Shaman's Path a new video and more

I made a video titled “Shaman’s Path”.  The shamanic 

intention of being in harmony with the environment is 

a refreshing departure from the idea of being “at war” 

with nature.  Being “at war” with nature is the mindset 

of contemporary society.  Yes we can kill the earth, 

we can poison the water, the air and the soil but will 

we be winners if we succeed?

The war against nature at its heart is a spiritual battle 

and an outright blasphemy. If one conceives of a 

Creator, the greatest disrespect to the Creator is to fail 

to nurture what has been created.  The two sides 

could not be more clearly delineated.

Politicians are deciding at present whether or not to 

kill the planet off by their devotion to carbon based 

energy interests. Fresh air and water along with fertile 

land may or may not fall prey to economic 

adversaries.  Let’s hope they make the right decision.

We're talking about the world the next generation will 

live in. This and the last several generations have 

really screwed the planet over.  Will this generation 

begin an attempt to make amends, or nonchalantly 

carry on with business as usual?  

We’ll have to wait and see.

Below is a photograph I took on my first day living in 

Oregon. It was taken in the morning in the Columbia 

River Gorge by the Bonneville dam. Long gone are 

the almost unlimited populations of beaver. The 

salmon, whose numbers were described with almost 

disbelief in the journals of the Lewis and Clark 

expedition are now considered to be endangered.

Our way of life is snuffing theirs out. How many of 

our fellow creatures can we kill before we have signed 

our own death warrant?

Escape From The Carbon Fiend

I received this video today on the topic of fracking.  It is in harmony with the rest of this post so I am including it.  Pray for these people, they are facing a grave threat to their well being.

Destruction of the ability of the earth to support life is something many are opposed to.  However there is a small percentage of those among us who do not seem to care all that much one way or another. While not admitting it outright, their decision making and their lack of corrective action speak with an earsplitting volume.  

1 in 8 people will die as a result of air pollution.  In fact three times as many will die from air pollution than will die from automobile accidents.  A report by the World Health Organization gives the down and dirty on the subject. In the WHO report this alarming conclusion is made:  

"This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk."

The report went on to cite the various diseases resulting from both outdoor and indoor air pollution.

Outdoor air pollution-caused deaths – breakdown by disease:

40% – ischaemic heart disease;

40% – stroke;

11% – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD);

6% - lung cancer; and

3% – acute lower respiratory infections in

children.

Indoor air pollution-caused deaths – breakdown by disease:

34% - stroke;

26% - ischaemic heart disease;

22% - COPD;

12% - acute lower respiratory infections in children; and

6% - lung cancer.

What is responsible for air pollution and the resulting death toll?  The agents of death and disease by air pollution are listed at the National Park Service website.

The categories are as follows:  1. Gaseous Pollutants. 2. Particulates. 3. Toxic air pollutants.  4. Primary and secondary pollutants.

There are four categories listed as sources of this malady of death and disease.  Three of them are man made.

1.  Stationary and area sources.  2.  Mobile sources.  3.  Agricultural sources.  4. The fourth category is different from the preceding categories in that the pollution results from natural causes such as volcanoes, dust storms and wildfires, events which, for the most part, human activity does not create. All the rest are produced by human decision making and human activity.  It is recommended that you read the information at the links provided to be more fully informed about the threat produced by air pollution to your health, your life and that of your children and loved ones. 

After becoming informed you may be moved to see to it that the madness of polluting the environment is stopped. Much of the man made pollution has its origins in the way carbon is used. 

With that in mind I made the video below and titled it "Escape From The Carbon Fiend". Seeing the havoc air pollution causes the use of the word "Fiend" is a correct designation. As 8 million people a year are put in the grave by this activity, "Fiend" does seem to fit. The video is illustrated with photography and art of my own.

a Clear Running Water state of mind  

Lets Talk About Carbon

I read the news today, oh boy. I knew it intuitively already and science has now shown my gut feelings to be correct.  The use of carbon based fuel is contributing to severe weather and climate change over the length and breadth of the planet.

I have been making environmental art depicting the results of society’s love affair with carbon based energy.  A while back I made a little video of my art on the topic of “King Carbon”.  It appears at this moment U.S.  Politicians have the desire to crucify the electorate on a cross of carbon as they fight feverishly to be sure big carbon interests construct the Keystone Pipeline across the belly of the nation’s bread basket.  They undertake this initiative despite the dismal track record of pipeline failures. The number is growing rapidly but the sheer number of pipeline failures which have occurred in the last 14 years is staggering.  We’ve been addicted to carbon for a long time.  We are now in the terminal stages of that addiction. What will we do?  Will we simply overdose and vanish from the planet?

Focusing on the Peoples Republic of China as the prime culprit in this matter of assault on the environment a team of scientists from Texas, California and Washington State published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which I found in AlterNet today. It is not a comforting picture which you will see if you read the article.

I live on the west coast of the United States and for years it has been known that China is dumping their smokestack particulates in the nearby mountain ranges along the coast using Mother Nature as the delivery mechanism.  While using air currents to deliver their pollution to U.S. soil they make Mother Nature into an unwitting accomplice. 

The article in AlterNet says in part: “China’s air pollution could be intensifying storms over the Pacific Ocean and altering weather patterns in North America.”  Read the entire article at the AlterNet link above. It is a devastating expose of the malicious activity of carbon devotees.

The mountains of Oregon and Washington are not the only areas under attack from the continuous industrial barrage of Chinese smokestacks.  In an article at the website energybiz  it is revealed that as far back as “… 2001 dust carried from a storm in China that dropped on the US led to health advisories as far east as Atlanta Georgia.” How much is too much?  How is this substantially different from an adversary dispensing a disease causing virus in our cities? Why is it not considered state sponsored terrorism?

A short time ago I made a little video with art titled “Carbon, Climate Change and Cyclones.”   My gut feelings have been proved correct by these revelations in the news.  Why this activity by China is not considered an act of terrorism perpetrated on the population of the United States is a question American citizens need to ask their elected representatives repeatedly until they get a satisfactory answer.  This is indeed a public health issue.  You’re supposed to be vaccinated for measles to avoid epidemics.  But China, a foreign nation, is allowed to drop its poison from the skies across our land regardless of the health and social calamities which ensue.  Has China assumed the role of a 21^st century Typhoid Mary? Is it going to go on from place to place doing business and destroying the rest of the world while it prospers? 

And of course it is not only China.  China has enablers in the legislative halls of the U.S. in the ‘person’ of U.S. coal, oil and gas developers who give money to lawmakers in exchange for legislation favoring them. All of these ‘persons’ should also be held accountable for the disease and havoc their actions create. 

This article in the Sightline Daily demonstrates what I have said:   “Big Coal and Big Oil know that, in their business, political friends are worth their weight in gold. An academic study of one case of corporate lobbying estimated the return on investment at 22,000 percent: a dollar spent earned $220. Jack Abramoff, the convicted, influence-peddling super-lobbyist, pegged the return on investment of one project at 100,000 percent: $4 million dollars in lobbying cash purchased a $4 billion tax break for Tyco International.” Read more at the link.

It should be clear that if carbon use is not curtailed the next generation of humanity and the rest of life on the planet is in for hard times. 

With that in mind I made the little video titled “Carbon, Climate Change and Cyclones” . I was just moved to make it because it’s all I can do to make my voice heard and feel as if I didn’t give up without a fight. These bastards are killing us.

Autumn Leaves: poetry and photography

I wrote the poem decades ago and it has undergone several changes in that time and will probably undergo more as time goes on.  The photographs, most of them, were taken on the porch of a place I once lived. 

Rainy days with breakthrough sunlight provide striking effects.

Summer has come and gone and from the looks of it will continue to do so.

The photographs were taken in Fleming New York by myself.  I made the video below including a spoken poem titled "Autumn Leaves".

All work (C) 2014 by David H. Roche

Dreamlandia: New video and art

"Dreamlandia" is a visit to a frequency where non-ordinary occurrences are to be expected.

Dreamlandia is like the trash bin where important information is rediscovered just before the janitor comes to empty it.

Art (C) 2014 By David H. Roche

Dancing With The Tao

I snapped a picture out the window while crossing the bay.  The light was dramatic.  The picture came out different from what my eyes saw.  The ambiance in the picture is darker but it was brighter with more blue to my eye.  

I liked the contrast and starkness in the colors in this photo so I decided to combine it with a favorite picture which I use over and over again for the effects it possesses.

The photo below was made from a photo of a sunset at Crater Lake in Oregon. I combined it with the previous photo and some other photos of sky and clouds and worked on them. The result is in the video below.

I had a hard time naming it and settled on Dancing With The Tao. The idea just kept developing.

Photography and art by David H. Roche

(C) 2014

Drink Your Spirits: a collection of artwork from February and March 2014

Drink your spirits is a collection of things I made in March and February.  The content is varied from surreal to dreamlike to almost realistic.  I have utilized my "Fire People" characters in many of the pictures.

I think my favorite sequences are Sunny Days and Sunset.  Sunny days on the North Coast can turn to rain squalls in a few moments. Sometimes it rains for days on end.

When it is not raining the sunsets are often gorgeous.

All work Copyright 2014 by David H. Roche

a Clear Running Water state of mind

Recurring Dreams: three videos with original art

Edit 3/26 2013

Below are three videos and some artwork on environmental and spiritual themes I made recently while thinking about what is happening to the earth.

The unabated use of carbon to fill our unabated desire for novelties is creating a climactic surprise for the next generation. 

The U.S. Government has published this informative piece on the topic of climate change. You can be sure climate change ain't going to be fun. The quality of air is imperiled to the extent one out of 8 deaths is attributable to air quality problems.  Click here.  

Water quality is also imperiled.  From North Carolina to China and I suspect an area near you has endangered water supplies.

Clean water and clean air have become negotiable in today's way of conducting business. This article (I just found this today and added it) explaining a NASA report on the future of civilization places a sobering vision awaiting the decision makers response.  Whether there will appear someone who is willing to research alternatives instead of pursuing business as usual remains to be seen.  So far the decision makers have left us with little more than promises, filthy air and water. 

NASA denies responsibility for the conclusion researchers reached saying:  "A soon-to-be published research paper 'Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY): Modeling Inequality and Use of Resources in the Collapse or Sustainability of Societies' by University of Maryland researchers Safa Motesharrei and Eugenia Kalnay, and University of Minnesota’s Jorge Rivas was not solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA. It is an independent study by the university researchers utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity.

"As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone. NASA does not endorse the paper or its conclusions."

This official response by NASA shows the institutionalized hesitancy to man up to the ecological debacle which is upon us. In the past we've trusted experts who told us DDT was safe to use in the kitchen. It might be time to trust your own judgment in this most important of matters!  We're where we are now facing the consequences we're facing because of experts who are in the employ of those responsible for the life threatening ecological problems we're facing giving 'expert advice'. 

Is it time to step out of line and think, really think, for yourself? 

Recurring Dreams is the video below.

Carnival of the Gods.  I had a difficult time editing this until I came up with the title.  Once I had the title I finished it up quickly.

Post Fukushima Meltdown Stomp

Time to party...keep smiling.

I try and imagine what on earth people are thinking when they deliberately adopt goals which result in an ultimate harm to, if not themselves, to future generations. 

This is the path our civilization and society has taken.  It seems sometimes that the greatest of all world wars is the war against nature.

This behavior baffles me.  Is it possible the problem is a spiritual one? I ask because this is done by conscious decision making processes. Is mankind's disregard for the welfare of the earth a telltale signal of a significant spiritual disenfranchisement?  If this were to be true it would be an indication of the ultimate alienation of the human species. 

Whatever the reason is it is clear the planet and those on it are on a precipice. It's not too late to stop the war on nature.  However, it's unlikely such an idea will be suggested as a remedy.  It used to be a hell of a nice planet.

Have a nice day and keep the water and air clean.

All video and visual images created by David H. Roche. 

 (C) 2014 

a Clear Running Water state of mind

Crater Lake at Sunset: photography and video overlooking Crater Lake as the light grows dim.

I began the day at sea level and ended the day with my feet still on the ground but my head above 7000 feet in the sky. My son and I took a two day trip on a portion of the Oregon Coast and then over to Crater Lake. Some nice photography resulted.

We got underway on historic coastal Highway 101. Traveling south from Warrenton we passed Haystack Rock, 

and stopped at the breathtaking Manzanita overlook...

and a lighthouse at Cape Meares. 

Crater Lake had not been mentioned as a destination when we left, but somewhere before reaching Lincoln City my son suggested going to Crater Lake. 

Why not? So we left the coast and headed inland.  It was a long tedious drive. If memory serves me right we left the coast about 2.  I know we got to Crater Lake just prior to the sun going down. You'll be able to see that in the video.

Crater Lake resulted from the volcanic explosion of what is named Mount Mazama. The elevation of the caldera rim forming the ridge above the top shore of the lake is between 7000 and 8000 feet above sea level.  The depth of the lake itself is in excess of 1900 feet allowing it to be designated the second deepest lake in the western hemisphere. 

Today the lake sits atop the mountain at an elevation between 7000 and 8000 feet.  But at one time the mountain was approximately 12,000 feet high. That's almost a mile higher than at present reaching over two miles into the sky. 

When the volcano subsided it had caused nearly a mile of the mountain to disappear from the top leaving it little more than half its original height. In doing so it also scattered ash over an area of eight states, and three Canadian provinces choking the sky and covering the earth in a grey gauze of ash.

Having taken place about 7,000 years ago it is reasonable to expect the event was witnessed by human eyes. I wonder what went through the minds of those watching as the top of the mountain began screaming and fire from inside the earth turned the night sky hellish.  Did they fall into a fearful sleep waking to find the ash had turned the soothing blue skies and luxuriant green earth a deathly grey? 

Did they have any information warning them of the impending cataclysm? Were their shamans aware the world would be changing? How did they communicate it if they were aware?

During the preceding 7000 years the planet and resulting climate change allowed the earth to emerge from a covering of snow and ice. The inexorable process of melting away the massive glaciers covering most of the land continued. Click here for a timeline of the last 100,000 years prepared by NOAA

The land emerged degree by degree out from under an almost entirely glaciated landscape as the last ice age receded. This was already taking place about 7000 years before Mount Mazama caved in on itself according to this Wikipedia report.

Today the lake has the appearance of a swatch of blue sky laid down allowing some some of the mountain underneath to poke through.  It truly is this blue; the color of a chicory blossom, a turquoise stone, the sky.

Below is Crater Lake. The island in the photograph is named Wizard Island.  It is the result of volcanic activity which took place after the major eruption caused the top 5000 feet to fall into itself. Subsequent volcanic activity helped seal off the bottom of the caldera making the retention of water and the lake possible. (That's how I understand the way this happened. I could be wrong. Check it out for yourself, it's a fascinating history.)

The National Parks Service has produced an informative brochure on the geological history of the area and the formation of the lake. Go ahead and read it.

The impact of the volcano's eruption on the

environment was immense and sudden. The entire world was already on the cusp of exiting an uncomfortable period of glaciation which had lasted the previous 100,000 years up to about 12,000 years ago. It was, like today, a time of climate change with an impact of unknown, but immense proportions. 

The sudden removal of the top 5000 feet of Mount Mazama created a unique geological feature which has come to be named the Pumice Desert. 

The desert owes its existence to the demise of the mountain. You will find a fascinating reconstruction of the geological history leading up to the last major explosion of Mount Mazama at Wikipedia click here.

I'm left wondering if the ongoing change in the climate during the earth's emergence from the last ice age may have had any bearing on the eruption of the mountain 7000 years or so ago. I haven't found any support for that idea. But climate change certainly was going on at that time.

An insightful scientific discussion of the end of the last ice age is to be found at the Scientific American in an article titled "What Thawed The Last Ice Age" by David Biello. 

The article doesn't mention any causative involvement with volcanoes. But it is an interesting and informative read I found while looking for info on Crater Lake. 

Below you will find a video I made of  photos and video taken during a few minutes overlooking Crater Lake as the night drew on removing the colors from the sky and our eyes.  

My son and I arrived right at the beginning of the sunset. It was accidentally perfect timing. The sky was bright powder blue and dusted with pink and tangerine, but slowly turning dark.

I snapped a lot of pictures in the few moments before darkness took the colors away. Many of them are in the video.

This little chipmunk we found here the next morning having breakfast. 

Photography and text (C) 2014 by David H. Roche

All information in the linked material belongs to those who provided the material.

  a Clear Running Water state of mind

The Inner Beauty of The Peter Iredale: a visit to a shipwreck

Photographs of the wreckage of the Peter Iredale in Clatsop County on the North Coast of Oregon.

A presentation of the wreckage in a way that allows its inherent beauty to become apparent.

A Couple New Videos

The First is an illustrated meditation on the first seven verses of chapter 38 in the Old Testament book of Job. The entire story line of book itself is a literary masterpiece of philosophical and spiritual introspection opening up for discussion the most basic queries of the human being.

So I put together some artwork to go with the text and it came out pretty good.

I took the title from the passage.  It is called "When The Morning Stars Sang Together"

The one below is a whimsy titled "A Taste Of Ambrosia" which is also created from my imagination. 

The Other Shore: a story with no words

A story told with pictures to which you add the plot.

Featuring Jack and Qkjea as conductors to the other shore.

Go ahead and watch.

Resurrection: some thoughts for the Easter season

Resurrection

Resurrection is a component of many mystical traditions, (see the preceding Wikipedia link) including, but not solely inherent in Christianity.  

This phenomenon of dying and living again is a universal concept found the world over in diverse spiritual traditions.

The western world is most familiar with the Christian explanation of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Having been raised in a Christian church I find it easy to think of resurrection in the terminology I received there. This does not mean I consider myself a Christian, I don’t.  But this understanding does not keep me from finding insight into the human condition and release from the grave which is everyone’s destination.

I am grateful for the insight into life and death which I have found in the teaching of Jesus; particularly the concepts regarding resurrection.  I am grateful to Paul of Tarsus for his insights into the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and subsequent resurrection. 

The insights brought to view in the Christ Event flesh out the resurrection myths which precede it and of which it is a part. 

I am not exclusive in my partaking of spiritual insight.  I find much in the Dharma of Buddha.  I find in the Dharma the insight available to understand the predicament life has me in.

In the Tao of Lao Tzu I find the same insight but explained in a different way. I love the poetry and simple yet profound beauty of this text. I remember it when I see geese flying overhead or landing in the pond across the street.

For me the most philosophically inspiring and engaging spiritual text is found in the Upanishads (part 1 and part 2.) This is a must read for anyone who wishes to see into the nature of what it means to be alive.  The text is not difficult, it reads like a series of stories anyone can understand.

I know little about many of the dying and rising Gods.  However their existence in the mix of human understanding speaks to something which transcends the obvious trek to the grave.

Having been raised in a Christian tradition I like the way Jesus talks about this. It is obvious life ends in death. It is equally obvious many men and women consigned to sleep in the grave have decided that life is merely a trek to the grave and the most that can be hoped for is to die with the most possessions.  This is the rule of life exposed by the current financial debacle of bank fraud in western society.

I disagree with the current and dominate concept that life is able to be valued by wealth. Many Christians accept this premise and that is one reason why I do not consider myself a Christian even though I find solace in the teaching of Jesus.

Life is an existential affair.  It is indeed a trip to the grave. There is no way out of that ending. However it is possible to see through the scrim of this miserable business of hiking to the grave by taking another look at the nature of what it means to exist. This is what the concept of resurrection speaks to.  It is why the concept of resurrection is not only a Christian concept.  It is a concept indigenous to being human.

I like the way Paul of Tarsus explains it.  We are made alive in Christ.  This, ultimately, turns out not to be merely a Christian doctrine but a statement which refers to the many great traditions of spiritual insight into the nature of the human condition that preceded it.  The revelation found in Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom is accommodated by each of the preceding revelations. The parables Jesus told were keys to understanding the nature of the human experience.  I find that the human approach of Jesus in teaching this singular ‘truth’ is most appealing and accessible. But I do not disrespect the others. I appreciate them for the insight they provide.

I was moved to make the video with Jack and Qkjea because of the concept of the resurrection which is a much better explanation than dying with a fist full of gold and calling that a success. I realize this qualifies me as a fool in the way that the status quo places its values.  So be it.