View Out My Window at the George Hotel, Washington, DC

There are days when I look at the Blogger screen and I can't think of a damn thing to say, and then there are days like today where I have so much to say that I wonder if I shouldn't try to store some of it for a mental "rainy day," instead of composing a rambling entry.

But mainly, I want to talk about the graphics on this blog. Even a casual peek at my Site Meter will reveal that the vast majority of visits to this blog are coming for the same pictures that I talked about during the 50,000th, the 30,000th, and the 20,000th visit celebrations. The pictures have been an integral part of this blog almost from the beginning, but scanning through past pages, the whole of it looks messy to me, disjointed and even trivial. I think a casual surf through this blog, without reading any of the words as I suppose most of the visitors don't, might give the impression that this whole thing is somewhat silly and juvenile.

A Zen blog should have some gravitas to it, I tell myself, and then I remind myself that this is not a Zen blog, it is a blog written by a Zen student about all aspects of his life. But still, the appearance suggests "monkey mind" at its worst.

What a dilemma - do I keep posting the pics and keep up the traffic, or do I put on a more "Zen" appearance so as not to confuse those readers who do come here?

So, that's one of the things on my mind today. I'm also thinking about all of this because I came across some pictures appropriate to the events that occurred last week while I was in D.C., from Lyndie England's conviction related to Abu Gharib:
to Tom DeLay's indictment:
to John Robert's Supreme Court nomination:
I hope that those of you who enjoy political humor, or satire fans like myself who grew up with Mad Magazine and later National Lampoon, can appreciate these pictures and the fact that, yet again, I'm sacrificing the visual integrity of this blog to provide graphics for your amusement.

Yesterday, I posted a picture by James Christensen, which to me symbolized the balancing act I sometimes feel I'm in as I try to follow the Middle Way. The picture prompted Jeb to ask where I got it from. I honestly don't recall - it seems that I often bump into his art on line, and it occasionally seems appropriate to one of my posts, like the pictures of his that I posted on Christmas Day. Other works of his don't seem like they'll ever fit in with anything I'm likely to talk about, such as this take of the myth of Leda and the swan:
If you're looking for more of his artwork, Jeb, you can check out this Google link. I hope that helps, but meanwhile let me just say that you have a very nice blog yourself, one that looks much more mature and settled than this cartoon house that I've constructed.