Some? I have many privileges, so many in fact that it’s unsettling. I am a white, middle class, well-educated American and I have all that I need to live comfortably as I enter retirement. As a practicing Quaker, I am committed to fostering peace and advancing human rights and supporting social justice initiatives wherever possible. (Gosh, that sentence felt too easy to write.) That’s relatively easy given my location on the planet, so my wife and I support selective organizations that work to protect and educate children globally, especially girls, in places where it is needed most.

I have had a long, fulfilling career of working directly with young people and their parents who were disadvantaged in various ways. Today, I continue some of this in much smaller ways as opportunity arises. I have the privilege of time and the ability to use my photography and writing to comfort, nurture and bring some measure of help or happiness to a circle of people who either read my blog or to whom I correspond with directly. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like much at all. And yet, when I hear back from someone who writes at 2 AM, who lays bare all that they’re feeling and struggling with, that connection and my response becomes the most important thing in the world.
– Kevin

Well, I am not feeling ungrateful or less grateful in the least than I did one day or one week ago. But I am feeling the need to stave off boredom as I continue to recover from back surgery. I am still, as expected, dealing with a fair amount of recovery pain so that it makes it hard to get into a creative groove doing the things I enjoy doing. I can only sit in a recliner for about ten minutes before I need to move around. Same goes for being on the floor or the couch. Even our dog Gracie, I think, is getting tired of following me all around the house! Kind of funny when I think of it!

Who doesn’t need my compassion right now? There are so many areas of need and ways that people are suffering, within my community and across the globe at any given moment that it’s difficult to even know where to begin.

Like many people the world over, I cherish the writings and selective words of Eli Wiesel. Among my favorites, which relates to today’s question, is this:

“But where was I to start? The world is so vast, I shall start with the country I know best, my own. But my country is very large. I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had better start with my street. No, my home. No, my family. Never mind. I shall start with myself.”

Professionally, and no matter what the presenting issues were, I learned early on to park every therapeutic model of counselling until I had explored the following three foundational elements with my youthful clients: Self-care, self-love and self-compassion. I kept Wiesel’s quote above framed on my office wall and many teens requested a copy to take with them when they left. I never wondered why.
– Kevin

If my own particular strengths and gifts that I am known for came up in a broader context of conversation with others during a time of mutual sharing, then I would feel at ease in naming them. But to tick off my own attributes for the sake of answering a rather flat and sterile question for June 18, to be honest, makes me feel uncomfortable. Overall, I know where my strengths and my weaknesses reside, and one informs the other. I try to live into the strengths that I have and from time to time when others name those strengths it affirms that I am putting my energy and talents in the right places.
– Kevin

If I truly were able to meet every experience of this new day without expectations then I’m guessing that I would be delightfully satisfied all day. And if that is the intended meaning of this question, then I get it. However, most of the time I arrive at each new experience with at least some expectations already baked in. I believe that some of this is just human nature. In addition, it seems to me that some measure of forethought, longing, hope and desire and pre-calculation are also hidden ingredients of each new experience even though we may not be aware of it.
– Kevin

You bet! And for starters, the article about Father’s Day that Gratefulness.org asked me to submit, entitled “I Am Rich, Very Rich, In Daughters,” speaks directly to today’s Daily Question. (The piece is posted today in the blog section.)

Moving onward into a new day, I am grateful just to wake up today, to breathe, to have my little plan for things to do today. Right now I get to sit here and hold in prayer a few dear friends who are struggling with health issues, who for sure are not cherishing this leg of their life journey, which is where I and we come in, to “pray them through,” The very idea that we can hold others, in prayer and in thought is ‘how’ I cherish the journey given me today.
– Kevin

Hello Jill, thanks for sharing your thoughts here. I am sorry that you were made to feel unwelcome by the comment of someone on that particular photographer’s photo blog site. And, I am not surprised that such a comment was made, either. I have to wonder if the person who made that comment to you was also feeling guilty, because he knew you were right. Many shooters struggle with the “take” aspect of their craft without giving anything at all back. I know a couple of Quaker pro photographers who make it their mission to always square their faith with their work, and make a point to find ways to give back, even if it is in ways that showcase the plight of a population that helps to bring relief and/or change. There are many other high profile shooters out there that do the same thing but choose not to draw attention to it, even.

In the past I have belonged to various such sites for serious armature and pro shooters. I no longer belong to any of them. I could be criticized for not knowing all the things that my cameras can do, and such sites do help us to learn from one another. But you have to weed through the egos, the gear heads, and the show-offs to find the real teachers who do teach and who help others learn. These days, I prefer to associate with sites (like this one) that feed the heart and soul and in turn inspire me to approach my photography (and writing) in new ways that I might not have considered otherwise.
I know about Luci Lights and the idea of giving them away like that is wonderful. When I travel out of the US I keep a roll of $1 bills in my pocket and if I take an image of a disadvantaged person I offer to give them a few bucks in return. Surprisingly, while some of these people were pleased to be offered a small payment, some refuse also. after which I make sure to make eye contact, perhaps shake their hand and say ‘thank you.’

It is my sense that there should always be more than just snapping the shutter. There needs to be an exchange of some sort. I am reminded of the little story of the photographer who once asked a Navajo mother if he could take her child’s picture. The mother replied, “Yes, but before you do, you must touch my boy, then you may take his picture. A child who is untouched will be unlucky.”

There it is again, the need for connection, giving, touching, because taking images without it is just a quiet form of thievery. I blog at RiseThisDay.com, and my photos are at kevinleephotography.com. Keep shooting, Jill, with one finger on the shutter and the other on your heart.