Web of financial complexities in consumer lifetimes

 

Advice to customers of retirement accounts, 11/2024 brochure.

Many generations ago the average peasant or laborer used cash intermittently; it was not part of daily habits, necessarily. After the pace of commerce and interactions accelerated during the creation and growth of industrialization, though, more frequent and bigger exchanges began to happen. Now in 2024 a person has automatic payments (subscription or billing debits) happening in the background to their lives. At (self) checkout counters there are touchscreens asking what manner of financial currency the shopper will be using: digital payment from cellphone, cash, credit card, debit card, gift voucher, Bitcoin, and so on. Not only are daily transactions complicated and increasingly at risk for information crime (fraud, hacking, phishing), but the arc of a person's life is nothing longer as simple as "you come into the world with nothing and you leave the world with nothing" (you can't take accumulated wealth and debt with you after dying). Instead, it is not uncommon to have some net worth to distribute by written instructions, or if no legal arrangements are prearranged, then division of assets by governmental formula.

This screenshot is a simple overview to the kinds of financial decisions that many people should be aware of. There are lots of poor people for whom such things may seem irrelevant or alien to their experience. But for many others a failure to think through options, obligations, opportunities and other factors leads to losses, or at least foregoing of possible gains and costs to reduce or avoid altogether. In other words, the landscape of financial life in 2024 is altogether different to 1824 for many, many people; some more complicated than others. For the poorest, perhaps the difference from 1824 to 2024 is not as big, though. Looking in the opposite direction, not to pre-Industrial social experience of going from birth to the end of a long life but into the future, maybe the current range of complications will persist. But maybe there will be even more forms of payment and commodification of daily life needs. If that were to be true, than what today seems already too complicated, by comparison, will be viewed as "the good old days."

From nature's landscape to cultural landscape

 

Neighboring images for October 4, 2023 flickr.com/explore

When displayed adjacent to each other, these four images suggest a long arc in the changes between people and their environment. At top left is an image of artificial illumination under an ocean of stars (1-Million-Star Hotel). This could stand for human use of fire for light and heat and cooking and to modify bone, stone, ore and other materials. Next is the prominent soaring geological feature spotlighted by evening sun (Desert Drama). This is a large structure, but one not built by human hands. Compared to the first photo, this changes the scale of meaning from the campfire to something much larger to which stories can be attached and events can be referenced. Turning to the bottom right photo (St Cuthbert's), the sturdy place of worship is made of cut stone for wall and rooftiles. This is the work of architectural traditions inherited from the ancient Romans and the Greeks before them and requires not only knowledge but also logistical trains from quarry to cutter to builder, too. Lastly, there is the multi-colored, multi-storied grove of towers that hearkens to ancient trees reaching far above the ground (Singapore - Garden Rhapsody). 

Viewed from 'campfire' to 'grove of towers', there is a long sweep of change in human interaction and control of the natural environment. The scale and technical sophistication grows across the millennia and this serendipitous sequence of photos gives a hint at just how much things have changed, both in the minds of people but also with regard to the habitats affected by extraction, construction, and ongoing operation of such large artifacts with cultural meaning.

In the eyes of the people whose greatest achievement is the use and control of fire, the giant monument could be taken "as is" for a kind of human worship space; a building that involves no construction technology. In their eyes, the idea of shaped blocks of stone to form a church would be mind-boggling; even moreso the multi-colored, multistoried, glassy towers. Looking through the opposite end of the telescope, from the eyes of 2024 people, the stone church would be recognizable but little more than a rectangle where believers meet, teach and preach, and conduct life rituals. And the geological wonder would be something like a postcard; something recognized and briefly enjoyed for its visual novelty, but probably not a site of pilgrimage or object of veneration to most visitors and viewers. As for the idea of 'campfire' and canopy of stars, for many people today that is beautiful and desirable, but hardly comparable to large scale architectural feats of today.

In summary, by chance these four pictures appeared in the Flickr.com editors' daily selection of images to showcase. As it happens, each one seems to stand for a different stage in the development of human powers of construction of artifacts but also of ideas and attitudes to the surrounding space and time. In this one screenshot of the four scenes framed all together there is a hint of the great scale of change from 'campfire' to skyscraper. And while the size of each subject and processes differs greatly, in the end human habits of attaching meaning or significance is a common thread across the centuries: people see meaning not only in what they do in relationship to each other and the things they make, but also in the space and time they inhabit, thus turning a natural landscape into a cultural landscape closely tied to the language they speak and to the assumptions that go along with it.

Yard sign rhetorical style - USA Presidential race 2024 September

 

Trump (keep American great) at left; Harris (obviously) at right

Less than two months from the national election, a display of yard signs is spreading ever so slightly; perhaps one public display per 50 houses around the city of Grand Rapids in the first week of September. Although the photo collage shows only two varieties of the basic formula of name + patriotic colors and stars, there are variations on this theme, and it does provide a good illustration for several points. One, the Harris sign is near the sidewalk and road so passersby can get a good look. The Trump sign is guarded near the resident's house, far from the sidewalk and the attendant risk of being vandalized, dabbed in graffiti, or otherwise insulted. Both put stars on their message: 7 for Trump and 9 for Harris, in this case. The message designers for Harris give equal size to both people. Trump signs (not the one here) with running mate JD Vance put his billing under Trump at a smaller size. These graphic design decisions seem to suggest non-verbally that status differs: equal status for the Democratic ticket, deference to Trump as being paramount for the Republican ticket. The punch line under the candidate names follows a different logic or taste in each case, too: "keep American great" for Trump is a riff on the 2020 pitch of "make America great again" (MAGA abbreviation), which ironically seems to endorse the Joe Biden administration in choosing the word choice "keep" American great. In other words, "let's not change the White House leadership." On the other hand, the punchline on the Harris yard sign could be heard as sounding smug or dismissive: 'obviously' suggests that no serious alternative could possibly be considered. 

Elsewhere this same week there were yard sign variations, but still keeping the stars and the color scheme. "Take America Back" as a substitute punch line for the Trump sign. A letter-size (A4) Harris rebuttle gives its punch line, "Not Going Back." A normal size yard sign gives "Truth * Hope * Decency" for the Harris sign's punch line. In just about everything coming from Trump's mouth, imagination, or minions there is a strong irony - intended or baked in unknowingly: while one thing is declared about the opponent's shortcomings, very often the same words could be mirrored back onto Trump, too. When banned from using Twitter for a few years, Trump launched his own Twitter-like platform, curiously dubbed, Truth Social. By now the suspect nature of all social media and its murky flooding by bots and trolls intending harm makes the idea of "truth" and "social media" often incompatible. Appropriately, such murkiness seems quintessential of Trump's (public) life. So while the Harris yard sign declares "truth * hope * decency," the Trump campaign clings to their "Truth Social" messages, even now that Twitter's owner has dictated that Trump must be allowed to use the Twitter platform, again.

In summary, political campaign yard signs sprout in the months leading up to the primary election and a few months later, for the general election. The design elements, arrangement, and choice of words - their placement - their sequence and relationship to the rest of the elements all speak to people who glance at them while passing by. Even the placement of the signs seems to communicate a message, too. In total, only a fraction of the city residents does display signs for one or more office candidate. Whether the visual representation of candidates motivates or reminds passers by to vote or not is difficult to document or prove. But whether the signs affect the voting outcome or not, they are a normal part of the recurring election season and provide a small window into the thinking and assumptions and aspirations of candidates and the individuals and organizations supporters.

Pleasures of drinking fancy coffee outdoors among others

Downtown Grand Rapids on Labor Day weekend at 9:30 a.m.

The French have lot of words to describe city lives. Boulevardier is someone who spends time on the avenues looking at others' fashions and behaviors, as well as to be seen by others for one's own public self-expression. Flâneur is someone who takes pleasure in strolling and observing society as it is, as it used to be, and as it is changing into its future form. Wikipedia says both terms are near synonyms of each other. This Saturday morning photo includes school age children, single adults and couples young and middle-age, as well as an occasional retiree. Nominally, they all have a reason to travel to this city block where several tasty retail shops cluster: one for coffee, one for baked goods, and one for butcher's wares. A few yards away is a delicatessen, too. The sidewalk seating, complete with sun shades, invites people to enjoy the sunshine and the company of others they are meeting, have traveled with, or simply enjoy as effervescent background of anonymous fellow citizens.

The demographic profile of the customers who make the effort to attend, probably repeatedly, spend, and consume tasty food and drink is not something that connects all city residents. That is because the price is higher here than other sources of caffeinated hot beverage and sugary baked foods. The city-center location is not very car-friendly. But people on foot or (e)bicycle may view this inconvenience as a positive feature to limit cars and to make the shopping/eating trip into a destination experience instead of functional food gathering exercise. Finally, not all demographic segments consider mingling with fellow eaters to be a good use of time and attention, either due to the nature of using up these precious resources or because other demands rank higher in responsibility, urgency, or accessibility - even if the idea of lining up for barista coffee and freshly baked food were things everybody aspires to.

Leaving aside what might be attract the people in the picture to the products and the experience of lingering on the sidewalk, what might be some of the components that the customers feel when they select a tasty indulgence (out of the ordinary day's habits) and then proceed to dwell long enough to consume some or all their purchase; or they abide long enough to enjoy their time in company of friends or family they have met by plan or by accident there? The possibilities are many, but not endless: any of the following, in isolation or in combination, could enter into the person's decision to travel to the shops, consider the possible purchases before committing to one, and then also deciding to linger awhile in an open seat that might present itself on the sidewalk. One reason could be no reason: simply an impulse to seek out something tasty that the person remembers from an earlier experience. Or maybe the person has a socializing motivation: seeking a "third place" (neither at home, nor at work) to meet someone new or someone they already know. Or maybe there is the lure of hubbub from others for a solitary person to be around others, even if anonymously. The more intense form of this hubbub lure is for people watching, the desire to see what others say and do and how they look. A dissociative motive might be to gain satisfaction by telling oneself that pricey coffee and treats are signs that one belongs to the kind of people who do such things; a sort of amplified self-image to see one's own reflection in the experience there.

Whatever the primary reasons that motivate a person to shop and then to sit down to eat and drink, judging from this picture on a fine summer morning at the end of August, the practice is well established and seems to be in no danger of disappearing.

MUGGL3, SRV GOD, FURSHR (automobile vanity plates)

 Seeing personalized license plates can sometimes stir thoughts while decoding the meaning is finally solved. Many plates are simple affirmations; e.g. Bible verse (MATT3 14), college cheer ("go State" for Michigan State University's collegiate sports teams), or friendly exhortation ("smile"). Others are cryptic of personal incident or reference point, maybe a personal motto or philosophy. The license plate today in the coffee roaster's public parking lot, (MUGGL3), is a reference to the non-magical characters in the world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Her spelling is "muggle," but often a desired vanity plate substitutes numbers for letters because another person previously laid claim to MUGGLE, for instance.

Spotted in grocery store parking lot, "serve [your lord] God"

Apparently, some combinations of numbers and letters are banned if profanity or another kind of provocation is likely to come from it. But that leaves many ways to arrange the letters and numbers (maximum 7 spaces to fill). And because some themed license plates (college colors and logo such as block 'S' in green for Michigan State University) allow a person to elide the vanity plate word or phrase together with that theme letter, the normal limit of 7 numbers or letters can 'borrow' that initial colored, theme letter. As an example, the resulting plate could read 'S't8is1 for "State is [number] 1 [ranked]." Also in this example is an illustration of 'borrowing' the sound of a letter or number to stand for a word such as "8" for "ate" (instead of the normal "eight"). Another common one is "for" read from the '4' and "to" read from the '2'.

The website for the State of Michigan's office of Secretary of State [for motor vehicles] gives the following advice on Personalized Plates.

Plate may be personalized with up to 6 or 7 characters, depending on plate type. All plate configurations are based on availability and are subject to review by the Michigan Department of State. The department has the authority to decline to issue a configuration, per state law.

• Only use letters A-Z and numbers 0-9 (symbols cannot be processed)
• Spaces are allowed and are counted as characters
• The letter ‘O’ is substituted by the number ‘0’

The details of the personalized plate policy include this paragraph:

 

The Secretary of State will not issue a configuration of either letters, numbers or letters and numbers that carries a connotation that is profane, obscene; a swear word of depicts a swear word; sexually explicit or graphic; excretory-related; used to describe intimate body parts or genitals; used to describe alcohol, alcohol use, drugs, drug culture or drug use; used to describe illegal activities or illegal substances; use to substantially interfere with plate identification for law enforcement purposes; used to disparage or promote or condone hate or violence directed at any type of business, group or persons, a foreign word falling into these categorie, or that conflicts with the regular license plate numbering system.

Phonetic spelling of "for sure!" exclamation.

The obvious words or phrases or chapter-verse citations (Bible), as well as the cryptic combinations of number and letter have given meaning to the authors of them, as well as to their fellow motorists who may notice them while parked, or when stalled in heavy traffic. It is likely that the premium added cost that the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (Secretary of State in the case of Michigan) collects for themed plates and also for vanity plates will continue long into the future as a painless way to increase the state's revenues from creative drivers. Perhaps someone will gain access to their database of current and historical combinations or numbers and letters to produce a more thorough typology of playful plates than the impressions and anecdotes gathered in this article. And if something comparative were possible between states and nations, then even more light would be shone on the relationship of people, their vehicles, and the times they live in.

[Addendum 29 Aug 2024] See also: Detroit Free Press newspaper story, "Michigan has banned more than 26,000 vehicle license plates,"

 https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2024/08/13/michigan-banned-license-plates/74461282007/

*appended with the 606 pages of banned combinations of letters and numbers [26,000+ to date]

Drone lens to see above the treetops

 

About 80-100 feet above ground level in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 31, 2024

After a lifetime of composing pictures and viewing pictures from eye-level and using a viewfinder or digital screen, the experience of flying a sub-250-gram camera drone (not subject to FAA licensing; most places restricted to 400 feet or lower, according to published maps for drones) takes some getting used to. It takes time to gain reliable competence to launch and recover the pocket-sized quadcopter. And it takes time to know how to set the lens angle and the frame before capturing a photo or recording video clips. Although this model (Holystone hs175d) allows software and smartphone screen to show the camera's point of view, by flying blind with just the handheld controller and estimating the heading of the lens, there is less technology to coordinate and to slow down the set up, launch, and return to land. In addition, by not seeing what the lens sees, there is an echo of the roll-film era of photography, when it took a few days (or "1-hour photo processing" while you wait) before the resulting image could be seen.

Learning curve on this hobby drone camera

Being very light-weight with small battery, usable for 15 or so minutes per battery, and with modest lens and small digital sensor to capture the images, best results come from several tips discovered by practicing. (1) Abundant light falling from side or behind the lens puts the scene in best view to record detail and mostly accurate colors. (2) Preflight visualizing the launch site and center of the photo to compose before releasing the shutter gives more deliberate photographic results, and it reduces in-air dithering as the battery runs down. (3) Before launching (checklist): unfold controller grips and antenna, power it on. Unfold drone struts and power the drone on. According to the manufacturer steps: pair the controller to the drone, activate the compass (involves a long-press button, then rotating on two different axes), then wait for lights to change from red to lime-green (signal that GPS signal is found). During this minute or two, decide the lens position (0 to 90 degrees relative to the horizon). Since the full travel from pointing straight ahead to straight down is about 45 presses of the controller button, a landscape is best about 5 or 6 clicks under the horizon (straight ahead) position. For subjects very much in the foreground, maybe 14 to 16 clicks will frame everything best. Then reset the gyro and finally unlock the motors so they can spin and so that the auto-launch button can put the drone at a 6-foot hover position. (4) Tripod in the sky is one way to imagine the drone camera: launch and then, like an elevator, go straight up (rather than traveling laterally to hard to reach spot, say) to take pictures at different altitudes (beginner mode caps the ceiling at 100 feet/30 meters, a distance from the pilot that still allows the drone's lens/heading to be seen). Rotating the drone 2-clicks of the joystick will move the center point of the photo frame about 20 or 25 degrees, thus allowing a sequence of shots that overlap. (5) Limitations are good to know, too: wind that is able to move the treetops is too much to fly in. Rain also is ill advised. Extreme heat or cold diminishes the battery power, too. Even with minimal wind, lots of light, and moderate air temperature, though, being too hasty to pivot the lens and then shoot the picture can give tipped horizons, since it takes a second or two to regain level composure. In other words, whether recording moving or still images, it is important to turn the drone and then wait a few moments before pressing the record button on the controller. (6) Landing (checklist): Normally, the GPS launch point is faithfully homed in on, but sometimes unexpected puffs of wind, or a particularly hazard-filled site calls for extra care to ground or to catch the drone - being ready to make micro-adjustments before finally pressing the Auto-land button and then after reaching the ground and props no longer spinning, turning off controller and turning off drone, folding the four struts of the propellers and then returning to the storage/carrying bag.

Seen all together: the drone photographer arrives at preferred launch site, free of overhanging branches and wires, and so on. The person unpacks controller and drone to prepare for (auto) launch. Once in the air, the pilot quickly presses the altitude stick to elevate straight upward. Once at the chosen height and pointing the lens at the center of the composition, the photographer waits for two seconds so the drone settles relative to the horizon, rather than tipping to one side or the other. Snap a photo, then 2-clicks of the joystick to rotate away from the first center point. Wait 2-counts to settle and then snap the next photo. After enough shots are recorded, then the drone comes down the way it rose: straight down the invisible elevator shaft. At eye-level, press the auto-landing button to make a soft landing and turn off controller and drone. Elapsed time to unpack, launch, ascend, snap a series of shots and/or video clips, descend and reach the land could be 8 to 10 minutes all together.

looking north near the Grand River, Ah-Nab-Awen Park & the Ford Presidential Museum

Reasons to record the land and people from above the treetops

Before the invention, proliferation, and interest in pictures and video from the air, it was only airplanes and helicopters (and hot-air balloons) that made this birdseye perspective possible, limited to those with a big budget or good connections with pilots and photographers. But in 2024 there are now many tiers in quality of drone camera available new or used, suited to a variety of purposes and abilities. Some are made to be fool-proof with pre-programmed menus of pictures to take. Others allow the pilot to make most control decisions, just automating the orientation to horizon (remaining level) and the launch/landing phases of flight. The camera itself often is similar to a "point and shoot," leaving the composition frame and altitude to the flyer, but the exposure and shutter and ISO (sensor responsiveness to light values) are auto-determined. In this article the camera is on a hobby drone of around $200 new and weighing less than the FAA license limit of 250 grams. For the purpose of learning to fly and to visualize things to photograph from the birds' point of view, this UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is entirely satisfactory. For profession filmmakers, though, it falls short in many ways.

Unlike the visual frame at ground level, being now up in the air the context suddenly is many times wider and deeper. So the pictures taken at 30 or 60 or 100 feet put the horizon farther away than the ground-level or rooftop window height. For face-to-face subjects or macro details, there is no benefit from a drone camera. But for big cultural terrain, large patterns and relationships, and "establishing shot" introductions to a place, the viewpoint above ground level is superior. Even large indoor spaces can sometimes benefit from a lens that is 20 or 40 feet above the activity, below.

Besides the content recorded from the air, another benefit is the comparative one: the viewer may already have on-the-ground experience of a place or a subject matter, but by layering this new perspective onto that first-hand, up-close knowledge, the person now gains a point of comparison, thus making the earlier vision become a comparative one: knowing it in stereo instead of in mono.

Some aspects of a subject or a place may simply be invisible or too big to appreciate in the eye-level scale of encounter. Only by having the (aerial) distance can the scale of a thing be understood. For example, some things can best be grasped from the air, such as a massive factory complex, port facility, campus, or site of natural (or human-caused) disaster.

Finally, there is freshness and novelty that comes from seeing something from an unaccustomed standpoint. Even if it is something as well-known as one's home or workplace, that deep familiarity can make the thing uninteresting, ordinary, and rarely perceived objectively. But by seeing it from the air, now it becomes unfamiliar and some of the contours and connections to adjacent things come to life.

In conclusion, whether it is a hobbyist keen on flying or one keen on photography (or both) or it is someone with professional interest in drone photography (city engineer, military corps, land surveyor, social scientist, historian, novelist or journalist), the practicality of having an "eye in the sky" now makes uses for drone photography relevant in day-to-day operations and routines. It can answer old questions and lead to new questions. It can be the instrumental knowledge for decisions today, but also be of value when future generations look back to explore our moment by using UAV archives like these. So, more and more drone photography should be encouraged and supported for immediate benefit and for future uses, too. 

CAVEAT: like anything else human-created, this visual tool can be used not just for good, but can also be abused for bad purposes. So, infrastructure that a terrorist or far-away government may want to scrutinize with a view to harm should have special protections so that imagery is not online readily findable.

Over the top - WWI ordinary men now dressed up to die

 

Trench warfare (p.275, Britain at War; 2004 Richard Holmes)

The Battle of the Somme, July to November 1916, destroyed people and their relationships, aspirations, expertise, and memories; as well as all manner of living thing both plant and animal, together with their habitats. Materiel, too, was destroyed in the process. Later on, additional Somme battles continued, too. This snapshot shows the British point of view with men young and old lining their trench, some volunteers and others conscripted, some from the British Isles and others from the many countries administered by the British Empire. The artillery shells and mortar rounds bursting around them and the bullets from rifles and from machine guns made no distinction between one man and the next, nor between one belligerent side and the other. Death filled the fields on both sides.

Turning an anthropological lens on the moment captured, it is possible to imagine the layers of meaning attached to the image and the lives recorded in the click of the shutter. The photographer likely waited for a lull in shooting before quickly setting up the composition and exposing the film from this position above the relative safety of the ditch. He probably had an assignment or deadline to photograph and create prints for a newspaper or magazine. In the eyes of the soldiers, the stranger was there one minute and gone the next, having stolen a few glimpses of the location and those assigned to stand in harm's way. Some readers of the newspaper or magazine may have studied the image in search of a familiar face. Most readers, though, glanced at the image only long enough to take in the overall feel of the crowding, danger, and dirt. The photo functioned as anonymous illustration rather than documentation of a dear family member known personally or more casually as an acquaintance. People in 2004 when the book carrying this archival image was published may think of a grandfather or great grandfather touched by the events of July 1914 to November 1918. Other present-day viewers may drain any personal details or meaning from the troops wearing the British uniforms and perceive only "the army," forgetting that parallel meanings and dangers persisted in the other armies entangled by the military alliances obligating them to enter the armed conflict on one side or the other at great cost.

As an exercise in meaning-making, reviving the humanity of the people recorded on the print, there are several layers to peel away from the 2004 reprint before arriving at the moment that the photographer composed the image and snapped the picture, freezing it for all time, making something viewed generations later, long after the subjects were destroyed on the mud or died from wounds soon after the attack or at a later date. One layer to remove is the 2004 book: stripping off the text that frames page 275 and the caption assigned the photo. Suppose that you have the original photographic paper showing the scene and dating to a day or so from the time the image was recorded. Holding that vintage photo paper is a tangible link to the photographer's hand and by proxy, also, to the brief visit he made to the trench to capture the scene for readers. Probably something analogous was happening in the trenches of Axis armies, too: photographers preparing images for readers back at home.

Now diving into the frame of the photo to arrive at the muddy ground itself, what kinds of meanings are mingling around the time that the photographer comes upon the view? For an outsider, maybe like the photographer, the sights and sounds and smells are anonymous of "all soldiers universally" or at least all those dressed in the British Expeditionary Force clothing. But to all of the men in the photo, there is some relationship to each other: impersonally at the level of rank and military code of conduct including rules of engagement, at the organizational level of a fighting group such as 4-man squad, personally at the interpersonal level (some joined in whole neighborhoods or workplaces as "pals" to go through training and deployment without being separated from each other, except by injury or death), and some built new friendships in the course of training or deployment in the heat of danger. Among those recorded in this fraction of a second, many would be on a first-name basis, and to greater or lesser degree they might know something of the other man's family and hometown, along with personal habits and dreams and memories. In other words, what at first glance is an old black and white photo of a faraway armed conflict leading only to destruction, upon closer consideration is a bundle of interrelationships and personal meanings mingled with uncertainty about their chances of surviving the next hour or day or week. Formal structures of control and command jostle with seismic rumbling underfoot coming from existential doubts and suspicions and worries: amplified meaning from rules are cheek by jowl with expanded perception from the meaninglessness of events. Service to the nation (or at least to one's fellow trench fellows) on the one hand and extinction of self or others on the other hand.

In the end, this photo has now been republished over the decades and surrounded by the words of various authors with or without direct, personal experience of trenches and friends killed by obliteration or gently in an instant or slowly one mustard gas lungful at a time. Depending on the placement and size of the image on the page of text, readers may or may not glimpse something of the original meaning when the men were frozen in time. Only those present when the lens clicked can give a first-person account of the time that photographer framed a shot and then was gone, but to them this scene was more of a family photo than somebody's newspaper illustration or something to add visual interest to history textbooks of generations to come.

Perhaps there is a way in 2024 to honor those in the composition, and to honor the one making the image for others to see, and tacitly also to honor the brothers in arms in the opposite trenches facing those shown here. Rather than to dismiss the old-timey uniforms, doctrine of digging trenches for defense, and deadly but (today) outdated arms, taking the time and supplying the imagination in order to give them personalities, names, humanity, and connections with others; to see them as people only temporarily installed as soldiers but in the whole as being much more than name, rank, and service (serial) number. Allowing belligerents of all sides to be whole persons instead of cardboard cutouts and caricatures restores some dignity and agency to what turned out to be for many of them a violent death and hope-filled life cut short. In this photo, it may well be all were dead or wounded only hours following this photo, or became casualties maybe within a week or two.

Unhoused, homeless, or by any other name - sleeping outdoors

 

Around 8:30 Wednesday morning, traffic on right, walkers on left [click for full size]

Having no fixed abode or address has consequences large and small for people in 2024. Shelter from cold and wet and wind is one thing. Having a place to gather one's chattels is another. Personal safety, personal hygiene, personal memories/mementos also depend on having a place to call home. Being able to store food, then cook, eat, and clean up also depends on having a place of one's own. Without an address it is hard to receive deliveries and messages, as well as recharging cellphone or other electronic devices.

This picture shows somebody's private encampment on public parkland in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about a mile north of city center. The past two days have been blanketed by excessive heat (although tempered by cloud and moderated by steady wind) which is forecast to persist all of today and the Thursday and Friday, as well. It is not night chill to worry about, but distress or worse from humans, along with the burden of heat. At the moment rain is not a likely concern. But having no shelter means the weather and changing seasons dictate one's well-being.

Considering that fact that national wealth divided over the population gives a statistical "richest country on Earth" declaration, it seems unimaginable to see things like mass shootings, poor air conditions and water supply, bankruptcy by medical billing, huge illiteracy and low high school graduation rates, as well as persisting unhoused people on the streets (but also unhoused in rural counties, too). But once the "richest country" is factored by demographic segment, it is true that 1% of the population owns something like 50% of the wealth. Then perhaps the top 25% accounts for 90% of all the wealth. For the remaining 75% of people living in the USA the last 10% of the national wealth can be divided to give a figure that makes this country far from "the richest" country. Seen in that frame of reference, people living in cars and on the street and in parks or overnight shelters is not so surprising.

See also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth#In_the_United_States

Digital vs analog, smooth vs coarse: human vs non.

After the night's rain showers the day breaks on Memorial Day, the Monday of the 3-day holiday weekend late in May. Rather than wait for the annual neighborhood waste collection (and electronic waste) day, somebody on this street has left the unwanted equipment at the curb as a signal that anybody can claim this, whether it is functioning or not. On sunny days it bakes, on rainy days it feels the wet.

This computer monitor is a pinnacle of human ingenuity, built from generations of high-level mathematics, materials engineering, design expertise, manufacturing and supply chains, along with the electrical engineering prowess. But seeing it juxtaposed by millennia of grass biology, rooted in its terrain and following the rhythm of the surrounding season prompts reflections about the contrast of digital thinking (all/nothing, on/off, zero/one, black/white; context mostly ignored) to the earlier and coexisting analog way (all parts connected by layers of webs; context is the foundation).

Consonant with the idea of hubris, of human overconfidence in one's own skill or the invincibility of technological solutions to any obstacle or threat, this image poses the question: will human economic activity extract life and value from the rest of the planet until, finally, human society disappears; or, instead, will humans find the ways to limit harm and impulses of advancing personal advantage at the expense of fellow humans and to the habitats of air, land, and sea where other living things exist. Excesses of extraction from natural resources, excesses of production and price reductions, and excesses of consumption (use then discard) lead to scenes like this photo: unwanted or superseded possessions littering the edge of one's property for others to claim for reuse, repair, recycling, or repurposing before the things or its leftover parts finally arrive at the final resting place (solid-waste landfill).

In the first generation of personal computers, the equipment was relatively rare, expensive, and well-cared for. Now entering the third generation of new PC users, the computing power, memory cost, and purposes that software can be applied to is much different. Universities and other knowledge-intensive sites of human activity have established 4 or 5-year rotation cycles to replace perfectly functional old equipment with new editions, so quickly do the advances eclipse the older models, much as predicted by Moore's Law. For early adopter's of home computing to see a sleek LCD monitor discarded casually like this would be astounding. By imagining a time 25 years from now with all the PC advances that go along with the passing years, perhaps even more astounding sights at the edge of streets will greet the viewer. 

Unneighborly verbal altercation - leaf blower sends grass cuttings onto parked car

 

Past the yellow fire hydrant two city police leave defendant to speak with plaintiff at nearby house

A little before 10 a.m. on Friday the lawn mowing service had mown the client's grass, cut the edges, and was just about finished with the noisy, gas-powered leaf blower to dissipate the cuttings off the client's sidewalk and driveway. That is when the adjacent homeowner came striding with purpose to confront the man with the blower to express his offense at cuttings blown onto his car and driveway. The confrontation began at full volume: both the decibels and the choice of fighting words, rather than less accusatory word choice and tone of voice. So the worker being verbally attacked replied in kind, adding lewd gestures and posturing to amplify his replies. Back and forth the temperature of the verbal wrestling proceeded until the nextdoor man pulled out his cellphone to video record the worker and his vehicle before then warning him that the police would soon arrive, presumably to adjudicate the plaintiff point of view and perceived injury by lack of respect from the worker that he was aggravating verbally by assault.

This photo shows the two officers after hearing the worker's perspective. They already heard the plaintiff in his phone call to the dispatcher. It took perhaps 10 or 15 minutes from first threat from the plaintiff about bringing the police into the matter until the car arrived. First one uniform approached the worker slowly, in case the situation was explosive. Since the man was relatively calm, the second officer joined the first to listen to the account from the worker's point of view. What happened next is the two policemen went to the house of the plaintiff for further discussion. After a total of maybe 10 minutes they left the scene, the worker in his truck and trailer departing before that, having been told there was no more for the moment and therefore that he could leave for the next client's lawn.

Since the verbal bout could be heard at a distance, the experience as a spectator was worrisome. Since so many people have applied for "concealed carrying" of pistols, it is not impossible for one or both men to have been trigger happy. Nothing did happen with guns, although verbally there was gun banter. The whole episode illustrates something about city living, leaving aside its paperwork, communication snafus, and any additional procedural consequences. 

In villages there are layers of family-to-family history, interrelationship, and shared stake holding. So conflict resolution by individuals or representatives for each side can typically come to some arrangement involving apology and restorative justice so that the offender makes whole the injured party or parties. But in larger urban settings the social fabric is held together by rules and ordinances and is enforced by professional law-keepers. Since most person-to-person intersections involve strangers, these formal systems and infrastructure is how problems are solved.

In the history of societies and their civilizations and languages, new words and rituals and titles and rights/responsibilities are created. In urban environments since the density of ambitions, greed, and dependence is much higher than in villages or tribes, there is a concentration of boundaries, differing opinions, and levels of experience in handling difficult topics and injuries - verbal or physical or financial. In the case featured above, one middle-aged or elder man felt injured when his property (car) was affected by the grass cuttings landing on his side of the property line. Due to this offence, he felt entitled to shout abuse at the one blowing the cuttings. Since the verbal attack was unaccustomed and unexpected, the worker's hackles were raised and he replied in mirror image by heaping abuse on the offended homeowner and then amplifying the venom for good measure. The next step escalated to requesting the services of the armed police. How the matter ultimately ended is not obvious, except that the police did indeed arrive in a timely manner and speak respectfully in word and by nonverbal communication (posture, eye contact, tone of voice and so on). Then the worker was released from waiting and the police drove away.

National flag variations on a theme - speculatively

 

What looks black in this flag*could* be political expression, or maybe is simply a very new flag 5/2024

Without talking to the owner of this house and looking closely at the fabric, it is hard to be sure if the dark field for the 50 stars that represent the 50 states (though not territories or Washington, DC) is regulation navy blue, or instead is specially created with inky black to make some sort of statement about light-pollution and a love of skygazing, for example. For the purpose of essaying the many meanings and uses (and abuses) of the national flag, though, let us speculate with the assumption that, yes, this flag is made in red, white, and black. What are some of the possible meanings the homeowner wishes to show publicly?

From the October 7, 2023 terror assault from Gaza and continuing more than seven months to today, there is the plight of the Palestinian civilians (about 35,000 killed by Israel Defense Force activity, mainly women and children). Since college campuses in many parts of the U.S. have student demonstrations against USA contributions of weapons and intelligence and money to the I.D.F. there are also private property owners who express solidarity for (or against) Palestinian abuses in Gaza. Then there are also USA flag variations ever since the Coivd-19 lockdowns early in 2020: the monochrome flag with just one band of blue through the other white stripes to signify support and importance of (armed) police to the overall social stability. Another version swaps the blue line for a red one to signify firefighters and paramedics responding to emergencies. Once in a while a porch flies a 13-star, colonial era flag (stars in a circle, Betsy Ross design) to signify "getting back to purest, original principles of the Declaration of Independence, article of confederation and the U.S. Constitution" (implying that 2024 conditions and amendments and legal wrangling, federal budget size, etc are wrong). Much rarer are the "don't tread on me" yellow flag with the serpent made of 13 segments to show the power of the united colonies against outside forces. Also rare: flying the USA modern flag upside down as a signal of distress - not of the householder, but that person's interpretation of international headlines and domestic events. 

Looking at the photo in this case, though, it is very likely to be a particularly dark fabric dye for navy blue; not a political statement or outburst of barbaric yawp that paints a dark picture against which the stars shine especially brightly. Playing with colors and symbols makes possible multiple interpretations; more than one meaning at the same time, depending on the standpoint of the viewer. This flag's condition could mean a range of figurative or symbolic meanings and also be nothing more than the buyer seeking out the deepest blue they could find for no other reason than to withstand fading of the sun in summer and winter, day after day. Still, there is some use in speculating untethered from the house owner's perspective. That is because the ocean of Internet, print, and broadcast information and entertainment intersects with education and personal reflection in any given moment's particular Public Discourse; a sea of meanings that exist simultaneously in the eyes of those expressing the matter and those reading or responding to the matter. By probing the many kinds of possible meaning, not just confined to the specific case of the particular person, the larger pool of images and words also can be joined.

Strange cult of (false) power - gunshot sounds

 

bullet-looking private listening to block out the world

Even though most people seem to move about on rubber tires in 2 or 3,000 pound vehicles of glass and steel, a few can be seen on foot. That is the pace that allows one to gather up recycling litter and other debris like this pair of earbuds that seem to have a damaged wire. Many listeners have switched to bluetooth, wireless earbuds, prone to falling out of the ear. But others continue to use plug-in miniature speakers like these. However, most designs are sleek and futuristic; not shaped like things seen elsewhere around the society like the bullet shaped (and sized) design in the above photo.

Leaving aside the audio specifications and listening experience contained in this electronic gear, the fact that listeners would pay for this design; and that manufacturers (and retailers) would see a market to pitch to brings several thoughts to mind. One is about the attraction of gun references in popular culture: on lunch boxes, bumper stickers and T-shirts, car window decals, social media #meme art, and so on. How can it be that something causing so much harm by accident, self-harm, and used in the commission of property and personal crime also is so prominent, seemingly normal and even desirable. Perhaps there is allure in the old idea that by holding something just a trigger-pull away from murder, there comes projected threat and power in one's own control, despite the statistics that show the one pulling the trigger many times is the one wounded or worse. 

Since this pair of earbuds was discarded near a combined high school and middle school a few weeks before the school year ends, maybe the already uncertain nature of rapid social change in-person and online is compounded through the lens of individual change of puberty and high-stakes social status and personhood that comes in the hallways, classrooms, cafeterias and locker rooms of teenage school years. In other words (leaving aside the subset of pressures for gangs and territory and violence), when the society leaves a person feeling disempowered and the music or podcast listener also is in a life phase of low-agency (parents, teachers, bosses, police and judges dictating the rules), then the symbolism of wearing bullet-shaped earbuds says something like, "keep your hands and your rules and your scrutiny off me" or else I'll resort to bullets.

Second, the plastic body to which the black silicon earpieces are attached has been shaped and colored in facsimile to .45 caliber bullets, short and fat. In this case the dimple where the firing pin hits the primer to fire the projectile indicates the shot has been fired. Is that detail meant to amplify the authentic look; or is it part of product narrative - as if the old brass has been repurposed to hold electronics, making a kind of pun: now powerful sound comes from the brass where there once came a powerful kinetic blast.

Third, maybe there is a baked-in ambivalence expressed in visual, non-verbal communication. By showing others you are not afraid of bullets and that you routinely handle them, in a kind of (anti) halo effect, you insinuate yourself with an aura of danger and of skirting the law in willful exertion of individual, ego-centered celebration of self: unfettered by polite (civil) society, trust, courtesy, and rules of status quo that seem only to support and extend the life chances of people with knowledge, (inherited wealth) money, authority and power.

Probably there are still more standpoints to take when interpreting the attraction of accessories to wear for others to see, while also functioning as musical and spoken word devices. But the fields of meaning that are connected to imagined power to affect the attitudes and actions of others, in the context of social changes and uncertainties of status, and the weekly news events of gun violence at mass or at personal scale, does indeed shed light on why such designs are manufactured, retailed, and are then purchased by (young) people in 2024 in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

 

Life is Good, so it says

 

Consumer drabness pierced by pithy strings of philosophy like this.

In the dollar store parking lot this jeep displayed a bit of encouragement to anyone who cared to read the text on the spare tire cover, people stopped behind the truck at a stop light, neighbors passing the person's home, or those passing by in this parking lot. Like most aphorism, the short exhortation can be read a couple of different ways: stay true mean could "don't lie or make reality any more complicated than it is already," or stay true could mean "keep doing what you are trying and don't be daunted," or it could mean a compass reference for guiding one's path by reference to the unchanging North Star - hold your course heading.

"Life is Good" is a folk expression to remind others to pause from their stringing, anxiety, and preoccupying thoughts to admire and appreciate the many good things that surround the person, both the ones that are apparent and obvious, but also the things often overlooked or taken for granted. A line of casual clothing also features this friendly line. But seeing it on the back of a Jeep and paired with the "stay true" saying is much less commonly seen.

When daily routines are filled with money, price comparisons, recurring bills to pay, and many temptations urging the person to buy still more stuff, it can come as a refreshing pause to spot a bit of folk wisdom - commercialized or hand-made - and to reflect on the possible meaning of itself, but also as it intersects the person's thoughts in that place at that time; like some spellbound messenger that captures the person's attention for a moment.

It would be interesting to know the kinds of motivations and models that shaped the designer's patterns here. Perhaps there is an earnest wish to tap the shoulder of strangers and offer them some perspective: when times are tough, this keepsake miniature message is there to offer encouragement and a larger perspective on the aggregate of Human Experience. Or maybe the primary focus is to seize upon a compact catch-phrase that will fit on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and tumblers to add a dash of glitter and (potentially cliched, worn-out) sophisticatedness to their lives and (selfie, self-admiring, self-gauging) lifestyles. The driving force in the designer and the layers of management signing off their approval can be a mix of both of these, and others, too.

There is no need to excavate the meanings, though, to read it at face value and enjoy whatever the reader may take away from the unexpected encounter with the message.

How to celebrate 100 years as a small city - 1931 in Lowell, Michigan

 

Michigan cities local history series*, "Images of America - Lowell" (zip 49331)

As part of the 100-year celebration of the founding of modern-day Lowell, Michigan in 1931, only a year and a half into the Great Depression (October 1929) the caption to the upper photo lists the special events and exhibitions organized for entertainment and edification of visitors and residents alike. How different will things be arranged in 2031, by comparison? At the centennial celebration the first day included an ox roast, crowning the Centennial Queen, band concert, baseball game, a hot-air balloon ascension, and a pageant of progress to end the evening with a look back at 100 years. For the second day there was a parade, addresses by dignitaries, a ball game and another pageant. On the last day they held a mass picnic, a reunion of current and former residents, dancing, singing, and exhibits. There is no mention of radio or print journalism gathering stories or special pamphlets and publications, photobooths or the carnival rides and games captured by pictures in this book. But in the time before TV and Internet, the airwaves for radio and the words of newspaper writers helped to document and report stories like these to surrounding towns and villages.

Jumping ahead to 2024 it is hard to imagine all of the same undertakings being expected or allowed to proceed due to caution about large crowds spreading Covid or attracting domestic terrorist groups or mass shooters. The social fabric has a few of the old threads but is largely woven into different patterns to give a much flimsier durability and texture than in 1931. This big event almost 100 years ago presents a kind of mirror for reflecting on the present. What they recognized as 'dignitary' might be more readily understood today as 'celebrity' or 'influencer', for instance. Parades are far less common now that so many people own personal automobiles, sometimes hugely expensive things depreciating by the day. And with so many people with jet travel experience for business or pleasure, the pass of parades is not so interesting or thrilling to impatient and multi-tasking people with fragmented attention spans and weighed down by debt, social anxiety, and dark imaginings about future uncertainties as consumers striving in a race to the bottom quality and prices. With the contagion of Artificial Intelligence echoing back and infiltrating all sorts of unexpected places and times, the task of building and protecting trust becomes all the more difficult.

Like any good history book, this slim set of photos and extended captions stirs interest in bygone times, places, and people. But it also invites comparison to today's livelihoods, aspirations, and range of experiences. On the one hand things change a lot. But on the other hand, the well-worn saying still holds truth, "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" (the more that things change, the more that they stay the same). The words change but the song remains the same when it comes to a lifetime of striving, dreams, temptations, stresses and reliefs.

*Authored by Lisa Barker Plank with the Lowell Area Historical Museum

Show me the money - not cash, though

 

Credit card (top) and several digital payment alternatives accepted for online pizza order 1/2024

In the mood for pizza, I noticed the neighborhood kiosk gave $8.99 as the carry-out price for a large pizza with 1-item added. Out of curiosity before telephoning my order, I tried the online order website and discovered the same pizza in the Specials tab for $7.99 so I went through the ordering process there. After selecting crust (original), sauce (original), toppings (normal vs. extra; whole spread vs. half covered in A and the other half in B), it was time to review the order and proceed to the form of payment (above screenshot). 

There are probably many more services to broker digital payment based on smartphone app than the ones above, but this franchise pizza shop has chosen all of these in addition to credit (and debit) cards. These days a few establishments boldly state at the entrance they accept no cash: all transactions must take some form of electronic payment. Probably "no cash" also implies no personal checks, either, since the burden of proceeds being paid in check or cash means that the owner must travel to a bank for deposit, or to pay an armored car to make that trip safely. As one small business owner put it, "all forms of payment have a fee or cost," if not a percentage given up to the app or 3rd party, then the value of one's time and the risk of banking in person. So whether it is the 2 to 4% that the business loses to financial service companies who mediate the transaction, or it is the value of one's own time for record-keeping, taxes, and travels to the bank for petty cash and for deposits, there is always part of the transaction with customers that retailers lose.

Back in the 1950s a few oil companies would issue cards of credit to customers buying gas at a branded, company gas station. Later some department stores issued cards in their name. After that the big banks began to offer their biggest or best customers a line of revolving credit on the monthly billing cycle, a sort of perpetual short-term loan one month after another. As more and more consumers gained discretionary income and mail order (catalog and telephone) shopping expanded, more and more people applied for bank cards; some carried more than one card. Once the battle for sign-ups among banks took off in the 1980s, bigger and bigger incentives to apply emerged. Consumers could cancel one card and initiate another one to roll over balances due and also to collect the incentives available for airline mileage credits, cash-back, sign-up bonus, and so on.

By the late 1980s or early 1990s a new product was invented for telecommunication orders, particularly attractive to people with difficulty meeting credit card requirements. This was the advent of debit cards in which the purchase electronically debited one's checking account almost instantly. There would be no monthly statement with balance due because the payment would have been directly taken from the account holder's funds at point of sale. The old-school credit card in its many guises (from bank, airline, hotel chain, restaurant, catalog merchant, etc) and the newer debit card dominated the field of electronic payment and recordkeeping until the spread of smartphones and apps with a family resemblance to credit cards. 

The first smartphones began to appear in retail stores and online in USA around 2005, but only a fraction of people carried any kind of cellphone for daily personal use, and few could see the appeal or value of a smartphone costing many times more than the older cellphones. But with innovation cycles accelerating, more and more people became used to seeing others on TV or in real life talking on cellphones and keeping one charged up and its subscription paid up. Among cellphone users, more and more bought a smartphone. The idea of misplacing one's phone and potentially exposing to strangers (or hackers) any financial details or personal information kept smartphone users from whole-heartedly depositing sums in a digital wallet, much as app designers and retailers wanted the purchasing pace to speed up. 

During the first years of Covid-19, from spring 2020 into spring 2023, so much of work, school, and personal life was mediated by online meetings and transactions that the presence and convenience of digital money began to enter some of the smartphone users' minds. But for those growing up with coins and paper notes, legal tender backed by "the full faith and credit of the United States of America," the ease of payment was simultaneously the ease of being hacked or cleverly talked into losing control of those funds by various forms of scam, phishing, or fake communications that spoof the name of a trusted friend or family member.

So this screenshot of the handful of contenders for digital payment is an ongoing experiment to see which brand will attract most users, biggest dollar aggregated sales, common use by retailers and the frequent app support they depend on. Maybe 12 months from now the field will narrow, or some of those visible above will disappear through merger and acquisition and a different contender will be in the line-up. Expanding the financial service providers over and over soon leads to "paralysis by analysis" (too much information to think about; too many choices). Maybe a year from now a backlash will see cash return and digital payment disappear. By contrast, urban South Korea and many parts of the People's Republic of China are thriving with digital wallets; doubtless with growing pains, scams, and identity theft, etc, but yet something they press onward to some natural conclusion.

A related transformation in financial matters is the cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Some national treasuries (PRC, Central Bank digital currency, USA "FedNow" epayments) are exploring the idea of limited (special context) use digital national currency for paying taxes and issuing monthly social security checks or for health insurance matters (Medicaid, Medicare), as an example. Whether it is consumer transactions face to face and from a distance, or it is financial affairs between citizen and central government, the landscape of payment and storing wealth is slowly changing.

City 2024 budget for social fabric mending and extending

 

from city of Grand Rapids, MI newsletter, January 12, 2024

This morning the city council's newsletter came by email and included the following text.

55 special events on tap now through mid-summer

The City Commission approved $209,085 in General Fund sponsorships for 55 events planned in Grand Rapids now through June 30. The special events sponsorship awards are allocated from budgeted event support/reactivation dollars made available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). These 55 events are being put on by not-for-profit, non-governmental organizations or people who have applied for funding through the Special Events Sponsorship Program and confirmed their dedication to holding open, free, and accessible events on public property in Grand Rapids that support the City’s mission, vision and strategic priorities.

By making a screenshot and then color-coding the kinds of things worth city financial support, a sort-of mirror shows the aspirations of the elected officials and the perspiration of the community organizations and businesses dedicated to bringing residents and visitors together. Although this typology of events is based purely on imagined content, based on the title of each, it may not be entirely accurate, but does distill some of the ways that modern society can still bring fragmented attention spans and unbalanced work-life conditions temporarily in repair through face-to-face mingling and meeting of others seen in the neighborhood or in other city contexts.

TYPOLOGY OF CITY-FUNDED EVENTS IN 2024

visual, performing art
charity, fund-raising
physical activity
mental wellness
food-centric
parade, visibility
neighbor/community gathering
ethic celebration
market/crafts

One way to appreciate the value of these many kinds of happenings is to imagine a city lacking such semi-structured public opportunities to interact with others in civil society: not work pals nor kin folk, but strangers who share a few basic facts of common environment and shared geography of cultural landmarks and annual cycle of events around the city.

Social observers and commentators describe "social fabric" usually in the sense of wearing thin, breaking or tearing. This metaphor is close to people's skin; it is personal and tangible. But as a metaphor, it points to the intangible layers of recognition, admiration, blame or praise - tacit or outspoken among people of a particular place and time. Social fabric that is strong or well woven can withstand stress and sudden shock, but weaker stuff unravels or breaks altogether. In this sense, the budget allocated for these 55 public happenings encourages participation and spectating by the great and the ordinary. It is a way to expand, deepen, and add detail to previous relationships to add conversations and possibly names to what previously might only consist of passing visual recognition of some of the people around the city. Although difficult to measure or even to give indirect indicators of the net effect of public events like these, surely there is more gained than lost by hosting so many kinds of things in and around the city.

Intersection of ideas, technique, and water of life

 

Long Island Buddha by Zhang Huan (2010–11) at Meijergardens.org

The traditions of Buddhism take many forms in 2024 and have followed many paths for centuries across the societies where practitioners carry out their lives of service and personal development. This large copper sculpture is located on the grounds of the Japanese-style garden in Grand Rapids, Michigan. With the late morning winter temperature hovering at or above the freezing line, some of the night snow is slowly melting, sending drops of water down the face in the most direct line to the Earth, according to the laws of gravity. So while the face is tilted, the effect is to create lines of meltwater in vertical trajectories across the facial features. 

One way to see this moment captured by camera lens is objectively: snow is melting and moving to the ground. Another way to see this photo is more poetically with supporting interpretation from social science, too: There is a vast literature and organizational culture (religious institutions) and folklore of Buddhism in its various traditions that is signaled by this sculptor's installation in what once had been an apple orchard before being developed as a botanical garden and sculpture park. And while some of those Buddhist things are tangible, there is also much more that is not visible: things like belief, ideals, aspirations, and lessons given by one's teachers. So in the frame of this picture is a hint of that vast iceberg of information, knowledge, and wisdom: a mountain of ideas that is below the surface, huge but intangible.

Turning to the craft of metal-smithing and ways to source, shape, and complete a sculpture in copper, this hearkens back to the time in the human story between the age of stone and the age of bronze (followed by the Iron Age). For a relatively short number of generations, there was a 'copper age' in which all-copper was used for tools and artworks. But by adding tin, then the resulting mix of bronze was stronger and more useful in shaping axes, swords, brooches, and so on. So this photo is not only a reminder of the massive traditions of Buddhism in many parts of the world today and for many generations before (and after), but the picture also points to the forerunner to the Iron Age inventions and innovations; the power of crafting things from hot, liquidy metal. Controlling metal is what much of urban life and hierarchical social life depends on.

Finally, there is the significance of melting snow forming wet streaks on the face of the Buddha represented in copper. On the one hand this religious figure stands for infinite compassion (bodhisattva figures embody this). So the wet streaks could be seen as tears: expressing sadness at the human waste of resources, of time, of goodwill, of trust, of habitats and the many creatures unable to survive when their habitats are spoiled or extracted. Or, more scientifically, the water could be seen as the active ingredient for oxidation, contributing to the breakdown (entropy) of the metal face, a process that will ultimately return the metal to the Earth. Related is the idea that "water is life," since creatures of the planet depend on water to live. By streaking the compassionate one in this life-giving substance the photo expresses the vitality of the Buddha's place in social life and personal growth.

Putting these many viewpoints together, this photo exists as a fraction of a second in the morning temperature rise from the night's snow to the noon melting of most snow coverings. But being meaning-makers by habit and by nature, viewers readily look for or attach meanings to the given facts of melting snow on the sculpted head. Taking a wide-angle view, this scene combines the ideas from Buddhist tradition, the technology history for civilization, and the emotive tears of that most ephemeral life substance - water- that freely moves between solid, liquid, and gas states of being within us and around us. Seen all together, this scene is at the intersection of beliefs, techniques, and impermanence itself: water.