One Year Ago

One year ago.  That is what it was.  I woke up.

I discovered and rediscovered my own energy for love, light, and the world all over again.  I found that art is in everybody.  And in me.

I realized so crystal clearly that we cannot foist or force change or miracles from within....it originates outside us, and we can learn to see the signals....

I have learned that I have a lion's heart and the eyes of a tiger...I must...I have no choice...

The four great flashes of life...the grid of life...are what brings us to the ultimate pursuit of happiness...not happiness itself as an end....happiness is a by-product of the great search.  And we are not, after all, alone.

I don't want to be alone.  I want to be in the arms of what and who love me and my spirit.  I want to cradle my love in that great spirit...and walk together...talk together...run together...have fun together...

....together again, and as one....

Together Again

All the flying...
The yearning, the living, the dying...
The crying...
The walking, the running...
The hoping, the writing...
The singing...the painting...
The loving, and the fighting...

All...of this...is about... all of us...everywhere...and always....being

....together again....

Father's Day.....Whiteflash Speaks Again!

Having a son when I was 33 was one of my life's greatest moments.  I wrote about that in this book....
Now,it his turn to have wonder in his arms....two identical twin girls, 6 pounds each, doing fine...
Have not seen or held them yet, but will soon....

I will have to be really cool hands...not nervous, just nice and graceful as I pick one of them up in my arms and instantly know that baby feeling ...that warmth...that custard smell...

"Cool Hands Grandpa"...thats what they will call me....I will be so cool holding these prizes.

They will exprience mother and father love now for months...then sibling love as they kiss and slobber all over each other...later on it will be ballet lessons, tennis, piano, guitar...painting exhibitions...film awards, performances at Cannes...

They are harder to hold and cuddle at age 30 and 135 pounds....

They will resemble their baby pictures, but they will laugh....then they will be so much their own person....

...wrap love nicely in those blankets, while you have the chance....give them a bottle of  formual...watch how they find the nipple.... 

we all were like this...living our most loveable years.....it lasts a beautiful season...then morphs into slightly smarter level...you, parent, are always in control....always making the big decisions, but if the little one wants something unplanned, odds are on she will get it...you can overcome all your childhood questions in an instant....by just watching your own child for a few minutes....

we learn who we are, where we came from, how we will go forward, and maybe what the purpose of it all is.....in the one look at our grandchild....as we did the first look at our own child...
gifts like this are no accident....
....and, alas, we know....we are not alone!
Happy Fathers Day!

The Ultimate Source of Creative Talent

If you look at the impressive mission statement of the world famous Julliard School of Music, you see that they go out and find true talent in performing arts and bring it to Julliard.  Can you imagine if every university or school could do that!  What a competition for so few world class artists...it would be a frenzy!  Maybe if a school is truly great like Julliard, the highly talented and gifted are naturally attracted to it...thus the frenzy is somewhat avoided.

Other art schools speak differently of their mission.  They speak of bringing out the creative talent in each student...a more general, maybe democratic notion of institutional mission.  That is the kind of place I want to be....where the environment of the school sort of brings it out of me....not a place where I am of world class talent and I just arrive, to be appreciated for my existing genius....I want my genius to be pulled out and shaped in this kind of robust crucible of creative people surrounding me who just allow my talent to come forth and even take new directions....

So, after all this....I have come to some conclusions....

We all have some "art" in us....maybe it is performing art, maybe it is in the visual arts, maybe in some new medium....

Part of our Blueflash destiny on the planet is that that art is identified, by ourselves and others and that it comes out and takes expression....exhibitions, performances, or the sheer creation of new things.

And, I believe it is our manifest duty to help our fellow travellers to do the same, if we can, to express the art within every man and woman and child on this planet.

Art is what we give back...it is our ultimate gift back...it is what our sons and daughters will inherit...and they will have the same destiny...

Signals....

Small child lost at sea....
Lost love that can never be...
Hope is like a strong white light...
That makes us never fear the night...

Abby Sunderland is 16. She set out to sail around the world..
Alone...

Two days ago, her signal died far out in the Indian Ocean...
All feared she was lost...

Australian Sea-Air Rescue found her this morning...
She is OK....

On our Graduation morning, this is a gift...
It is a good signal...

No accidents...
Another, not so average day...
Good morning, San Diego, California, America, the World...
Good Morning, Abby!

Graduation Time!....Hugs and Handshakes and the Ship of Friends...

I am privileged that I get to see a graduation up close and personal each year.  I mean, from the podium!  It gets a little easier to overcome the butterflies, but it gets more awesome each year too.

My friends hear me say, "It's like I have several thousand children from around the world"...especially when I get to know the students well.  I am lucky to get to know a few very well each year...just by luck, I guess, whatever "luck" may be....

They say in this business that students come and go, every year, so don't get too emotional or attached.  After all, many will never return.

The real truth is, most will never return.  Yet, we cannot think that way on Graduation morning as we look out at them....all so bright, excited, proud, and with proud parents in many cases just across the aisle.

So we put up our best act, just like in Hollywood, and go forth as if we will all be here again, assembled, in this place, again sharing these magic moments and memories.

Truth is, we take pictures, and preserve it all on the website....but we may never touch again...hugs and handshakes, once and then they live on in our memory...

These are the days!  These are the times!  We will all be together bonded as friends on the great sailing ship of our dreams and memories...the "Ship of Friends"....you know, it sails forever...

"Ship Ahoy, now!"....get ready to board...you will be with your friends and family on this voyage for this day on into forever...on the high seas of your life....this will keep you and all of us together....

Oh, by the way, please come back and visit us here again...some of you will, and San Diego, and California and America will be a better place for your return to these shores....

This was the time and place of your life....keep the dream alive!

We Are Global!....Where Are We?

What is the truth is that we all fly around....
Some of us at near the speed of sound...
...at 30, 000 feet over the blue horizon...in airplanes...

Some of us fly in our dreams...we arrive, greet loved ones...have some time with precious people...
....and we do this in our minds, in our day and night dreams...

Our time here on the planet is so small, so very precious, yet we have it...
....we must make it something....it is our whole life purpose to make it..

To go to where it matters....
To do it with who matters....
To seek it with others ...

....until we find it!

We are global...
...we are where we find home....
...we are where we find love....
...we are where we find purpose...

It wakes us in the morning...it sings to us at night...

Global we are, and we must find it here...right here...

....all our lives we search....we must find it and make it... 

Flash Attraction....No Distraction!

So, why debate it or split hairs?  Just grab the camera and go for the moment...

Since several days ago when this whole new idea hit me...to take pictures of people actually experiencing the flash...I have seen a few already...a few times I had the camera...I got it!  A few times the camera was just out of reach...one got by me...that's OK.

My colleague who knows this idea, grabbed the camera today and shot a few pics of me and a friend...she knew what we were looking for...she caught a few precious moments on film...

This proves something rather profound...she now knows this stuff as well as me...she knows what the flashes are and she sees them...she does not need to write 92 blog essays or do deep research on blueflash people and what happens like I have...she gets it after she and I discussed it for a while and she has thought about this...she went for the camera and got the moments...on film...as well as anybody could have...

This means a lot.  It means you think it, you shoot it, you got it....sacred nature, romance, unexplainable moments, clear-life purpose...green, pink, white, blue in a photo, flash...right here, right now...

Even when the camera is just out of reach, you see it, you got it....

Incredible thought!

Special Talent....Is it Just Experience?

A colleague today sparked my intrigue.  She said she thought I might be actually able to grab pictures of people experiencing the flashes of life better than many other people...that is something I had not considered...maybe I need to, not out of ego, but experience...let me explain...

Someone has written a book of popular note that says that if you do something 10,000 times, you are an expert...it seems to be about amassing experience.

I started playing golf at 12.  I built my first golf green at 12 and a half.  My first real golf green at 15.  I played lots of golf in my life...I love it.  I can just about hit a golf ball pretty close, even after months of not playing, though practice surely helps.  My young son asked me...."hey, Dad, why are you so good?"...I just said casually, but it was profound...becsause I have hit maybe a million golf balls....

So, what is this?  Is it experience knowing, teaching watching people with their flashes of life and the struggles and victories they have....or is it sheer years watching....or can I actually see "stuff" others may not?

I now want to go with my camera and capture the smiles, frowns, sweat and strange postures of actual people with my camera and think I can get it on film...

Can I get it better than someone 25 years old?  45 years old?  maybe my age, but someone who has not focused on this "stuff"?  Not sure, but I must see if this could be true...it seems to me like hitting a million golf balls...I can take a club and get it closer than most to the pin....just because I have seen so much...and I also look deeper....

I want to see what is there in passion...if it is there, why cannot a picture be made?  As long as we also know, there is passion that no camera can ever capture...

...the energy of the universe!