March 19, 2025 a thought for today, There is a need for obedience all around us. Native American Sauk proverb

The first upload for yesterday was reflection. This was taken at the pond in the park down the block from my house. 

The next upload was “fuzzy”. The fur on top of Sweet Peas head looked particularly “fuzzy” so decided to use it for my image upload yesterday for this challenge. 

The last upload for yesterday was “full moon”. I have several “moon” shots but only a couple are “full moon”, this is one of them. 

Another of those days swamped with this and that. I got the rest of the information I needed for the bulletin and realized I had to start it all over. I had some of it done yesterday but that had some areas to be corrected. I sent the draft to all the ones who need to see it. 

I got a birthday card and a get well card from church done and all the “shut in” envelopes done along with extra pages I wanted to mail. I also got this letter started. That all took about three or four hours. 

The first upload for today is “personal space”. I have a “personal space” here and there. I was in my car as I was thinking of the image uploads for today and thought what better choice than this. I am usually alone in the car except when Sweet Pea is my co-pilot so I am using this one, she wasn’t with me at th time. 

This was another food pantry day so I shut down the computer and left for church. Yesterday we were busy the whole time we were open. Today was about the opposite. It was slow today. 

Once I got home I got back to this letter.  I managed to get two of the three photos I needed along the way. I am using the third photo from a series I shot on the 14th. Along with working on this letter I multi-tasked with the darkroom (Photoshop) on the photos to upload. 

The next upload was “sweet”. This is one of the cookies we offered the visitors to our food pantry today. I took one for myself. This is what was left of it when I took the shot. 

The word today is theory. All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual. Walt Whitman. Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory. Benjamin Disraeli.  Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact. Thomas Huxley.  In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage. Napoleon Bonaparte.  Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it. Samuel Johnson.  Each pursues his own theory, little solicitous to correct or improve it by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents. Thomas Malthus.  Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all lawful government upon earth. John Quincy Adams.  The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory. Thomas Jefferson.  Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation. Edmund Burke.  When a torrent sweeps a man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory. Robert Louis Stevenson.  Theories are like scaffolding: they are not the house, but you cannot build the house without them. Constance Fenimore Woolson.  He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. Leonardo da Vinci.  Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those which a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world. Gautama Buddha.  It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment. Thomas Malthus.  

My last shot for the day is “I am proud of this one”. As you have probably noticed this is similar to the one of Sweet Pea above. They were taken on two different days. I have finally found a perfect light, one I have wanted for a long time now in my photography, this kind of natural light. The problem is it not a lasting situation. It is a certain light, coming from a certain direction, at a certain time of day and in a certain season. The right place, the right time. It can be reproduced with other light sources I just haven’t had the time to set it up. 

Article: On line/wifi/world wide web is a huge area to think about so any and all information we can find, read and absorb should be essential if we are going to use it responsibly. I believe it is necessary, educational, and healing in many areas of our live. There is a bad side and a good side, just like the use of fire.  This article takes a turn on examining the subject that I hadn’t thought of. Here is the title: “Why history instruction is critical for combating online misinformation” by a professor of “Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership”. It opens by saying that there has been a “push for schools to do a better job preparing young people to differentiate between low- and high-quality information” they feel that is often focuses on social studies classes. Some research shows that is an involved practice and can be developed.  It “involves problem-solving and making sound judgments”. On the way to becoming proficient in critical thinking “content knowledge”.  Some of the research touched on studies of chess players, in the 1970s and ‘80s. Those studies showed how “the kind of flexible and reflective cognition often called critical thinking is really a product of expertise”.  This expertise is gained “by hours of thoughtfully playing the game”.  This leads to patterns and thinking in “novel” ways and is a “product of learning not a precursor”.  This article shares that this kind of learning does not always or necessarily “transfer to other types of problem-solving”. It is necessary to learn how to “analyze information about current events likely requires knowledge about politics and history” like in social studies as well. It offers a way to “evaluate”past histories to add to critical thinking. People who do not have “historical knowledge may miss clues that something isn’t right”. So as the article was coming to a conclusion it shared that “the best approach to media literacy will come through teaching that fosters concrete skills alongside historical knowledge”. So it looks like to me that the creative knowledge gained from both chess and a study of history helps to make decisions and smart thinking in the area of the world wide web a little safer. 

Something from the freezer for dinner. 

Joy

                    reminiscent of a block wall in my mind of an English garden