11:100 Strangers Project::Rick!
Over on flickr, the photo hosting website where I upload all my pictures to use on my blog, there is a group called 100 Strangers. The goal of the group is to post pictures of 100 strangers you go out of your way to talk to. Using a camera as an ice breaker, you ask to take their picture and then take a few minutes to ask a question or two and listen to their story.
Simple, right?!
Maybe if you don’t have an acute social phobia, or a very real fear of stranger danger like me. And while I generally am a very happy, outgoing person around people I know, I go out of my way to avoid interacting with people I don’t know. I get all shifty eyed and panic stricken. I see danger around every corner, a freak in every shadow, a psycho at every turn. And that’s just in Target! You can imagine how it gets when I’m out in the big world, especially here in urban Los Angeles!
Luckily I started my personal overhaul before moving to West Hollywood. And so, while typically I avoid interacting with strangers, I decided to switch it up and start consciously looking strangers in the eye and starting conversations with people I don’t know. That’s why I joined the group. I figure I should feel much more comfortable around people after I get to 100.
*It’s been terrifying! Having to confront all my fears about strangers has made me veeeeery uncomfortable! And sometimes they reject me, so I have the added fear of rejection going through my mind. Doubly terrifying!
*It’s been exhilarating! Facing a fear is a crazy feeling…I get all nervous and shy and giggly and feel all these endorphins rushing through my body. “Don’t do it!” I tell myself, knowing full well that I’m totally going to.
*It’s been touching. Sometimes you meet a stranger that you would never have taken time to talk to, and realize you have more in common than you’d think. When people feel important enough to have a picture taken of them by a stranger, it puts a spring in their step…the gift of being noticed. And then as they tell their story, they also get the gift of feeling heard. It leaves both of us feeling connected and a part of this thing called humanity.
*It’s been humbling. Many of my strangers are living totally different lives than I could ever imagine, and to have them open up and give me a glimpse into their world is fundamentally life changing in lots of tiny ways. I’ve gotten perspective, advise, reality checks, and lots of laughs from people who don’t appear to have much to laugh at.
My 11th stranger is Rick. I was running through the streets of Beverly Hills on a morning jog and was stopped at a red light. I looked down the street and here comes this dude with all these colorful balloons!
as he got closer I commented on what a happy sight he made with the balloons in his hand, and we laughed. Because who can’t laugh when looking at that many?! I asked him where he was going with them (to a restaurant) and if he always made balloon deliveries (no, but it was a special occassion) and if he liked his job delivering things (yes, he likes getting people what they need) and if it was his favorite delivery (he said it was a lot of fun, but also difficult to collect all the balloons and keep them untangled). Then the light turned green and off I ran.
Sometimes I have a few minutes with a stranger, like if I’m sitting on a metro or something. This has been the quickest of my exchanges–not a lot of getting to know him, but a fun little conversation and then we both went on our way. I’m left with a happy memory of a lot of balloons cheering up my day, and he knows that something he did at his job today was fun enough to have someone take a picture of it. win/win!
read moreHow To Justify Eating At Restaurants In The Name of Unschooling.
Over at p.s.bohemian, Deb is hosting a Sunday Snapshots fiesta…today is all about food!
Food is something I know a lot about, ever since moving to L.A. Back in Colorado, the closest good restaurant was about 30 minutes away. None of the kids was ever up for the drive there and back, and frankly neither was I.
But here in the bright lights of the big city, good food is just around the corner. And great food is on every block! My ability to cook food has decreased exponentially the closer we are to restaurants, apparently. I like to think of it as part of our ‘unschooling adventure’…sampling different cuisines from different cultures is a valuable thing! So educational! I do it all for the good of my kids, people! It’s all about the learning! Even when my kids aren’t around…I still go out to eat. That’s how dedicated I am!
With the help of some crazy cool homeschooling mamas (who happen to be crazy cool flickr friends, too) I braved the L.A. public transportation and took the metro from Pasadena to downtown.
Once there we walked around Olvera Street, a really amazing and historic part of the city with fantastic mexican cuisine. And if there’s one thing I love more than chocolate fondue, it’s mexican food. So, with no further delay, here is my food photo…the biggest vat of guacamole I’ve ever seen. The scale isn’t very good, but I could have fit my whole head into that thing…and almost considered it. Avocado is really good as a hair and beauty mask you know.
Mmmmmmm!
On an unrelated not, if you visit this blog directly and look for new posts, it would have appeared this past week that I’ve been quiet as a church mouse. Not a lot of blogging going on with all this good food to eat! However, if you get my blog via my facebook page, email subscription or RSS feed, then you will see some more activity through my flickr uploads. Sometimes when I’m too tired to blog I’ll upload a picture or two, write a sentence, and call it good. That shows up in the feed but not on the blog. So if you want some more spice, (totally not a reference to spicy guacamole, even though it could be…) subscribe via feedburner!
read morePhotography as Civil Disobedience
One positive thing about limited internet access and no television is that my exposure to what’s going on in the gulf thanks to BP and the massive oil spill is reduced to what I can gather from friends on facebook (via my iphone) and what they say on NPR. I don’t necessarily want to be an ostrich with my head in the sand, but I also feel supremely unable to do anything about it, which normally has the effect of making me sit and watch hours and hours of news coverage while at the same time feeling more and more depressed and helpless, which results in an overconsumption of carbs and sugar.
It appears that, thanks to a policy by BP of limiting access of the devestated sites/cleanup efforts to photographers, there isn’t all that much news coverage anyway. I haven’t been down to the coast to check out how strict this ban on photographers is, but I can tell you that it’s surprising how many places do not allow photography in everyday life.
Not that it’s in any way similar in scope or scale. However, civil disobedience is civil disobedience, whether it’s taking pictures in a restricted oil spill or in a restricted public space…even if it’s a bookstore.
It’s a bit of an oversimplification of an idea that has roots in major resistances to governmental action, like in India, Russia, Ukraine, and the US…but a perfect example to use when walking around with my kids. It’s hard to understand rule of law and political intrigue on a grand scale, but pretty accessible when walking around dealing with store policy.
This particular bookstore has outlawed photography inside of it. I asked why, and the lady didn’t like that. I didn’t like that the lady wouldn’t answer me. So, when she left, I told Naturalist (my partner in crime) to set up the shot. And we took it. And then we discussed following rules (or not following rules.)
We’ve read lots of books about civil disobedience, rule of law, nonviolent resistance, and self reliance to help us figure out how to decide if a rule is one we want to follow or not. It started last year when we focused on human rights (here and here)Giving my kids this freedom of thought was a big leap for me, but I figured if more people spent time feeling like they were in control rather than letting a beaurocracy decide that for them, the world would be a better place. Some of our favorite books on the subject:
but my favorite book ever on this is:
Whenever we go to public places with the camera, and come across photo bans, our discussion centers around what the rule is, if it’s logical or makes sense, and if it’s ethically correct. So…is the ban on photography at the bookstore valid? Is there a real threat of harm or misdeed by taking it? Does any of that make our freedom of expression lesser of a priority? If so, then we don’t take a picture.
I hope some of this transfers over to how they view the rule of law on a bigger scale…in school if and when they decide to go, in life, in government, and in a job. What is the rule? What are the ethics behind it, and do they jive with my own core values? Is it respectful and does it make sense? Simple tools, even when weighing big laws.
Unschooling has allowed us to ask these questions, mostly due to relaxing our own forms of discipline to respect the natural needs of our kids. Before unschooling, rules were followed…both in school and at home. If the rules weren’t followed, then the consequences were some form of punishment. In a process that needs it’s own post, when we started unschooling, we moved away from hard and set rules and towards family ‘principles’. Instead of “No eating food in the living room. It’s too messy.” it became “if you eat food in the living room and it makes a mess, clean it up!”
This has made us all a little more rebellious, a little more aware of our own personal choice in the rules we decide to follow.
“Good men must not obey the laws too well”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Canon 40D
40mm, f2.8
iso 200
This picture almost got us kicked out of the visitor center of Hearst Castle. Heaven help you if you get on the wooden step meant to be stood on!
Share Tweet“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
–Mark Twain
Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July! Old Town San Diego was an amazing place to spend ours!
Canon 40D
28mm f2.8
ISO 320
edited in Adobe Lightroom 2
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“We may explore the universe and find ourselves…
…or we may explore ourselves and find the universe. It matters not which of these paths we choose.”
—-Diana Robinson
Canon 40D
75 f2.8
ISO 500
body:
lens:
Just Dance!
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Info:
~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Canon Rebel
70mm f/10 (why 10?! I think I was still using the auto function on my camera!)
ISO 100
Keep close to Nature’s heart…
“…and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
John Muir
Info:
Canon 40D
75mm 2.8
ISO 500
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
“Wander A Whole Summer If You Can…
…Thousands of God’s blessings will search you and soak you as if you were a sponge, and the big days will go by uncounted. If you are business-tangled and so burdened by duty that only weeks can be got out of the heavy laden year, give a month at least. The time will not be taken from the sum of life. Instead of shortening, it will indefinitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal.”
–john muir
info:
Canon Rebel
50mm 1.8
ISO 100
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