Author Archives: Leo Denton

I am Really Mad – No More Oil – Open Your Eyes!

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All the oil is gone right? Just listen to the national news. Time to lift the swim ban … it’s lifted … small children are now swimming on Dauphin Island. Area seafood … of course it’s safe? There’s just one big problem. The oil was still here last week when the no-more-oil PR campaign began, and right now the oil is still CLEARLY VISIBLE … RIGHT ON THE SURFACE … AS BAD AS EVER … IN THE MISSISSIPPI SOUND … WITHIN 100 YARDS OF DAUPHIN ISLAND.

Click photos to see higher resolution images. Permission is granted for anyone to use these photos.

Surface oil in the Mississippi Sound, photographed August 4, 2010

Surface oil in the Mississippi Sound, photographed August 4, 2010

Do you see oil?

Yes, that’s oil from Deepwater Horizon catastrophe right on the surface of the Mississippi Sound next to Dauphin Island, photographed August 4, 2010
Oil with Dauphin Island bridge and houses in the background

Oil with Dauphin Island bridge and houses in the background photographed August 4, 2010.

"This isn't the oil you're looking for." "This isn't the oil we're looking for." "Move along." "Move along."

Remember Star Wars: “This isn’t the oil you’re looking for.” “This isn’t the oil we’re looking for.” “Move along.” “Move along.” Time to open our eyes! Photographed August 4, 2010.

Please share this post and these pictures with others, thanks much!

Larger original photographs for above photos:

People can do Amazing Things – Homemade Aerial Photography

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The Louisiana Bucket Brigade arrived on Dauphin Island Sunday afternoon to do some aerial photography. Beginning at noon on one of the hottest days of the year, MarikoToyoji, Shannon Dosemagen, and Raphael Bachal went straight to work. Rather than using a plane or satellite to obtain their pictures, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade uses inexpensive techniques developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that employ kites and helium balloons. On Sunday the winds were calm, so a helium balloon was used to carry the camera 700 feet up. With the camera automatically snapping pictures every ten seconds, we walked along the beach obtaining numerous photos of the area.

People power

People power - MarikoToyoji, Shannon Dosemagen, and Raphael Bachal get ready to create high quality aerial maps, photographed August 1, 2010.

Mariko Toyoji getting the camera aloft - up, up, and away!

Mariko Toyoji getting the camera aloft - up, up, and away! Photographed August 1, 2010.

 Later this week, using free software, the photos will be stitched together to create high quality aerial maps. When completed the maps will be uploaded to GrassrootsMapping.org where they will be publicly available.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade works to enable coastal communities to make scientific measurements of their local environment. The work of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade currently includes an oil spill crisis map, “fenceline” community networks, community air sampling, and sustainability in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Bay Jimmy aerial map

Bay Jimmy aerial map - a low resolution image (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/labucketbrigade/4845375332/ for high resolution map link).

Being Friends with God

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Two friends, Arian Brazenwood and Edward Denton, get ready for an Island adventure

Arian Brazenwood and Edward Denton after doing dishes find that friendship also leads to many adventures, photographed on Dauphin Island July 29, 2010.

God gets a bad rap sometimes from those of us who believe. By our words and actions, we often portray God as a cop in the sky out to get people, or we portray God as a genie with a magic wand who fixes all our problems. No description of God is ever complete, but God is like the Wind, beyond our grasp yet within each of us – like the Universe, beyond our understanding but present all around us – and like a Friend, mysterious, surprising, and alive.

God is the Spirit connecting us All, the Infinite Lover of All, enlivening All persons and All things, bearing All individuals within All individuals, our All in All, our I-Am-Who-Am.

There’s no need to shrink in fear of God. God is always calling, welcoming, listening, comforting, healing, forgiving, creating, … God loves each of us with an immensely pure, energetic, and endlessly generous love. “I love you! I love you! I love you! Even if no one else loves you, I love you! … … …”

Inasmuch as we live as Friends with each other, we also connect with God as Friends. When we enliven others, nourish them, and bear them up in love, God thrives in us and we fulfill our destiny as God’s Children. God is love, the deepest Wind within our lives, and where that Wind will carry us step by step is beyond our wildest dreams.

The Golden Rule Applied to all Living Beings

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Turtle swimming in Gaillard Lake in the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuary

"Everyone needs a home," grunts a turtle swimming in Gaillard Lake in the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuary, photographed July 27, 2010.

Gaillard Lake in the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuary

“The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, speaks to me. And my heart soars.” - Chief Dan George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. Photograph of Gaillard Lake in the Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuary, photographed July 27, 2010.

 

 Across the centuries, “Treat others as you would like to be treated” has been a guiding principle espoused by Buddhists, Christians, Confucianists, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, philosophers, Sikhs, Taoists, … and many others.

A sometimes tempting alternative is “Do unto others before they do unto you.” That is, “Waste your enemies before they waste you.” We also waste our enemies to “get even,” “an eye for an eye.”

Whenever we waste an enemy, we get 10 more new enemies, and the cycle of wasting one another escalates. After so many eyes have been plucked out, do we even realize how blind we are?

Wasting the Earth, sadly, is commonplace too. How much of the beauty of the Earth has disappeared over the last several hundred years?

To regain our sight, we need to be cleansed with a fresh and profound appreciation for the needs, gifts, and beauty of each person. Likewise we need to profoundly appreciate the Earth and all its creatures, their needs, gifts, and beauty; and as much as we are able we need to treat them as we would treat our own selves, our own family, and our own home. For we are part of the Earth, the creatures of the Earth are our brothers and sisters, and the Earth is the only home that we and our children have. To thrive as human beings now and into the future, the whole Earth must thrive, and with all our strength we must see that no part of the Earth is wasted so that all creatures will have a lasting, nurturing, and beautiful home.