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Questions about Life, Death, and Everything
Looking deep into the night sky, raises existential questions.
Sharpless 171 is a red emission region in the constellation Cepheus. With its smaller companion, Sharpless 170, it resembles an exclamation mark up in the sky. But looking more carefully, Sharpless 171 gives the vague impression of a scull floating in the stars of the milky way. It is surprising that the star illuminating the nebula is one of the hottest stars discovered near our Sun, exhibiting a surface temperature of nearly 45000 degrees Celsius and a luminosity about 100000 times that of the Sun en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7822.
Technical Details:
89 x 60 sec frames taken under suburban skies on September 29, 2019. Canon 550D at ISO 800, Samyang 135mm f/2. Tracked with a Star Adventurer Mini bundle. More details at AstroBin.
For We're Here - The Three Stooges Existential Balloon Factory
Put some zing into your 365! Join We're Here!
“…a mysterious intersection of chance and attention that goes well beyond the existential surrealism of the “decisive moment”. -Lee Friedlander
WAH are visiting the three stooges existential balloon factory. I am the first to admit that I am a bit of a Brit philistine. I have of course heard of them, but haven't knowingly ever watched anything they have done. so this is a copy cat of an internet shot (see comments) This was the only decent shot. but was fun (116/215)
Also for uncertain wednesdays
THOMAS MERTON ON EASTER
(Seasons of Celebration)
"Lent has summoned us to change our hearts, to effect in ourselves the Christian metanoia. But at the same time Lent has reminded us perhaps all too clearly of our own powerlessness to change our lives in any way. Lent in the liturgical year plays the role of the Law, the pedagogue, who convinces us of sin and inflicts upon us the crushing evidence of our own nothingness. Hence it disquiets and sobers us, awakening in us perhaps some sense of that existential “dread” of the creature whose freedom suspends him over an abyss which may be an infinite meaninglessness, an unbounded despair. This is the fruit of that Law which judges our freedom together with its powerlessness to impose full meaning on our lives merely by conforming to a moral code. Is there nothing more than this?
But now the power of Easter has burst upon us with the resurrection of Christ. Now we find in ourselves a strength which is not our own, and which is freely given to us whenever we need it, raising us above the Law, giving us a new law which is hidden in Christ: the law of His merciful love for us. Now we no longer strive to be good because we have to, because it is a duty, but because our joy is to please Him who has given all His love to us! Now our life is full of meaning!
Easter is the hour of our own deliverance— from what? Precisely from Lent and from its hard Law which accuses and judges our infirmity. We are no longer under the Law. We are delivered from the harsh judgment! Here is all the greatness and all the unimaginable splendor of the Easter mystery— here is the “grace” of Easter which we fail to lay hands on because we are afraid to understand its full meaning. To understand Easter and live it, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom!
Death exercises a twofold power in our lives: it holds us by sin, and it holds us by the Law. To die to death and live a new life in Christ we must die not only to sin but also to the Law.
Every Christian knows that he must die to sin. But the great truth that St Paul exhausted himself to preach in season and out is a truth that we Christians have barely grasped, a truth that has got away from us, that constantly eludes us and has continued to do so for twenty centuries. We cannot get it into our heads what it means to be no longer slaves of the Law. And the reason is that we do not have the courage to face this truth which contains in itself the crucial challenge of our Christian faith, the great reality that makes Christianity different from every other religion.
In all other religions men seek justification, salvation, escape from “the wheel of birth and death” by ritual acts, or by religious observances, or by ascetic and contemplative techniques. These are means devised by men to enable them to liberate and justify themselves. All the other religions impose upon man rigid and complicated laws, subject him more or less completely to prescribed exterior forms, or to what St Paul calls “elementary notions.”
But Christianity is precisely a liberation from every rigid legal and religious system. This is asserted with such categorical force by St Paul, that we cease to be Christians the moment our religion becomes slavery to “the Law” rather than a free personal adherence by loving faith, to the risen and living Christ; “Do you seek justification by the Law . . . you are fallen from grace . . . In fact, in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor its absence is of any avail. What counts is faith that expresses itself in love” (Gal. 5: 4,6).
. . . This gift, this mercy, this unbounded love of God for us has been lavished upon us as a result of Christ’s victory. To taste this love is to share in His victory. To realize our freedom, to exult in our liberation from death, from sin and from the Law, is to sing the Alleluia which truly glorifies God in this world and in the world to come.
This joy in God, this freedom which raises us in faith and in hope above the bitter struggle that is the lot of man caught between the flesh and the Law, this is the new canticle in which we join with the blessed angels and the saints in praising God.
God who is rich in mercy, was moved by the intense love with which he loved us, and when we were dead by reason of our transgressions, he made us live with the life of Christ . . . Together with Christ Jesus and in him he raised us up and enthroned us in the heavenly realm . . . It is by grace that you have been saved through faith; it is the gift of God, it is not the result of anything you did, so that no one has any grounds for boasting. (Eph. 2: 4– 9)
Let us not then darken the joy of Christ’s victory by remaining in captivity and in darkness, but let us declare His power, by living as free men who have been called by Him out of darkness into his admirable light.” – Thomas Merton
....dealing with an existential crisis, wondering if he's more potato than man, after his latest date called him a "spud muffin."
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished with Topaz Studio and Lightroom Classic.
Week No: 18
Theme: Cliché
Category: Creative (well, sort of)
Faded image and trite existential statement, does it get any more cliché? I figure the processing, while not psychedelic, far out, works for Sliders Sunday too. HSS.
systemic existential concerns
improvised protection against fallout
improvised protection against fallout
improvised protection against fallout
march is here again
1,142-second star trail with the Milky Way.
I got to the observatory at around 12:15 am, and was expecting to see a few people. No one! I was all alone!
After an hour time-lapse, I set this up for a little over 19 minutes. I ended up sitting in the car and napping for a bit while this sat about 100 feet away from me near where the observatory building is located.
Amazing how much we move in just under 20 minutes. MD3-S2 TriggerTrap.
Photograph published in News Junkie Post on 5/30/2020
newsjunkiepost.com/2020/05/30/climate-crisispandemics-and...
Photograph also published in The Duran on 5/31/2020
theduran.com/climate-crisis-pandemics-and-bad-governance-...
Also published in TeleSUR English on 6/06/2020
www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Climate-Crisis-Pandemics-a...
In a high priced neighbourhood where old homes are demolished as soon as they are sold and monster houses replace them, this old relic is an unexpected hold out.
April 8th, 2021
I am bored on an existential level.
Patience has never been my strong suit and a lot of my life has felt like waiting. I need to stop worrying so much about the future and enjoy the present moment. But worrying IS my strong suit so
The pinnacle of human achievement: floating in water that smells faintly of volcano and triumph. Jen here, looking like a Renaissance nude recast for the Instagram era, is practicing advanced not-giving-a-shit in 38-degree bliss. SPF 50 and existential release.
📝 This image is available under Creative Commons 2.0 (Attribution required). Please link to the original photo and the license. License for use outside of the Creative Commons is available by request.
... like being in a reality show where the camera is your anxiety and it never turns off.
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished with Topaz Studio and Lightroom Classic.
I sometimes contract into an existential angst, deeply unsatisfied and troubled by my inability to figure once and for all the ultimate truth, what is my existence about.
I've looked everywhere for an answer to this constant nagging question to the true meaning of Life, every time I thought I've gotten it, it always slips away, leaving me discouraged and heartbroken.
Why is there this need to search? So many saints and sagas, smart intelligent people declare they have figured it all out, and convince others their truth. So far, I don't buy any of it, all I see are just fellow human beings living a human life. We all exist in this human form, stay for a while, then go away, a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Perhaps I'll never find the answer that quiets my monkey mind. But for some moments of my life, being in the beautiful nature, seems to make everything alright, no more struggling for an answer, just merge into peace and quietness, just for a little while.
Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
I've been super contemplative lately. Like, those existential 'here from there' types of thoughts we're all given to dwelling in and tripping on at different times of our lives. How who we are is just the result of so many events in a series who sculpted the present person we are. There are few things that can compare to peace of mind, knowing who you are. It feels to me sometimes like to be alive is to question our lives and want for things we don't have. Every day we walk through our existence full of wishes and dreams unspoken, ... or unrecognized. In this day and age of #blessed, many of us mistakenly believe our lives are 'less than' those which are constantly presented in the media. People used to compare themselves to the Cleavers and the Bradys, now they seem to compare themselves to everyone. The effect of this can leave many feeling desperate and alone, when the truth is that most of us (myself included) are frightened quite a lot. Or uncertain, lost, hurt, and misguided. While there is some merit to the saying 'fake it until you make it,' I prefer a more direct approach. For this coming year forward, I want to try my best to practice kindness and compassion over comparison. To live in and appreciate each moment as it happens and refuse to dwell on past mistakes. Above all else, to remember that I am a constant work in progress.
The more I learn about myself, the more I fear myself. I’m told I should remain neutral. A Switzerland of the mind.
explore 6 may 2008
so here's the thing. our old internet router broke. the new router doesn't work with the old computer (holding all my pics), so if i want to upload, i have to drag everything onto a memory stick, and transfer it over...blah, blah, blah... so i begin questioning the VALUE of the pictures... and quickly pirouette into existential angst about THE MEANING of it all. then i get my holga film developed, and i'm liking the randomness and mechanics of film again. SO i've just bought a new lens for my old, manual nikon... and am about to take a deep breath and explore what may happen. anyone else hit the photographic wall...?!