August 9, 2026, a thought for today, As are the times, so are the manners. Spanish Proverb

Photo in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “brown”. I used the design with many lines and patterns in this building in the shopping mall as my image to submit for “brown”.

Next is the assignment “wild life other than birds”. I “captured this squirrel
some time ago and saved it in the archives. 

The last upload for yesterday was “in the fridge”. This is one of the days the fridge is not so full to the point of overflowing left over. 

Life today. It has been a good Sunday. Jefferson came to church to observe. It was nice having him there and introducing my church family. He also took a look at my gallery wall, then joined us for our donut fellowship. 

I had a good start on this letter before I left for church. I also had the photos taken. I left the dark room work until I got home from church. 

It is going to be a light Sunday. I don’t have anything but the uploads and just fifteen minutes on the “downsizing” project. I have to keep up the momentum for the project or it will be back burnered until, who knows. 

So the rest of the day is rest, refresh and renew. 

The word to ponder today is common. Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing. Ralph Waldo Emerson. The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next. Matthew Arnold. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau. To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity. Friedrich Nietzsche. Science is good furniture for one's upper chamber, if there is common sense below. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Friends have all things in common. Plato. The best ideas are common property. Seneca. Indeed the dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution, is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into common places, but which all experience refutes. John Stuart Mill. It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity. Seneca. Common sense is not so common. Voltaire. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common. Denis Diderot. Tis education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined. Alexander Pope. The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Common sense is the genius of humanity. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

Article summary. When I was thinking of an article for today I was considering how art in our society and for all of past history help us understand our past, see the values in life, and express emotions. The title is  Without a humanistic inquiry, we will lose our creativity. A Joan Saab, Associate Professor of Art History/Visual and Cultural Studies , University of Rochester. At theonversation.com. Early in the article is mentions that “art has always been and continues to be a source of value”. In the 1930s artist were considered to have important “curtal assets”.  It has been said that “understanding history is crucial to our understanding of the present”. For students in college to day the article says, parents have difficulty agreeing with them to go for an art degree. One of the important people in a local college was quoted as saying “the arts teaches students to think creatively” and that we need more critical thinking for success. There have been signs of it help in allowing for students to become more “absorbed” in departments of “literature, art and science”. Since the 1930s there has been documents showing that there had been a growth in creating 5,000 jobs funded over 225,000 works of art. There were important people in our country including Franklin D. Roosevelt who “saw direct links between a strong democratic country and its artwork”. There was a time that artists were urged to be included “in the national relief program”. It was said that some of the arts and humanities like those of paintings, sculpture and music and literature were a “key to America’s past, present and future success”. The article brought up some of the most famous art known from our history to point out the facts of how we learned from them about the lives in the times those art pieces were created. Many times they showed that work of laborers in other times of history. They show how things changed in many areas of out lives by documenting those happening in art work. The art work showed how people dressed and moved. They showed how buildings and bridges changed and were constructed. Today we are “enmeshed in media.....tools of the present and the future”. Today’s tools further help us “investigate and understand the past”.

I think fish and macaroni salad for dinner. 

Photos in my life today

My first upload today is “black”. I chose one close at hand, the front of my air fryer will fit for this one today. 

The next challenge is “high key” . Is used a small carnation on a completely white background for this affect. 

The last assignment is “food”. Sue was eating on of her favorite burritos so I
took the opportunity to use that for this upload. 

Joy

the bonus photo today went to a contest a Fine Art of America, it is one of Bobbie under the gate leg table, she uses it as her own personal jungle gym

want to shop? Visit: fineartamerica.com search for joy rector click on “view shop”  and redbubble.com search for jarector (and take a look at flickr.com search for rectorjoyce)