Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace

Unless you are living next to this house....

Eau Claire Gothic

I made it to Eau Claire this weekend for a bit and got to relive some old memories and create some new, great memories. I saw this off of Water Street and was struck by the view.

More north

It was a different day today, with low hanging clouds and a dark and at times a dramatic sky. The lake reflected the sky's mood, though when the sun popped out for a few moments, it made a floating patch of ice almost glow. There are Tetzloff Christmas trees from Birch Tree Farms, too.

Up North...

Just a few photos from "up north." While the weather was less than ideal last night, today it was stellar, and perfect for a walk along the Amicon River. The dark sky was from a squall that was heading inland from the lake.

Identity

The other day a funny thing happened to me. I was leaving my office suite for a meeting and was, as usual, a moment or two late. As I was steaming down the hallway towards the meeting, I heard someone behind me bellow, "Dean! Dean! Dean!" After about the fifth time, I realized that the person wasn't looking to stop someone named Dean but rather was trying to call the Dean. In this case, the dean was not Dean but the dean was me.

I laughed out loud while waiting for the student, who just wanted the dean's signature on a form. But in the the past few days it has made me think of identity and name calling. My name is Jason, and seldom do I ever mention an honorific or earned title like dean or doctor or professor or even "mister." So it did surprise me to hear me called like a cow for dinner as "dean."

It did me think about titles and identity. Do I need to be called dean to be a dean, or professor instead of Jason to be a professor? I am not sure. Titles do define the relationship though I do feel that is for the better and for the worse. Maybe lines do need to be tightly drawn, and you do need to be the dean or doctor or pastor or mister or Ms or whatever just so that relationship is clear, defined, and that it becomes harder to cross that line. Maybe I would be more sure of myself or more certain of my role and of boundaries if if I kept that title in front of my name and in front of relationships, however defined.

I have rationalized my stance, correctly or not, in this way. If I need to wear a suit or for that matter, use a title to have people recognize that I am the dean and that I need and deserve the respect and those lines of deference or distance, than I might be in trouble already. It seems a ready escape to say, not unlike many of our parents, it is so/do this because I am the Mom/Dad/teacher/dean.

So I answer my phone with "this is Jason," and while I might list my title on my email tag, I think that I remain "Jason" for the most part. I will continue to be a bit surprised when people chase me down the hall trying to get "Dean" to stop. And I think that this is largely a good thing.

morning sky

I know that these photos are late and out of sequence but it was a magnificent morning sky a few weeks ago. These were taken with a $100 Nikon point and shoot, which just further confirms how great the sky was on that morning.

Leica photos

In 1977, I was in New York City for a UN study trip with my church. I was way too young to appreciate all that the city had to offer, but I was a big enough photo geek to appreciate that at that time, the city probably had more camera stores than any other city in the world. When I was there, I tried to go to as many as possible with the goal of buying a Leica. That I didn't know how to use one and did not have any real idea of all there was to the Leica line didn't stop me on this quest.

I kind of think its like your first car, and how you remember all the details, and the memory of that camera has stayed with me. It was a Leica IIIa with a serial number of about 175,000, and it came with an Elmar 50 mm lens. It was $225, which was a problem since I only had $200 to spend. After I came back the third or fourth time to moon or pine over the camera, the guy said OK, I'll sell it for $200--I think mostly to keep me from coming back and bugging him.

In the years since then, I guess I have owned 50 different Leicas, but they come and go, you know. I have looked for a Leica similar to that first one, but never found one that had the right serial number or they were too much money for a camera that would mostly sit on a shelf. Then, one showed up for pretty much the same amount that I paid 30+ years ago and I snapped it up.

How fun, and on a recent snowy morning, I took it out for a test drive and shot my first roll of 35mm film in years. These photos are not high art by any means, but it is pretty cool to even get photos from a 75 year old camera and lens. The process involved to actually focus a camera, correctly set the shutter speed and lens opening, and hold it still enough to get a sharp photo was fun. Who needs that auto exposure, auto focus, image stabilization stuff? If nothing else, it confirms that all these years later, I am still basically a camera geek.