Moving Day

This is another "classic" old photo from my archives. I took this with my Dad's camera in the 1970s, in his yard. Every once in a while we'd take the camera out and wander around, shooting whatever we saw. This particular shot is a pretty good depth-of-field experiment -- for a 12-year-old!

Today is the final leg of my protracted move out of New York City. Dave and I are taking a U-Haul into town this morning to retrieve my furniture, which I'd left in my apartment so it would show better. I'll be happy to have the rest of my stuff in New Jersey. This whole time many of my books and objets have been stored because we didn't have anywhere to put them, and our guest room has been a jumble of boxes and random, loose stuff. Now all that can be organized.

I can't remember whether I mentioned here that I do have a signed contract on the apartment. So within a few months the sale should close, and I'll be through with Manhattan expenses forever! Woo hoo!

Mosque

This rather nondescript graffiti is on the building near Ground Zero in New York that is slated to be torn down to make way for an Islamic cultural center.

In case you haven't been following this story, there's been a tremendous amount of controversy over the proposed construction of this center, which will include a mosque. Some people have argued that a mosque doesn't belong near Ground Zero, where so many lost their lives in 2001 to Muslim fanatics.

The proponents of the center, though, say that's exactly why it should go near Ground Zero -- to address Islamic fanaticism with a more moderate, reasoned approach that represents the vast majority of the world's Muslims.

There was a proposal to landmark the existing building in order to block the center, and that recently failed. (I gotta say, having seen the building, there's not a whole lot to recommend landmark status.)

On the wider issue, I side with the supporters of the Islamic center. I was as surprised as anyone when even the Anti-Defamation League, an organization devoted to fighting intolerance, came out in opposition to the center's placement near Ground Zero. (I suspect they were afraid of losing membership and financial backing if they decided otherwise.)

To my way of thinking, tolerance always wins. It may not win in the short term, and there are plenty who will seek the protection and benefits of a tolerant society while simultaneously working against it.

I'm aware that as a gay man, I would be treated pretty badly by many religious Muslims -- killed outright in some Muslim countries.

But I still believe that in the long run, the way to defeat extremism -- of all stripes, Muslim, Christian and otherwise -- is to accept and make room for all people, and model a tolerant society. By living it, we can show it is indeed the best way to live, which takes a lot of the appeal away from any extremist cause.

Muslims were obviously critical players in the events of 9/11, and those events were as much a tragedy and a disaster for moderate Islam as for the rest of us. Why shouldn't the Muslim community be able to address 9/11 and its ramifications at Ground Zero, and in their own way?

Purple Cup Series

Going through more old photos, I came across this fun series from December 1986. I had a light purple mug that I loved at the time, and one day I noticed that it almost precisely matched a groovy old '70s bedsheet that belonged to my family. (This is the kind of thing that excites a design-conscious 20-year-old experimenting with photography.)



I took the mug and sheet to my mom's house, where I had room to work in the front yard. I spread out the sheet in different ways, and played with perspective, light and texture.




This series is actually much larger, but these are the only prints I saved. I think I used an entire roll of film on the cup and sheet. I still have the negatives somewhere. I no longer have the cup or the sheet. (Which is too bad, because I totally dig that groovy sheet.)

Ruby, Part 3

We got some bad news yesterday about Ruby, one of our boxers. You may remember that for several months now, she's had a swollen belly that appears to be filled with fluid. Definitely not a normal situation!

A recap: When we first took her to the vet, we were told she probably had cancer. But when the vet was unable to pinpoint any tumors by x-ray or ultrasound, or to find cellular evidence of cancer, we decided the swelling was probably a side effect of Ruby's arthritis medication. We decided to stop going to that vet, and just withdraw the medicine. Unfortunately, the swelling didn't subside.

We took her to a different vet a few weeks ago, and that vet suspected a steroid imbalance called Cushing's Disease. That diagnosis turned out to be incorrect, too.

Finally, after all our recent travels, we took her back to the second vet on Wednesday and again yesterday. They ran more tests, including a second ultrasound of her abdomen and, this time, her chest. They found a lime-sized tumor on her heart, perhaps a hemangiosarcoma, which has reduced her heart function and is growing inside the pericardial sac, which surrounds the heart.

The vet said this tumor will kill her, but he's not sure when. He suspects it will rupture and bleed, and she will probably collapse and die quickly. Meanwhile, she is in no pain and is unaware of the problem. She has slowed down a bit, but she still eats and runs and seems to enjoy life. While at Dave's parents' house several nights ago, she ate two huge steak bones!

So we've decided for the time being to just let her be. Hopefully the end will come as the vet suspects, and we'll be spared having to make a decision to end her life.

I'm sorry to hear this diagnosis, but I'm not surprised. When the swelling failed to subside after we withdrew her medicine, I had a feeling something serious was going on. What confounded me was the fact that she didn't behave like she was sick.

So, anyway, who knows how long she has. Weeks? Months? But what better way to go than quickly, unaware of impending death?

(Photo: Vents in a wall in Saugatuck, Mich.)

Art History

My old film photographs show that I've long had a tendency to take pictures of light and shadow. It's fun to look back at old shots like these and see that my eye was at work even then.

The photo above I took in the tiny town of Madison, Fla., when my friend Suzanne and I drove there in 1986 or '87. Those chairs were on the front porch of a nursing home. I had a framed copy of this photo on my wall for years.


When I lived in my first Tampa apartment in college, I ate off a metal tray table. Here it is, with my Walk-Man and two stray pieces of corn. (1985)


I eventually moved to a much better apartment near Tampa Bay, where my kitchen floor was covered with these black and white tiles. The evening sun threw shadows of my houseplants across the floor and, in this case, my shoes. (1991)


In high school, I was proud of my colorful collection of polo shirts. (1984)


My grandmother had an assortment of colorful glassware on shelves in her living room window. Here's some of it. My brother now has the red vase and the two blue pieces -- I'm not sure what happened to the clear ones. (1983)


I took this photo of a grain elevator while driving through Alberta, in the prairie town of Claresholm, if I remember right. (1990)

Home

A long 11-hour drive brought us home again last night, much to our relief. It felt so good to drive up our street and into our parking lot, and to discover that our houseplants had weathered our absence and the apartment was just as we'd left it. After we unloaded the car and ordered some Chinese food, I made the best gin & tonic I've had in a long time. Ah, home!

There's not much to say about the drive itself. We stopped for lunch at another truck stop in Pennsylvania, where the buffet was loaded with beige food -- and red, red Jell-o. Fortunately I like canned sweet potatoes and fried chicken!

The dogs are happy to be home, too. Poor Ernie panted heavily for the last half of the drive, obviously stressed out. The back seat was partly loaded with stuff so he and Ruby didn't have as much space as usual, and I think he thoroughly hated being in the car that long. (Poor Ruby is off to the vet today for another look at her swollen abdomen, so she goes from one trauma to another.)

We had to come back from Michigan a day earlier than we'd originally planned because I need to be in New York today to sign a contract of sale for my apartment. Woo hoo! And then tomorrow I have a job interview. When it rains it pours!

My one regret is that I didn't get to visit my friends Ann and Greg in Pittsburgh, which I'd hoped to do on the return trip. We just ran out of time. They have three daughters who I haven't seen in many years, so I'll have to make another trip one of these days to catch up with them.

(Photo: Painted rocks near Dave's old condo in Portage, Michigan.)

Homeward Bound

Dave and I are setting out bright and early this morning for New Jersey. We've had fun on this trip, but as always with vacations, we're looking forward to getting back to our home and our routines.

We drove through Grand Rapids on the way back to Detroit, so I could see Dave's former home turf. He lived there for six years or so, and showed me his old house as well as lots of local landmarks, like the giant Alexander Calder sculpture in the middle of downtown. Then we drove back across the state to stay with his family.

Dave's parents have been great to me and I've enjoyed their hospitality. Dave hoped they'd be more enthusiastic about our recent civil union -- we didn't get even a "congratulations" -- but given their religious background I feel very accepted. They're very good-natured with me and I've shared in family stories and discussions. I feel like we've been congratulated, at least as far as they're able. I was afraid my reception might be far chillier.

We've loaded the car with more of Dave's stored belongings, mostly kitchen stuff and CDs, which we (I) will organize when we get back to New Jersey. We also discarded a lot of his stuff here -- and stuff belonging to his former partner, and that partner's former partner -- which will become fodder for garage sales by his parents. Vintage Ricky Nelson LPs, anyone?

(Photo: Lockers at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.)