About the photos
Last June my friend Shane and I were on one of the coldest motorcycle trips ever. I had never seen Shane get so cold. I thought he was going to burn his hands on the exhaust pipe as he tried to warm them up.
I tried watching the radar for some place to go to get away from rain and snow and wildfires. We started the day in Montana and were heading north from Julietta Idaho when we came to a fork in the road where we had to decide whether we wanted to head home or stick it out for one more night.
Just as we got to the T in the road where we had to make a decision, the clouds broke and a rainbow gave us reason to stop in awe. I got off my bike and made a few photos.
We decided to keep going to our final campsite. Of course it started raining again, but we were too far down the road and it was too late in the day to return home. We had to push on. We made it to camp as the rain stopped and set up our tents and built a fire. It was a difficult trip and yet it was totally worth it.
I think all the best trips come with personal struggle and shared adventure.
This morning
I woke up early this morning and in a bit of panic about our garden. It is February and I know I am supposed to start some seeds soon but I couldn’t remember when.
As I drank my first cup of coffee I looked up the spreadsheet I created that notes when each seed needs to get started. Phew! I still have a couple of weeks before the start of gardening season.
It may seem silly to be thinking about gardening while it’s snowing outside but this late winter snow is so imperative to the soil that will grow our food.
Later in the morning I was giving a lecture in my PHOTO 101 class about how you can set your camera using what is commonly referred to as the Sunny 16 Rule no matter where you are on the planet.
On a clear sunny day you can set your camera to an exposure setting of f/16 at 1/ISO. If my camera is set at an ISO sensitivity of 100 I can set my exposure to f/16 and 1/100th of a second and get an accurate exposure anywhere on the planet.
I did the math to show that even though the earth has a circumference of approximately 25,000 miles the 91,000,000 miles the photons travel from the sun means that the maximum percentage of difference in exposure is… wait for it… .00027%!
During my final email check of the workday I received an memo that contained news that the immigration and customs enforcement agency (I.C.E.) arrested an illegal immigrant on one of our college campuses. I am to expect more notification of policies regarding how to interact with federal agencies should a similar scenario happen again. I am pretty sure this is only the first of many such scenarios.
Gardens, snow, sunlight, and national politics. Somehow all of these separate events became connected in my mind. While sitting in a meeting at church I found myself thinking about how myopic societies and governments can be by thinking that we are in control of the world.
Our life is dependent upon the grace of sunlight that emanates from 91 million miles away. Without sunlight there is no life on earth.
It is the energy of a celestial object almost 100 millions of miles a way and way beyond our control and influence that sustains life. The sun drags our planet around in an orbit of nearly 584 million miles over the course of each year. We are all just along for the ride.
Without an awareness and gratitude for of things much larger than ourselves, how can we ever expect to enjoy peace and prosperity.
We are all under the same sun and there is less than .003% difference in our experience of it anywhere on the planet and there is zero difference in our basic human needs of food, water, shelter, security, friendship, and love.
