WHAT CAN I SAY! I LIKE THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF PIGEONS. I LIKE THEIR ALERTNESS... THEIR EYES...THEIR EAGERNESS. Today's collection of photographs on the BLOG are a kind of potpourri. They don't necessarily fit together, but there they are.

Ben Christensen came back from a summer of walking along and around the Oregon Coast with a discovery which he shared with some of us who are glad to be counted among his friends. On his daily walks he was usually plugged into his iPod. One day while he was listening the Beatles’ “Imagine,” he really HEARD the lyrics for the first time. He had read, as I had also done, Don Cupitt’s "Above Us Only Sky" and discovered the line in the first stanza of John Lennon’s song Imagine. I don't know exactly why, but the lyrics seemed to fit the photographs, especially the pigeons.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
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Margaret at La Jolla Cove.Richard, Margaret, Joaquin and I watched seals lolling on a rock in the sun while a bunch of people disagreed on the use of the beach. A pompous guy claimed the beach for people, and a rather strident young woman with a megaphone scolded him and others who stood along a short stretch of beach apparently to keep seals from coming onto the sand.NO MATTER what the circumstances or the setting, I am startled to see creatures coming up out of the sea. Perhaps there is something primordial in the images. I was not the only one affected by the sight. People all around the stopped to stare. These fellows had been spear-fishing. One of them had speared two calico bass.