Lieutenant John

Lieutenant John is old. It sucks to get old in this country. Our society is obsessed with youth, sex, and power, and we shun old age and decay. Isn't it terrifying that we discard old people when their working life is finished and they are no longer useful? Isn't it disturbing that we cast them into old people's homes, where they die lonely and abandoned? Sometimes I think that the most affluent and powerful countries of the developed world are like the realm of the gods described in the Buddhist teachings. The gods are said to live lives of fabulous luxury, reveling in every conceivable pleasure, without a thought for the spiritual dimension of life. All seems to go well until death draws near, and unexpected signs of decay appear. Then the gods' wives and lovers no longer dare approach them, but throw flowers to them from a distance, with casual prayers that they be reborn again as gods. None of their memories of happiness or comfort can shelter them now from the suffering they face; they only make it more savage. So the dying gods are left to die alone in misery.

DOG

Dog backwards spells God. I met God in a small kitchen just down the street from my loft in San Francisco. He told me he still loves you. And that I couldn't have Cash in his kitchen because if the health inspector walked in he would kill him. So I left. I snapped this photo on the way out. Watching Cash strut home I thought about being a dog, about living my life in the moment, seizing every opportunity for what it's fully worth and not worrying about tomorrow or yesterday because worrying solves nothing. Living in the now. I like to think this will work because I play silly games in my head and now backwards spells won.