How Much do You Need

The pace at which modern culture at times rushes and races leaves us breathless...

 

There is next the menace of consumerism that has become part and parcel of modern culture. Like a raging forest fire, it devours all in its wake, and us as well, so that far from being the masters of what we possess, we are in turn reduced to being its slaves. Instead of possessing, we are possessed by the things we own.

 

We live and thrive in a manner in which we talk about so many things but really when it comes down to it – at what point do we have no beneficial factor of all that we want.   

 

We have divided the world into classes and categories: some belong to the first, others to the second, and still others to a third world.

Possibly, there might be categories and grades lower than these...And what is the prime criterion for this discrimination and classification?

 

Are human beings higher or lower in the social layer mainly because they pertain to different economic levels? Is the stature of a person gauged by the size of his or her pocket?

 

While The City Sleeps

Nearing the time of Christmas within the city these are some of a few vantages of only one part of the city. They say a city sleeps, however some of the most conceptual photography is taken at night.

Various Pictures

Variety of pictures...

Within A World of Being Proud

Pride is the energy level aspired to by many of our kind in our times. In contrast to the various levels of energy levels within that nature of mankind – pride is far enough removed from shame, guilt, or fear.  Pride generally has a good reputation and is socially encouraged.  Yet pride is only distinguished due to its contrast shame, guilt and fear.

The problem, as some may know is that “Pride goeth before a fall.” 

Pride is a defensive and very vulnerable.  Due to the nature of how pride is dependant on being dependent upon external conditions.  The inflated ego is vulnerable to attack.  Pride remains week because it can be knocked off its pedestal back to shame, which is the threat that fires the fear of loss of pride.  The downside of pride is arrogance and denial. These characteristics lock the growth pattern of any culture, person.  I thought I would write this as all to often we all have something to be proud about, yet within the growth of being proud of what we have done. We never wished to become locked into an area where by we find ourselves hindered by our own making.

I met with a person that I knew recently that knew me. He knew me in business from some years ago. And we sat down and were talking and his desire was to get the inside of which I knew with regards to some people that are rather successful in business. And as well, he was inquisitive as to where and what I was planning on doing. As he asked me about these men, I just listened and moved around the questions in a manner that didn’t really tell him anything regarding them.  As for myself – without being arrogant, or coming across this way, I laughed to myself as I understood that this person merely wanted to know more regarding whom I was – what I was now, and where and what I intended on doing within business. 

How I have changed since the times in which he had not really known me but had seen me speak and as well ironically worked with some people that worked along with me.

Coming back to the area of neutrality…sometimes one reaches a point of maturity, which brings about a change and growth within what they do, and how they do it.  Am I the same person I was – no. Am I the person I am now? Do I enjoy things in a much different manner than I did before? Will I bring about a change that I find to be of satisfaction without the need to be noticed in life?  In my own manner and in my own way I know the answers to my own questions. Why? I flow with areas in a manner that I didn’t earlier in my life.  And I am not in the same "rat pack", I am different in some manner. It’s not about pride - it's about something more.

I think that when we hang up the pride factor, we continue to learn and we move in a manner of “quality surplus”. We collect things that support what we are doing within what ever we are embarking on and we don’t need to tell the entire world. Business is pride based, to a large extent position is everything. How many times I have seen men – aspire for titles and younger men look to aspire for that title. However when they retire, they don’t know what to do with their life. Still to this day there are two older gentlemen that are competing with each other to see who takes the most with them. They are very proud, and as well their son’s have come to be very proud.  I wonder what would take place if their entire empires fell down.  Would they be able to survive?  Would the second generation be able to bounce back up? Some would and some wouldn’t.

Within a world of so much pride – I think that women generally don’t thrive on this pride factor.  Men often thrive to have a worth that is based on many things – but most of all pride.  I am a man but I enjoy life more than I did one year ago. I am not a people pleaser, but I do find the satisfaction in stepping outside of my own realm and mixing with all different people. Of course I have the same basic needs and wants as any person. Everything in life is not based on entirely on titles, or too much pride.  Maybe it’s more about understanding the value of life while continuing with what we all do in life. A high energy level would include love, friendships, aspirations, and understanding.
Yet we all are proud to different extents. It’s the nature of a person, but perhaps all to often we get so caught up in our own selves that we forget who surrounds us – during all times and occasions within our lives.  For we each have our own prerogatives, and we all have the ability to be so into ourselves that we can’t enjoy the areas that are of importance to ourselves.  Thriving on pride seems to be something that would bring about a downside.  Living with a variety of things within life – give way to something more than thriving on pride.  Efficiency is doing the thing right.  Effectiveness is doing the right thing.

~ Living within A Neutral Manner ~

Energy becomes very positive as we get to that level we term as neutral, because it’s epitomized by release of the areas that typically have us function at lower levels.  Our consciousness tends to see dichotomies and takes on rigid positions where things become more complicated in a complicated world that is with many factors, rather than black and white.  We thrive on things being exact. But is there an exact to everything in life. I would say that while I write this in no manner could that be however it’s the level of neutrality that we adhere to which leads to a manner that is simply neutral.

For myself I have come to some neutrality, I have actually carried it out the past month and a few weeks. So often I refer to it as just “going with the flow”.

In the last month and some, I can honestly say I have rendered a neutral manner – a flow. I do believe that people living within a neutral manner render something more. They render something that is contentment. Contentment leads to happiness.  I was content to merely just go and get shopping done in the morning and then to just finish up things as much as time permits. I just flow with it.  I had met with a business person that I didn’t realize that I had know early on in my late 20’s and he knew me from all that I had done within my work. However that all being said, he was trying to get more of the “inside news” on a few people that are half retired now.  And silence is golden.  I find that there are areas that are viable to break, but within it all I maintain that cadence.

The level of awareness comes with age or perhaps it’s with maturity. But I have literally been able to get to an area that took two years of obligatory and now as I know from a distance that my father will be having another CT Scan. I function in a manner that is acceptance.  Acceptance is not something that is about passivity, which would tend to lead towards apathy. To the contrary, acceptance leads to one enabling engagement on one’s own terms.  But is life complicated – yes it is however there is always a manner from which we gain, change, and re-arrange our own cadence within our own flow.  Nothing within our lives stays consistently the same. Tomorrow I have another meeting and what will come from it, I am not sure but I flow with it. 

We determine our own human behavior I suppose.

*This picture was taken while I was driving throughout the city yesterday and I wished to bring along the camera and catch some shorts that have a vantage and angle that represent something, but my focus was not exactly to do it – if I was not able to do it, that was all fine. Ironically there was a small marriage going on and security allowed me to go up into the balcony area to take some pictures.

A Video of the St. Joseph’s Basilica.avi

While downtown today I thought I would go in and take some pictures of this historical Church....

St. Joseph Basilica Cathedral

The Edmonton Catholics who built what is now called St. Joseph’s Basilica know all about tradition and patience. The grand building was erected some 45 years ago, but the dream actually began nearly 50 years before that when St. Joseph’s parish was founded. Early in the 20th century, English-speaking Catholics worshipped with Francophones at St. Joachim’s, which had been founded in 1854. But as English newcomers poured into the booming city, the need for another church became increasingly evident. And so St. Joseph’s was formed in 1913 by Most Rev. Emile Legal, first archbishop of Edmonton.
The following year, Father Alphonse Lemarchand, (brother of Rene Lemarchand, who was later to build the fantastic mansion apartment building on 100th Avenue and 116th Street), began to plan for a new church building just west of St. Joachim’s. A large basement was excavated and concreted over, but the First World War intervened and the project had to be abandoned.
It wasn’t until after the war, in 1924, that work began anew, but this time at a new location just south of Jasper Avenue and 113th Street. The cornerstone was laid November 4th, 1924.
A year later, the basement of the new cathedral was completed the cost of $140,000 and, services were held beginning March 22, 1925 in what came to be known as “the crypt.” It had room enough to seat 900.
That year, Archbishop Henry Joseph O’Leary chose St. Joseph’s as his cathedral church and it was also to become the cathedral of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical province of Edmonton, which stretches from the 49th parallel to the North Pole. Plans for a $250,000 grand stone cathedral atop the original structure were prepared by Edmonton architect Edward Underwood, who had also designed the Misericordia Hospital just a few blocks away. The building contract was awarded to Edmonton’s Poole Construction.
By November, site preparation was underway for a structure that would have been the largest in western Canada, with seating for 1,000. It was to feature twin towers and steeples 190 feet high and a central tower reaching 220 feet into the air.
But the Depression of the 1930’s and the Second World War again intervened to postpone their best laid plans. It wasn’t until 1957 that the church commissioned Montreal architect Henri S. Labelle create a new vision for the cathedral on the site.

Labelle and associate architect Eugene Olekshy of Edmonton came up with a Gothic-style building.
The intention was to extend the crept upwards but, as it had been built on what had formerly been a slough, cracks had developed, especially on the north side. In early 1961, the superstructure started to rise from the crypt. It measured 265 feet wide and 142 feet long and rose 90 feet in the air. There was room for seating for 1,239. The floors were ceramic tile, laid in patterns reminiscent of the early Roman basilicas. Interior walls and pillars were clad with a synthetic stone called “Haydite” to subdue sound.
The finished architectural masterpiece featured some of the finest materials available, including $300,000 of stained glass windows and $15,000 of gold inlaid stations of the cross, all imported from Germany. The gold ceramic backgrounds of the illustrations of Christ’s walk to Calvary were originally ordered by Hitler as decorations for lampposts for one of his rallies in Nuremberg.
The exterior was clad in Tyndall stone from Manitoba, the oak pews and panelling from Quebec, the marble altar from Barcelona, Spain, the tabernacle candlesticks from Dublin, Ireland and the carved wooden statues from Oberammergou, Germany. The crucifix was made by a German immigrant, living in Edmonton at the time and working out of a converted garage on the south side. The gallery organ was built by Casavant Freres of Quebec.
With furnishings, the final construction cost came in at just over $2 million. The church was officially opened on May 1, 1963, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
A fire, deliberately set in 1980, destroyed the altar and a large sculpted wooden cross, blacking the walls and stained glass windows and causing total damage of $500,000. Four years later, in honour of the visit of Pope John Paul II, the cathedral became the first designated Basilica west of Manitoba.

Among the many noteworthy events at the Basilica was the July 16,1988 wedding of Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky to Janet Jones.