Arthur Frank

They used to call him Art. I met him in 2006 for the 1st time. We hardly got to know each other. Now he is gone at 93. A war veteran, he loved life, drove his car as long as they let him, danced as long as he could, and now he bid adieu to those who knew him.

Red river wrote:

Autumn’s last bird
Flew back home singing
The farewell song

NIU - A haiku

Red River wrote:

Sounds of gun
Bloodies temple of knowledge
Mysterious mind

Brooding - Life, Death, Attachment

Life is presence of activity, exercise of force on physical system. Death is absence of life, absence of forces. Attachment is an association to a physical system - animate or inanimate - causing emotional effect on the living. So a dead person lives on by its effect on others through attachment or memory as a transcendental affair. Those, who are never forgotten, become immortal.

Life and death are two sides of the same coin. Their coexistence is essential for the universal continuum. However, unlike birth, death is much less predictable regarding its time, space, cause, etc. In that sense life is truly fragile or unstable. Yet, attachment causes agony when life ceases. However, attachment is also at the root of procreation and maintenance of life. Without attachment, all will be hermits and parents will not raise babies with warmth and care. So, life, death, and attachment make a triangle of existence for living beings.

With passage of time, a certain detachment can allow one to face death of others with less agony and to carry on life with some ease until it ceases knowing that it is inevitable. There is no reason to fear death. As for after life, we can only hypothesize. For us mortals, there is only one life to live and since we do not know when death may knock on the door, we should responsibly live like there is no tomorrow.

The Mason-Dixon Line

Deserted steel-mill.
Along the Ohio River,
Chromatic butterfly.

(A haiku by James Dolan)

I love rivers and mountains. Just yesterday I was standing by the Ohio River (Ohio derives from the Iroquois Indian word meaning "good river" or "large river.") watching barges carrying coal to keep the power plants going and to keep the folks warm at a time like this. It was cold and windy. But we had a job to do. There were hills on either side of the river where we were. It was just like being on the bank of the big Red River I had left behind long time ago, except that there was no arctic wind back at the old place to freeze my finger tips. Anyway, this Ohio River is also referred to as the Mason-Dixon Line (after Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon) separating northern US and the southern US (Dixie). As we drove through the rolling hills of Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to find a route for a proposed pipeline to carry natural gas from the west to the east, we also stood by the Monongahela River and Youghioghenny River. The snow was white. The wind was blowing hard. But the hills stood tall watching the rivers below. And someday another steel pipe will cut through these hills and rivers trying to satisfy our appetite for energy. I am not sure of my role amongst people and nature anymore.