Another Independence Day weekend.  Monday will be the 4th of July.  We are planning a family gathering for breakfast in the morning, and then a viewing of the Independence Day parade.  On the surface around here life appears to be good, never better for some. 

Are such generalizations warranted?  Of course not but we make them nevertheless.  To live is to struggle, to be the nexus of friction, the intersection of opposing force, — from all directions.  I read that life, élan vital is the immanent impulse to harmonize conflicting forces.  Therefore we shouldn’t be seduced by what appears on the surface.  Worthy, important struggle is ongoing around us.

I recall the attempt of a friend yesterday arguing for the justice of the Pro-choice position in the head- wind of the recent Supreme Court decision striking down Roe V. Wade, summarily removing medical freedom of choice from one half of our population.  You’d think such egregious injustice would require no counter argument.  You’d be wrong.  Her argument fell on deaf ears.  There are many ways to support, to indirectly defend injustice. 

One more wide angle view of the same landscape, — another friend passionately engaged by phone, with a representative of Ford Motor company, asserting claim to receive satisfaction on account of a defective vehicle knowingly sold by a dealer.  The conversation which I overheard, was a verbal attack and parry that you’d expect, given the corporation’s objective to pile-up profit.

For all of this, there’s much beauty around, prolific really.  There’s light giving definition, contrasting with the dark.  We know the light, the beauty of color, because of the struggle, the friction of adverse circumstance.  It is difficult, and there’s no respite from the delicate, complex matter of being “on the wire,” to balance a need for resources with improvident circumstance.

The photos were taken with a iphone 13 Pro camera. 

 

The weight of words. The shock of photos.

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