Greetings,

Good Wednesday to you all!!

As you read this we are on the road to California to visit family and friends. And, of course, some nice long walks on the beach. It seems like years since we’ve made our trips to Huntington Beach and Santa Yanez. Probably because it has been. The last time out that way was 2018.

I have some new images of Ashlieya from our shoot at Bonita last week. I’ll mix those in with some past images since we’ve been shooting for many years. She’s moving to California pretty much fulltime soon so we’ll see what the future holds for more work. As always, I’m forever grateful for what I can create with someone, be it a single shoot or a dozen.

Last week I was the subject of a blast of hate on someone’s timeline. It got very heated and it got fairly personal by a half dozen people who had no idea who I was. I can’t think of a time that has ever happened to me before.

It was unpleasant until I started searching for the positive side of things. I try to do that in every situation. When I broke my wrist I was not entirely happy of course. But I was very thankful it was my left wrist since I’m right-handed. And, I got to shower with Linda for a couple of months since she had to help me wash around my cast. See? Positives.

The positive I took away from the blast was that I assume the people involved enjoyed doing that. As upset as they seemed to be, I can’t imagine them continuing if they didn’t enjoy the process. I’m not saying they weren’t genuinely upset, but to continue as they did had to have some gratification to it. I can’t speak to their feelings other than to assume a lot based on their actions. I don’t know a single one of them.

Another positive was that I took the time to find a way to purge images from Facebook of past years. There are no longer any images before 2018 in my timeline. This group had gone back over ten years to find images they chose to be offended by. I hate seeing someone spend that much time so I removed a large chunk of old posts.

The other things that have changed from this point forward. I removed all of the images I could find that had a headdress, helmets, flags, or modern weaponry. Swords are still fair game, although I’ve been kicked off of FB for having a picture of a Pirate holding swords. Some would say I’m bowing down to the growing masses of people who choose to be offended by anything. I like to think of it as allowing them to go somewhere else to express their opinions and choose to be offended.

And the last thing I walked away from the blast with is the good feeling that I was raised to be tolerant and treat people as I would like to be treated. It was a reminder. The world seems full of people looking to feel better about themselves by pointing at others and judging.

My new favorite phrase also came from this last week.

”You found it offensive; I found it beautiful… that’s why I am happier than you.”

This week’s video is of Keriann so I included a couple of images of her, one from the tree shoot.

Stay cool, happy, and healthy!

Dave

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