Liverpool, England

Yesterday marked 70 years since the birth of John Lennon (1940-1980), a talented activist/misfit and empathetic non-conformist with a burning passion for peace and world unity. Nearly thirty years have passed since John was murdered on a New York street—yet his influence and “presence” continue to loom large…

Here are a few quotes by the former Beatle…

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Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.

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.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?

We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.

My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.

(from Climbing magazine)

Knots: they attach us to ropes, connect slings to trees, substitute for dropped gear, secure tents, create belay anchors. Like the Force, knots surround us, protect us, and bind our galaxy together. Even a sport climber whose shoes close with Velcro knows a few knots. But here are a few things you might not know.

1) The word “knot” is related to knob, knoll, and knuckle, but not to knowledge. It is knoten in German, knot in Dutch, knut in Swedish, nudo in Spanish, and noeud in French.

2) The Inca’s only “written” language was a system of knots tied into necklace-like “documents” called quipus, or “talking knots.” Some scholars think quipus recorded only numbers, but others believe that they also told stories and encoded historical events. A select class of Incas apparently interpreted the knots, and the code has never been definitively deciphered. Knots were also used for record keeping in ancient China, and the Chinese Book of Changes, almost 2,500 years old, associates knots with contract and agreement.

(I’ve long been a knot-enthusiast. Three years ago, I designed, illustrated, and published a booklet entitled Top Climbing Knots for the Alpine Club of Canada—copies are still available through the Manitoba Section of the ACC).

East Prussia, c. 1800…

For whatever reason, Kant has loomed large on my landscape of late (uncanny, but I seem to encounter links or references to this thoughtful and eminently humanist 18th-century German philosopher at every turn). Following, a few more quotables from this epistemological pundit…

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All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men.

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

Ingratitude is the essence of vileness.

It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.

(the ultimate existentialist manifesto?)

It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.

Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

Winnipeg, Canada

My 90-year-old father called me yesterday to tell me that he loved me—and that he had been thinking about and praying for me. I’m not sure I could describe the emotions this triggered… even if I tried.

Thanks, Dad.

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“You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love.
You have to deserve your father’s.
He’s more particular.”

—Robert Frost

Ottawa, Canada

Canada Post today released its largest stamp to date. Like the wildlife definitives that preceded it, the Blue Whale stamp was produced using a combination of two printing techniques: intaglio (for the whale in the foreground) and offset lithography (for the colours in the background). Each stamp, illustrated by Suzanne Duranceau (and featuring the work of master engraver Jorge Peral), measures 128 x 49 mm (5″ x 1.9″).

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest animal ever known to inhabit the earth. It can grow up to 33 m (108 ft) long and can weigh up to 180 metric tons (198 tons). The blue whale’s gargantuan proportions remain hidden beneath ocean waves, only to reveal themselves for a brief, awe-inspiring moment whenever this majestic creature rises to the surface to breathe—a whale watcher’s dream on Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic waters. Due to severe hunting practices in the 1900’s, the blue whale is listed as an endangered species under COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada).

Thanks to Matt Warburton for the heads-up.

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We all have moments like this, right?

Classic dilemnas… with seemingly no-win outcomes.

Vienna, Austria

I was pleased to come across some great collage illustration today by Marek Haiduk, a talented German illustrator now living and working in Vienna. (Reminds me quite a bit of the work done by Cristiana Couceiro as well as Julien Pacaud… nicely done!)

Los Angeles, Alcatraz, Toronto

Banksy’s been busy of late… more here.