This Too Shall Pass

As the season drew to a close, he wondered what was going to motivate him to write, to create, to pull tales out of thin air…nothing seemed to do it…with this head in his hand, all he did was sigh and chew on his pencil…whatever was he going to do to get rid of this writer’s block?..that is when he heard it…heard it from none other than the raven…

“This Too Shall Pass”

That Face

That nightmare was back…barging into his nights like an unwanted guest…it made him wake up in a cold sweat, gasping and recoiling from something so unreal and yet so frightening…so imaginary and yet so haunting… like the fears that clouded his life, the figure made him afraid to do what he needed to do – sleep!…then when he closed his eyes, all he saw was….

“That Face!”
(A Wet Plate Collodion image)

A Letter to Dela Goldheart

Dear Ms. Amelia Amedela Amemate a.k.a Dela Goldheart,
 
REGARDING THE PRACTICE OF CONTEXTOMY
 
Have you heard of the word “Contextomy” before? It was coined by the historian Milton Mayer in 1966 to describe the misquoting of the Talmud for propaganda purposes by the Nazi, Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi paper Der Stürmer . This was in Germany just before WW II broke out.
Mr. Streicher was virulently anti-Semitic and his newspaper carried horrible stories and cartoons about Jews that led to their dehumanization and made it easy for Hitler to push through “The Final Solution”.
 
“Contextomy” is defined as “the selective excerpting of words from their original linguistic context in a way that distorts the source’s intended meaning.” Some call this practice “quoting out of context”.
Like Wikipedia says, “The problem here is not the removal of a quote from its original context per se (as all quotes are), but to the quoter’s decision to exclude from the excerpt certain nearby phrases or sentences (which become “context” by virtue of the exclusion) that serve to clarify the intentions behind the selected words.”
 
Recently, you took the words of a man you sparred with on social media back in February, omitted a few words, placed a few ellipses here and there, and hey, that man now sounded like a raging misogynist and none of your listeners was any wiser.
 
In his excellent book ”They Thought They Were Free – The Germans, 1933-45”, Mr. Mayer explores the many reasons a lot of Germans went along with the atrocities of the Nazis. If a lot of Germans believed the rather erroneous and inflammatory articles published in “The Sturmer”, and those articles helped dehumanize the Jews, then that tells you how potent the practice of contextomy can be.
 
That is why what you did is not only dishonest, fraudulent and low; it is also very dangerous. It is dangerous because you are using lies to sway public opinion about another human being, to his detriment. On a larger scale, that is what the Nazi, Julius Streicher did.
Herr Streicher also had a motto: “Something always sticks”. Even if his false claims were later debunked, something demeaning always stuck to the Jews’ reputation. Even if all attempts to show that you “contextomized” your opponent’s words, a sheen of misogyny now hangs over him!
 
A lot of the atrocities we see in this world start when dishonest men and women misrepresent the words of others, to fit an ominous agenda. Like the Nazis did and like the Boers did in South Africa as they misquoted parts of the Book of Genesis to buttress apartheid.
 
You may be doing this to further the noble cause of feminism but in so doing you actually besmirch the commendable attempts of all who try to do it the right way. Or maybe, you are trying to get back at your antagonist for his unkind words back in February. Well, at least he was upfront and honest while you are being backhanded and dishonest.
I have taken your words from that day some months back – the words that started it all. I have treated the words like you treated his words. See how much the meaning is altered! Do you now appreciate the severity of your dishonesty?
 
If you aim to make a mark on humanity, learn qualities that will carry you through this journey called life. Dishonesty is definitely not one of them. Courage is one very important quality. Now, dig into yourself, find some courage and let that propel you to apologize to everyone who saw those altered words during your presentation. You owe them the truth. You also owe the man whose words you altered an apology but for that, I am not going to hold my breath.
 
And while you are at it, find another nickname. If the soul of us humans sits in our hearts, I cannot imagine a dishonest heart containing any gold.
 
Sincerely,
 
Nana Dadzie Ghansah MD
 
PS: Julius Streicher was tried and found guilty of “incitement of active persecution of Jews” during the Nuremberg Trials and hung on October 16, 1946.

Jack-o-Lantern

On Halloween night, you might see him…he still wanders the deep with that ember the Devil gave him long ago…unwanted in heaven, cast away from hell…his existence, an epitome of hopelessness and eternal damnation… he is…

“Jack-O-Lantern”

The Day The Grim Reaper Arrived

Suddenly, he stood over me, his presence casting a cold, stifling pall over the room…I jerked back in fear…”It is time”, I heard him say…I gingerly stole a glance his way…I swear, in that dark, hollow and hooded visage, I saw pity….”It is time!”, I repeated to myself…he nodded…slowly, my fear was replaced by another feeling…that of preparedness….I looked up unafraid and said, “I am ready!”…in the distance the alarms were going off….on the screen, I saw a flat line, as the room darkened….and that is what happened….

“The Day the Grim Reaper Arrived”
(An 8” x 10” Wet plate collodion image)

A Judgement Day

I never told her I loved her….or thanked her for all she did…I never hugged the kids or kissed them goodnight…I missed birthdays and anniversaries…a better son I was not….my death was sudden and now, far away in this desolation, I am haunted by my regrets…surrounded by the darkness, each day is…

“A Judgement Day!”
(An 8″ x 10″ Wet Plate Collodion Image)

It’s Spooky Season

From now till the end of the month, I will be using photographs to explore the emotion of “fear” – to be exact, the fear of the unknown, especially death. I think this a good time to do that, then, after all, Halloween is just around the corner. You can see the images here.
 
As we celebrate Halloween, we need to remember the origin of the festival and its essence.
Halloween comes from the Celtic festival called “Samhain”. It was celebrated from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 and marked the end of the light summer and the start of the darkness of winter. It marked a time when the boundary between this world and that of the departed was removed and the departed could visit our world and the Celts could confer with the spirits of the dead.
Then came the Church and Christianity and disrupted a lot of customs in Europe and all over the world. As you can imagine, the Celtic custom of Samhain was not spared either.
In AD 609, Pope Gregory moved the All Martyrs Day from May 13 to Nov. 1 and renamed it All Saints Day. Then in AD 1000, Nov 2 was named All Souls Day or All-Hallowmas and Oct. 31, All Hallows Eve. On All Souls Day, the celebrations were just like the old Celtic rites of Samhain – big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils.
Soon, All Hallows Eve became “Halloween” and the celebrations of the Celts on Samhain had been appropriated.
 
Yet, the underlying meaning of the day does not need to be lost. The dead can teach us about living. Their mistakes, triumphs, achievements, and regrets are all things that we can learn from.
In most African societies, Death is feared more than Americans fear the IRS but I argue that we needn’t fear Death.
A most important exercise then should be an exploration of why we fear death so much.
Is it because of a fear of not knowing what lies beyond or is it because we fear we won’t be ready? Do we fear we’ll be snatched in our prime or before we see our kids grow into adults?
 
Those are questions I ponder often and hence the images. I seek to point out that instead of wasting our emotions on being afraid, we should rather seek to live in such a way that we’ll have no regrets when the time comes. That times like these should remind us that Death is just around the corner and our Time is finite. The images are thus “Memento Mori” symbols to remind you all that the clock is ticking so love, create, eat, dance, sing, hug, make love…like there is no tomorrow.

The Shrine

“Follow me, my son”, he said to me. I followed him through a narrow, dimly lit corridor. It was very quiet there and the silence was only broken by the sound of our steps on the cold stone and our breaths. Soon, we came to a large wooden door. He rapped on it with his knuckles and it was opened from the inside. I followed him into a dark room that was lit by candles. As my eyes got accustomed to the dimness, I saw the skulls. They were of all shapes and sizes and they were everywhere. I broke into a cold sweat. I think he noticed my discomfort and lay a hand gently on my shoulder. Then he pointed to some rugs in front of what looked like an altar and asked me to sit. I sat down and he sat beside me, assuming a lotus position. I assumed a lotus position too.
I could not take my eyes off the skulls and yet I saw the inscription above the altar. Even in the dim light, I could read what it said:
“The flame of the candle will burn out one day and leave a darkness around it. Until then, seize every moment to make the light of the flame count so when the darkness falls, the last thing you feel is regret.”
Suddenly, I understood the symbology of it all…I got it….that day in…

“The Shrine”
(A Wet Plate Collodion image)

Anger and Fury

It happened one October day in ‘59….he was waiting for them that day – his wife and her lover…..he was waiting in the bedroom…he stabbed them both…he did not stop till he was bathed in warm, red blood…then he beheaded the corpses…they found the heads beside him in the barn where he had shot himself…they buried the heads of his wife and her lover with their headless corpses….now they say he comes back each October to dig up the heads and stabs at them all over again….then his soul will not be appeased even in death….that soul that seems to be forever full of….

“Anger and Fury!”
(A wet plate collodion image)