Trip to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, April 2009

This is one of the amazing views from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (see large: Getty Center Garden Cafe and Valley Panorama

Here's a slide show with about 100 or so photos from April 2009 during a visit to the Getty Museum:

The Getty Museum

Getty Museum Water Feature

This is at the Getty Museum, Santa Monica, Los Angeles
It's a multi-image composite, and it's from April 2009
view large: Water Feature

Among the Giants

Mariposa Grove Giant Sequoia Trees

Bohemian Grove

While travelling recently in California, I had the opportunity to stop by the Bohemian Grove. It's a place I have long been curious about. It was an uninvited visit, so I wasn't able to enter the private property of the Grove. But just seeing the entrance was quite an experience in itself.

The Bohemian Club hosts an annual summertime encampment at the Grove. It's an event where a couple thousand or so of some of the world's most powerful men gather to supposedly, and among other things, banish their cares about the world. This banishment of care is exemplified in the encampment yearly initiation ceremony, which is descriptively titled the "Cremation of Care." In the ceremony, the effigy of a young child named "Dull Care" is sacrificed and cremated upon an altar.

Here are some photos from the entrance, and more of my thoughts about the "cremation of care."



Caring is a virtue. To care ought NOT to be thought of as onerous or burdensome.

We are all of one human family.

We are, each of us, complete, within and of, our own selves.

That's truth.

There is also truth in power. But it is not a full or complete truth. The full truth, a holistic truth, takes into account the effects of our actions on others. When another, or others, are hurt by my activities (or even perhaps lack thereof,) whether the activities be personal, recreational, professional and/or business, then a balance has been broken - a harmony disrupted. We are all one human family, and no one is left undamaged when we hurt one another. No one is left unscathed. Not the aggressor (or oppressor), nor, certainly, the target (of oppression - or any type of hurt.)

Human beings are to be respected. Not exploited. Not commodified. Not treated as a market for the peddling of wares. Human beings are sacred, and very worthy of being cared for.

Humans are here on Earth to be stewards, gardners, protectors - guiding perhaps, and improving, and beautifying - but not ruling. I believe that humans are not meant to rule over each other, nor to rule over the Earth.

Here's a link to an article by Alex Shoumatoff published in the May 2009 Vanity Fair magazine: www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2009/05/bohemian-grove200905

More information about the Bohemian Grove from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove

More photos:


Bohemian Grove "Timber Harvest" Paperwork


Bohemian Grove County Line


Entrance to Bohemian Grove

Yosemite 2007

Half Dome and Narada Falls, seen from Glacier Point


Giant Sequoia Trees, Mariposa Grove


Yosemite Valley

EPA Chief Says NO to Environmental Protections

Here's an interesting story about the Bush Administration's opposition to climate saving measures:

EPA Chief Denies Calif. Limit on Auto Emissions
Rules Would Target Greenhouse Gases
By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 20, 2007; Page A01

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson yesterday denied California's petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, overruling the unanimous recommendation of the agency's legal and technical staffs.

The decision set in motion a legal battle that EPA's lawyers expect to lose and demonstrated the Bush administration's determination to oppose any mandatory measures specifically targeted at curbing global warming pollution...

go to original

Potential for Peace

Emerald Hill

We live in a world where events reverberate. Actions bounce off of each other like waves, sometimes building on each other, sometimes canceling out.

It is important to realize that everything is interconnected. I intend to promote the development of a peaceful society on Earth. Therefore it is important for me to consider how my actions will lend themselves to the prospect for peace. Even the very smallest of actions can trigger a chain reaction - a cascade. The potential for future peace rests in every genuine interaction, in kind and thoughtful gestures, in words truthfully spoken - truth spoken to power. Cascades of peace.

Keep speaking truth to power. Keep looking toward beautiful. Keep hope for a better world, a just world, a true world - alive. Keep telling the truth. A better world is possible. And working for a better world is worthwhile - it's where it's at.

Sonoma California

[edit: The following photo is a re-do. Which one do you like more?]


[edit: here it is without borders:]

Sonoma California Coast

Happy Easter Photos

Big Trees from Northern California:


Golden Coast:


Portuguese Beach

"One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin"