover

A solid Grammar and a college-level dictionary

A World History

A Bible that you actually read, not just dust

An Art History that covers global art developments

After you have gathered these and settled into using them and want to talk about them, let me know.

After all, it is something just between you and me.  (c)  tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

One Miner Detail About Energy

The next power bill you get might be high or low. There are a lot of little items that are listed in addition to the energy you consumed to keep things comfortable and running in your home.
These charges are fees that fall a little short of being taxes, but that's what they are - when your thinking gets real.
Now, for the really real.
What you will never see on your bill is the cost of human life that it costs to bring the coal and other energy sources to supply your energy needs.
When the West Virginia miners died a few days ago, added to the the deaths in Ireland, it dragged my heart back to familiar, mournful ground.
I am a first-generation non-miner. My parents and grandparents were determined that I would not work in or for the mines.
My maternal grandfather had worked first as a logger and timberman to provide shoring material for the mines and then, to support his wife and family, learned mining and then demolition.
His job was to drill the holes in the rock surrounding the veins of the black gold and then set the dynamite and nitroglycerine that would make digging the coal possible for the other miners.
This was especially dangerous back in the 20's and 30's. Ventilation was poor and mine owners did as little as possible to care for the safety of the workers.
My Papaw used a carbide lamp, an open-flame lamp that could ignite the methane that was always lurking deep underground. there were also things called "kettle-bottoms" - accretions of heavy rock that the miners might undercut and then the whole thing might fall or shift on them.
One story that I was told was of a miner who was hit by the edge of a kettle-bottom mid-torso. The edge essentially cut him in half but the weight kept him from bleeding out instantly. My granddad held him as this miner's life left his halved body.
At the time my granddad was doing his work, my grandmother was raising three children (one would die in the flu epidemic of 1918), she was providing room and board and packing lunches and doing laundry for two other miners and worked as a practical nurse for the mining camp.
She also taught reading in a school on Sundays for the children of the miners.
This was the age when there were no unions and miners were paid in company script, to be exchanged at the company store.
Another awful event occurred just over the mountain from the mountain where they worked when the miners tried to unionize and staged a strike.
Mine owners paid thugs to attack the miners with high-power rifles, machine guns and even had a few bombs dropped on them.
My grandparents held out doing this work as long as they could but then an opportunity opened for my Papaw to work as an engineer at a coal-fired power plant in Glen Lyn, Virginia.
I showed up there a few years after my dad and uncles won the second world war.
Now, at this point, the damage to my granddad's lungs was becoming evident. Not only did he have black lung, he had rock dust in his lungs and that was complicated by emphysema.
We lived in sight of the 300-350 train-car long tons and tons of coal that kept coming from the bowels of the mountains.
The power plant generated electricity and cinders.
Today the plant is greener but the cost of the coal is still high.
So many miners do not have to die.
Better policing can be done.
Companies can learn to care.
Those that don't should care about getting outside their jail cell for an hour each day to see the sunlight that the dead miners will never see again.
The United States government can do better and the State of West Virginia can do better.
Mining is a way of life. It is hard, tough work and to be respected.
We can reduce the risk and still get the coal.
You can reduce your demands doing some simple, inexpensive things - but I, for one would appreciate your prayers for these men and women who work underground. Bless the miners, their families and bless you all. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

Flash Backward, V, Pretty Betty & Killing Death At A Funeral

Ugly Betty was never ugly, especially in the Southern sense of that word usage. Beautiful Betty has gone to London and all the cast filtered neatly into TV series history.
Now, we just have to find the original drama with English subtitles to continue watching THAT show.
Curious, don’t you think, that we have SAP for Spanish subtitles on English-speaking shows, but can’t have buttons to push for translations of shows from other countries? I think it might help all of us learn a bit more foreign languages for daily use.
Of course, I say that with Habanero Sauce in cheek.
Now, there is a remake of DEATH AT A FUNERAL and the reviewers say that the remake is better than the original. BAH!
The original was grandly British and a blend of Waiting For God, Fawlty Towers and Diaires Of A Call Girl. What could be improved?
During my years as a pastor I had many moments and hours of high and low humor at some of the things that most people never really see.
Since I was buddies with most of the undertakers I love that word since they ARE the last people in the world to let you down and many people in the medical establishment, I have the stories.
There was one patient wearing a DNR bracelet and became lucid enough to notice it. She was told by a daughter that it meant she got dinner anytime she wanted. The patients asked if she could also have breakfast or lunch as well. BKF or LNH bracelets too?
You must love Flashforward which is really a series of flashbacks to the future mixed with the present and the past. With the addition of DVRs we can be tripolar and just flash all over the place.
The V are of peace and will lunch on one another and on us.
But, fortunately, things are generally wild and wooly, as usual, on General Hospital. Yep. Carly is upset with Sonny.
I’m going to own AVATAR next week. (c)  tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

WHAT CAN I SAY?

Over the last several months I have limited my reading to considerably heavy material. The major portion of this reading has been biography with a diversion to Egypt after the Romans and a treatise on Art.
Partly due to the current economy, the dip in interest in people wanting to learn what I know about calligraphy and photography and the cancellation of two terms of my classes through Wake Tech I have had to set my hands and mind to things I consider important.
Another factor is that I am a grandfather and the things that I learned in my many years of schooling don't relate to what is being taught in schools today. I know what I know and can remember when I came to know it. I can cite resources and provide useful bibliographies, but much of what I am best at in photography is very technical and many people want results without understanding the processes involved.
I have done all the historic, wet photographic processes. The caustic, malodorous chemistry is foreign to most people who click and have prints appear in their local kiosks or mailboxes. I enjoy all the techniques - and even have major flashbacks when I smell freshly printed photos or paper that has been lithographed or screen-printed.
My calligraphy has origins centuries old. I learned the old languages in school and then I learned tool making and then learned to make letters. This primal process is part of the reason I like creating hand-made tools to make beautiful handwritten letters.
I noticed that the calligraphy bibliography for my classes were a list of books that I was thrilled to discover as I began my own exploration of the art, but that was over thirty years ago. Many of those books are older than the students that come to class.
My brother died during the winter. That was a wrong, sad thing. He was younger and generally been stronger than I had been for most of our lives. That ended the occasional decent, strained conversations we had had for decades. Our stories are really hidden and treasured in my heart.
I was also isolated for several months with little real connection to the people with whom I had talked about things that mattered.
One cool thing is that over twenty thousand people have viewed the few calligraphic videos I have posted on You Tube and I get notes and questions about writing from around our globe. Some people somewhere are curious about calligraphy.
I also got a note that on some recent, unknown date, the staff at SmugMug, my web hosting company, had chosen one of my images as their “Photo Of The Day”. Comments came but were generally one to six word expressions and were void of any technical content or critique.
Throughout all this time, I had these heavy books and heavy thoughts in my head.
After days of simple actions or answers, I was ten again. I would retire to my space and read. Now I was reading good books by a younger generation with 20-30 years of additional research.
I can give way too much information and people who know me that when people are looking for a sound bite answer and not a symphony.
Then I thought, “I have never owned or used Cliff's Notes.” Most of the time I don't think quickly when there are big things to consider because I want to consider well and respond well.
I grew up in a part of the world where stories and storytellers were revered.
Another thought quickly followed: “There are fewer and fewer people who want the story, especially the long story.”
Recently I went into a used bookstore with a single purpose. I went to buy the biggest book in the store and then read it. My shoulders got a bit tight after horsing the thing around, but it is read.
There are more corollaries related to this inward and outward activity.
In any given group or relationship conversations tend to get shorter and people seem to develop a shorthand system of expressions. Body language as well as spoken words change. Sometimes this is good and sweet because of the natural, intimate "knowing" that goes beyond words. However, in many cases, routine is emptiness.
The best and most exciting times are when we are free to talk about anything with any emotion without fear of complaint or repercussion. Real discussions do clarify issues when the beginning premise is that no matter what is covered, the relationship is solid.
Sometime silence, even long silences, speaks more deeply than things verbalized. Just being and being present and aware is enough,
The 300 years from the closing prophecy of Malachi to the prophecy of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus did not alter God's relationship with Israel nor did it mean that God's purpose of redeeming humanity was off track.
I believe that from the Word of creation to the end of all days, the Word of God is a single utterance. I also feel that the various touches of hands and meetings of lip in true love are really a continuum - the kiss of a lifetime and the presence that makes hearts complete.
Openness and acceptance can, however, disintegrate.
There is a diplomacy we develop and we agree not to use certain expressions or talk about certain subjects. Connections suffer as badly as the early negotiations that quibbled over whether or not the Viet Nam conflict would be settled at a round or a square table.
Because vocabulary and the range of allowable subjects gets more narrow, things don't get said or done because we fear being misunderstood.
My favorite euphemist, Antonio Porchia, observed, “I know what I have said. I do not know what you have heard.”
Maybe the early Beatles had it worked out best. Everything they did was commercial, fun and fast. All their early hits were two and a half minutes. They met, cranked out songs and had fun. However, their early, successful years seem eclipsed by their falling apart. Modern interpretations of "The Beatles" have turned them into icons one would almost expect in a chapel ceiling as well as in a Cirque du Soleil homage in Las Vegas.
I have a dear friend trying to work out fundamental and complex Biblical language. I'm engaged with him in this because the Aramaic and Greek that I can read give wonderfully deep expressions to a very simple question and the implications are profound. The words are there and how they are understood and lived out is interesting. However, this is not a text or a subject that would make for comfortable conversation in any church meeting a traditional setting. This translation and interpretation will be personally expressed.
My current heavy read has to do with a familiar topic, but is raising wonderfully powerful thoughts. The book is a text and has to do with what the words liberty, freedom and unity.
The very first serious book I ever read was by John Gardner and is Excellence: Can We Be Equal And Excellent Too? I invite you to find and read a copy. You will find it in some libraries and at Amazon. It will be a dollar or two well spent and may settle some issues and raise others.
I was weaned on the teat of Virginia history. Only my bravest friends ask me about general or American history without first drinking AMP to hang around for the whole answer that may spew forth. However, it was just within the last few weeks that I learned that our (Virginia's) grand Commonwealth flag and motto was to be used in some early state coinage. “Sic Semper Tyrannus” with our Lady Liberty stomping the snake of tyranny. Coins are different from flags and there needed to be an obverse to the coin. Some Virginia gentlemen sent one draft to Thomas Jefferson, a brilliant man of books, words and engineering, the suggestion that would have burst the hearts of the Puritans in the northern colonies. Their suggestion was that the obverse of the coin should read in Latin, “Liberty For Leisure”. The idea was bad and rejected. My German grand folk took so much joy in work that seemed to be their pleasure and liberty to them was enough in the pantry and in the bank.
Our current President began with much said about hopes and dreams. At a recent “Tea Party”, the ever-entertaining Sarah Palin asked the group, “How's that hopey, dreamy thing going for ya?”
For many, the hopey and dreamy is still as unnerving as the continual shifting of the earth's plates and many are just waiting for the next tremor or cataclysm.
We know better than the old schoolyard saying, “Sticks and stones my break my bones but words can never hurt me.”
Words can crush, kill, bully and even, as we have seen recently, lead some people to commit suicide. The kids that inflicted the pain on the victim were not “killing softly” and are as guilty for that teen girl's death as if they had used knives or guns.
Guttermouthing is not effective communication. Yelling makes words and thoughts hard to hear. Lying is prohibited in cultures predating the arrival of the Ten Commandments, the first of hundreds of rules that guide God's Chosen and any other civil culture.
Agreed upon taboo topics and the unspoken kill relationships more like cancer than gunfire. However, the sick wounded and dead souls find no solace.
It is amazing that I go deliberately and absolutely deaf when I hear any word spoken with the flavor of "whine". The grandchildren are picking up on that.
Truthing seems to get us into trouble just as easily. Unless we agree before we start that we will be closer because of what is said we cannot open our souls and express our feelings and know that after the words float between our hearts, we have gained in the communication and put our whole person at rest and peace and regained our union because of the strength of liberty.
This, today, is what I am feeling.
But, what can I say?
© tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com