`Pelicanh

I've been on DA for about a year and a half. I really enjoy the interactions and comments and camaraderie that takes place here. I've met some WONDERFUL people and made some terrific contacts that I, otherwise, would have never known.

I INVITE criticism and I've found most people on DA to be supportive and positive. Sure, I enjoy people giving positive feedback but I honor ALL opinions. I KNOW, as an artist, how good I am. I also know how good I am NOT! I am ALWAYS looking at other photographers work who are waaaayyy better than I am and trying to figure out how I can continue to grow and flourish and not remain stagnant. I LOVE photography and I want my work to be diverse and remain interesting to ME as well as to those who choose to view what I produce and share here on DA. MOST of the artists who look through my work are here to see what I'm up to and enjoy the fun, but there have been a few that have come to share their negativity. I now have SEVENTEEN people blocked. SEVENTEEN!!!
These people have, in one way or another, seen fit to voice opinions in a rude, lewd, or objectionable way that results in me letting them know they have stepped over a line and they don't get to do it again. An individual gets ONE SHOT at being inappropriate in my gallery. I draw a firm line in the sand on this issue....there is no debate, discussion, or haggling about whether or not it WAS MEANT to be this or that. I'm the King of my gallery page....end of discussion. This ain't no democracy.

SO...having said that....I got this letter in my snail mail yesterday. [link] I also took a photo of the envelope here. [link] This letter is FULL of venom and malice. After I read it, I scratched my head and wondered how a human being could function....how could they eat lunch, how could they sleep, how could they do ANYTHING, carrying that much hatred around inside of them. I felt sorry for them. It appears to be from Australia. If it had been from the US, I would have taken it to the police just to document it and have the authorities be aware there is an imbalanced person who wrote me a rather threatening letter.
The letter had no salutation, so it wasn't addressed to me PERSONALLY but rather to, most likely, a targeted group of photographers who tweaked this person's nose.
The envelope is addressed with a label, which tells me there were a fair amount of recipients. And the letter wasn't signed which tells me it was a vicious act of cowardice.

Two paragraphs dedicated to negativity is FAR MORE than I can tolerate. Let me be very clear on this issue. In spite of all this crap, in spite of being betrayed recently by someone I THOUGHT was a friend (see my last journal), in spite of my lover having a horrible year of health issues (not the LEAST of which was a bout with cancer....and FYI, she is now cancer free! YAY), in spite of my best friend's wife leaving him, in spite of a few other trying times......I stand on my patio this evening with tears running down my face in recognition of the wonders of life. The beauty. The humming bird in my flowers, the fabulous evening light glowing through the pepper trees, and the call of the Red Tailed Hawk circling over head. I have joy in the knowledge of all the things I have seen and done and all I still have yet to experience. I have BEEN wing tip to wing tip WITH that Red Tailed Hawk in my hang glider 8,000 feet over the San Gabriel mountains. I have seen Michelangelos "David" and Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". I have been in the ocean and heard whales singing so loudly that I FELT it in my body. I FELT the song of the ancients - the joy, the sorrow, the melancholy, the sensuality, the silliness and the depth of love all embodied in their song. I've giggled like a child at the sight of a juvenile trunk fish. Google it....it'll make you laugh.

My faith in the beauty of life, the sanctity of Nature's creation (have you ever seen Half Dome in Yosemite?), and the unstoppable march toward some thing I don't know what to call other than Nirvana......is irrefutable.
I have spoken with the Ents (see Lord of the Rings) in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Did you know they are the largest living things on Earth? I have had conversation with the Bristlecone Pines high in the White Mountains. They are the oldest living things on Earth.
I stood in the Eucalyptus Tree Grove in San Luis Obispo at Pismo Beach, California when the Monarch Butterflies were migrating through. THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of Monarch butterflies flipped and flapped around me in total silence. It was deafening. Google it.....it'll make your head spin.

And most of all, I have been met with acts of kindness from complete strangers who are simply beautiful human beings. In all my wandering and wondering I have found people with like minds and souls who love their lives, love YOUR life, and love ALL life.

I admit it.....I'm an old Peace and Love Hippie. Although I am older and wiser now and I WISH "All you need is Love" were true....I still believe it is one hell of a place to start.
I've seen too much beauty to allow a petty piece of paper mailed to me anonymously to even scratch the surface.
I am who and what I am. I'm happy.....I LOVE my life. I am doing what I love and loving what I do. And I hope all you DA'ers out there are kind to each other and to those in your world because let me tell you..... I spoke to the Monarch Butterflies about this and they told me......life is short!

GOD...I love my life. I think I'll go have a Heineken