Autumn Comes Alive with Color

A dead tree reaches desperately skyward for the color and life it once knew.

A hillock in the autumn woods appreciates the attention of colored leaves.

No need to pan for gold in the creek. It's everywhere in the trees.

A gate at the end of colorful trail waits to greet you.

The Neshaminy Creek takes a snapshot of the color above it.

The sun hesitates while rising between two trees to take in the scenery.

 

The Golden Paths of Autumn

Each autumn this happens.

There is gold everywhere.

You don't have to find the end of the rainbow to get rich.

Riches are easily collected, even if you are not a leprechaun.

Gold's shadow is dark, but all else is authentic gold.

Enjoy the riches before autumn is spent.

 

A Dark Day and Brilliant Autumn Colors

A big sky and tall trees frame autumn's color.

Autumn paints a portrait with many colors.

Hike the empty trail surrounded by color.

Ancient dead trees envy the colors of their younger siblings.

Walk a crooked path to certain beauty.

Walk around and walk through autumn and be amazed.

 

Perfection of Autumn

 

Colors compete for the attention of the park pavilion.

Early autumn whispers its colors before shouting them out.

Some trees are green with envy at the brilliance of others.

A broken old tree still participates in fall.

A shadow bends to the will of the forest.

What Can Be Done About Hate

 Human beings are the same things with different experiences that make us mad in different ways.

Tolerate the differences.

All the great thinkers have said that we have several natures, like schizophrenic animals. Freud said each of us has an ego, a super-ego and an id, all of which are at war with one another and produce our various behaviors and mental illnesses. Jung said we had several selves that did the same things. Nietzsche thought we have dual natures -- Apollonian and Dionysian, the first of which is something like our disciplined, reasonable side and the second of which is something like our wild, animal side, brought out by wine and sex.

If we are the same things with different experiences, that might better explain why we dislike each other so much and are willing to hate and violate each other, violate those whom we view as different.

We are told we would be better off and happier if we came together as one, but wouldn't that involve negating everything we've done and been subjected to? As well as ignoring physical differences that also contribute to our allure as well.

I don't think so.

Our experiences make us different. Our perceptions separate us when appearances seem to differentiate us, when we look different from the one who perceives.

This duality breeds hatreds like racism and xenophobia. If we look differently from others, we must therefore be different, and then our behaviors seem to vindicate such nonsense.

We are the same things by nature, evolution and genetics. We are different once we live separate lives hundreds or thousands of miles apart, or in differing, walled-off communities.

If only we could come together ...

No.

The American Revolution, based on Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke and Dave Hume, solved this problem by insisting on equality based on tolerance and freedom. We are forgetting that lesson today, preferring to emphasize our experiential differences like religion and race and our obvious physical differences and differences of place. 

We are all one because that fact of our essential sameness is the truth, not the random happenings of life. We are copies of one another in reality.

It seem the only solution is freedom and equality for all, a simple idea that ignores our physical differences and the vicissitudes of life that experiences and place settle on us to create our different personalities and identities. 

It's worked in the past. It would work again if we adhered to this simple idea.

It's either that or continue to be at each other's throats for all eternity.

Autumn's Mirrors

Nature mirrors itself splendidly when calm and at peace.

 

The morning sun cleanses itself and the swamp.

Autumns peaks in the red of a cluster of maple leaves.

A carpet of brown leaves tidies up the forest floor.

A red vine clings to a tree trunk magically without support.

Golden leaves make the forest invaluable.

Autumn Beauties of the Woods and Streams

Hundreds of wild asters put on a beauty pageant early in the morning.

A sycamore tree extends a protective arm over an innocent stream.

An artistic tree dabs some color on the stream that feeds it.

A carpet of brown and a ceiling of yellow invite picnic-goers.

A fat tree nearly hogs the path.

The same fat tree gives no ground.

Who's prettier? The land or the water?

Let's walk along the hill and by the stream to see where they take us.

A direct route is the best way to find a lovely spot in the woods.

That fat tree hasn't budged.

Pretty rocks gather in one spot.

The woods along the stream wakes up to look in the mirror.

Morning becomes you.

A broken tree resides in a lovely spot.

The sun takes a bath.

Trees line up along the stream waiting for their reflections.

 

Hodgepodge of Autumn Photographs

If I could, I would live on one of these leaves.

 

What shadows cross your path on your way to the light?

Soft pine needles in the morning light ease the eyes.

We grow out of one another.

I'm not looking at you no matter what.

Forget about it. It's all water over the dam, dammit.

These black-eyed Susans bloomed late, and found weeds in the place.

Once you enter you won't want to leave.

There's a pot of gold at the top of this hill.

There are three of us and only one of you, so don't mess with us.