THE MIRROR by MARK SHAPIRO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81eSIwsLcWg

LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER. There are those who say they love you through and through yet you know that not to be true.
There are those who will use you and you know that too.
There are those who are givers and takers,
and you know most are fakers


LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER. There are those who control
and take your soul.
There are those who seek pleasure
and that is their treasure.
There are those who see the world through their own eyes
then abuse you with their lies



LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER. There are those who call you a friend indeed
then make your heart bleed.
There are those who use words IM SORRY when actions are above such a word.
who will suddenly leave you like a flight of a bird



LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER . There are those who say they need you in their life
then say things to hurt you and bring you strife.
There are those who say they are always right
and see communication as a fight




LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER. There are those who eventually see what is gone that was once there ,
will leave their souls and spirit bare.
and those who take others for granted and are looking for more and really dont care




LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER .There are those who leave a trail of hurt souls in their wake
so for their own sake.
who will or will not see their life as a short journey on earth
and cant see beyond their birth




LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER There are those who will never see the damage to others like to people like me.
Who do learn from their journey and eventually see that GIVING WITHOUT ASKING is the place to be .



LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND THINGS WILL BE CLEARER

SOUL LIFE
Giving of Ourselves

“For the sun of light may shine in the hearts of many by the turn of the hand of the entity in giving to others the power, the ability to give of themselves. For only that you give may you take with you into eternity.” 1438-1

“Through the giving, through the action, there comes the knowledge of the power being manifest, and those great truths resound, redound, through the life, through the whole being of the entity, see? Beautiful!” 900-151

“In the giving you possess the power, the strength, the healing.” 2164-1
Of the many spiritual activities that we may do to enhance our nearness to God, giving is one of the most powerful

THE FLOWER by MARK SHAPIRO

THE FLOWER
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Tina, and she grew up in a world of hate and anger and she always played alone for the other kids made fun of her for she was born with a bad leg and couldn’t walk good. Tina would play alone and had an imaginary friend she made up and talked to when she played. Tina would always talk to her friend and kids would laugh at her and poke fun at her disability. Tina would ask her made up friend that if one day she would truly be happy as other kids and her friend told her that if she did one good deed in life, she would, but never told her what that would be.

So as Tina approached six,,, she still was a loner and still talked with her friend she had made up and would sit alone during lunch and play alone and watch other kids play, yet always wondered what she had to do to be like other kids and what this made up friend had in mind. So Tina spent her life at that time being nice and considerate and ignoring all the laughing and making fun that kids will do knowing that maybe one day she will be just like them as her friend said she would. Tina would still smile and do well and not complain or be angry at those who would not do so to her, and would turn the other cheek so to speak.

Then one day, Tina met a woman in her nineties and stopped to talk with her.
This woman was in a wheel chair and had the same leg problem Tina had, and immediately, Tina and her struck up a friendship. Tina would see her now and then on her way home and Tina would always bring flowers to her. Tina told the woman of her imaginary friend and the woman said that she too had one when she grew up and that she always had that as her way of coping with hate and anger in the world.
.
This went on for months as they became closer the woman told Tina that she too had been told that one day she would find happiness and that she never gave up,,, despite being in a wheel chair and her handicap. Each day when Tina got home, she would also place a flower in her house and that represented her and the woman she met and her imaginary friend. Tina never missed a day of placing a single flower, a rose in a crystal class at home by her bed.


Then one day, Tina and the woman were talking and were by the roadside.....and a car went speeding towards them and Tina saw it coming and the car skidded and Tina placed her body in front of the woman and the car slammed into Tina and the woman, and swerved away. As Tina and the woman lay sprawled on the street, Tina held a rose and reached over to the woman, out of her chair a few feet from her and Tina looked at her and the woman looked at Tina, and Tina placed the rose in her hand and held it and both smiled and suddenly a warm glow appeared and a sudden flash. When the flash came and went, there was no sign of Tina and the woman, just the chair and the rose.

To this day nobody knows where they are or what happened, but each month at the time of the day they got hit,, there are stories of Tina and her seen in the sky,,, with wings,,, venturing to places that only angels could see and that, in fact,Tina and the woman had found happiness in that life is never ending and that by turning your cheek against those who would put you down in life, for they will never experience ever lasting life,,,

and Tina and the woman finally found what their imagination told them all along,,, That love is within and to forgive and live for the moment and always reach for the stars with your feet on the ground and that the greatest successes in life came from the biggest mistakes.

WE MET BEFORE... by Mark Shapiro

We met before
on a faraway shore
and through time
I always thought you were mine
but once again our love has flown away
mabye to find its way back another day
We met before
at Heavens door
and made our way back to earth
the home of our birth
and you were my queen
the heart and soul of my being
We met before
I held you close as we did kissed
and now I know you will be missed
for centuries has passed us by
and now i sit and cry
We met before
and in time we did explore
only to once again fail to meet
and both go into retreat
We met before
and you are the one i adore
with each passing day now i do deplore
the loss of you in my life
which now is filled with strife
We met before
and in time we will meet again in love
when it will be right when push comes to shove
for our love will finally be right
when i can finally hold you in my arms each night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlPKPprNYsA&NR=1

PLAY SONG AND READ FOR FULL IMPACT

THE WORLD....by MARK SHAPIRO

I am the product of my parents,born into a world of chaos and frustration,a world turned upside down,suffering throughout,children crying, people dying,a world gone mad.


I have seen things nobody should witness,hunger, hate, killings, moral decay, deceit, and lying .Yet take notice,I have only just turned on the television


I HAVE lived my life the best I could,despite the world which surrounds me,full of rage,full of lies,full of lack of responsibility and honor,filled of hypocrisy



The world was different I hear,but only from books I have read,yet even then the treachery existed, Hitler, Napoleon, Stalin,the murders and passing of so many lives;all for the sake of a better world.

I must be blind for I cannot see the better world,The world I was born in.

I will live my life; live it the way I feel it should be,full of giving, love, happiness and caring,Lacking revenge, anger, and that which corrupts.

But I shall give of myself, my soul,that, in itself, will make my world better,apart from the world I SEE

PICTURES IN PROTEST – Mark Kirchner Photography Exhibition to open at

The Center Long Beach
2017 E. 4th Street, Long Beach (562) 434-4455
www.centerlb.org

Gallery Hours: 9-9pm Monday – Friday
Weekend Hours 10-6pm Saturday Only






PICTURES IN PROTEST

Photographs by Mark Kirchner


After the passage of Proposition 8 the gay and lesbian community staged protest events nation wide. The Southern Californian events ranged from large marches of ten thousand protesters in downtown Los Angeles to single individuals standing on street corners with a sign.

Photographer Mark Kirchner documented the most significant Southern California Prop 8 protests. The exhibit consists of 19 black and white photographs from seven different protests over a 5-month period. The images range for the “intimate street moments” to politically energized activists. Through out this body of work lies a narrative that is captured in the signs that the protesters created to reflect their personal viewpoint. This exhibition at the Center Long Beach is on display until June 20, 2009.







Artist Statement


PICTURES IN PROTEST


Making photographs places the photographer outside the frame lines of the camera.
This physical exclusion from the image mirrors the detachment required to be a recorder and witness to events. With the passage of Proposition 8 in November of 2008 I knew that I wanted to both protest and photograph. My sense of this historic moment and its potential for increased social knowledge and eventual change motivated me to create this body of work. The first protest I attended was a direct confrontation with citizens that voted yes on 8. I thought I would be mistaken for a journalist and to clarify my loyalties I attached a small rainbow flag to the bottom of my camera. Now I thought I could both protest and photograph at the same time without the cumbersomeness of cardboard signs. This act created a symbolic change in me; I shifted from the neutral observer to the “active witness/recorder”. I hope this collection of photographs will provide a window to reflect on the last 5 months of community and the fellowship that I found deeply moving. Now I and countless others await reflexively, with hope and determination, for the California Supreme Court’s decision.

Mark Kirchner


April 20, 2009

About the Artist
Mark Kirchner is a photographer that weaves images of artifacts, text, site and people to explore the rich meanings and insights of cultural processes, history and identity. Concurrently, his exhibition of Manzanar Pilgrimage, at Soka University until May 15, features seventy-five black and white photographs that spans one-quarter of a century since it’s beginning in November 1983. It is part of an ongoing body of work that attempts to document and to discover both historic and contemporary challenges, issues and directions faced by the Japanese American community.

Mark’s photographic craft was formed in 1979 by his studies with Ansel Adams and later as a group leader for Adams in his legendary Yosemite Workshop. In the early 1980s, Mark studied visual anthropology with John Collier Jr. at the San Francisco Art Institute. With that experience, Mark embraced Collier’s methodology as his primary instriment for observation, insight and visual communication. Today he continues photographing cultural and sociological interests and teaches photography at Soka University of America.



KEY TO THE PHOTOGRAPHS

This key corresponds to the placement of the photographs in the gallery space, (left to right)


DOUBLE TREE INN, YES ON 8 PRESS CONFERENCE
Church of Latter Day Saints Press Conference, Santa Ana, CA
November 14, 2008 (3 photographs)

JOIN THE IMPACT: NATIONAL PROTEST
Los Angeles City Hall, CA
November 15, 2008 (6 photographs)

JESUS CHRIST CHURCH OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS (SILENT PROTEST)
1140 Ximeno, Long Beach, CA
November 16, 2008 (3 photographs)

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT
Belmont Shores, CA
December 20, 2008 (1 photograph)

RICK WARREN / SADDLE BACK CHURCH
Lake Forest, CA
January 18, 2009 (2 photographs)

ROBIN TYLER AND DIANE OLSON RENEW THEIR VOWS
Beverly Hills Court House, Beverly Hills, CA
February 13, 2009 (2 photographs)

EVE OF JUSTICE
Fairview Community Church, Costa Mesa, CA,
March 4, 2009 (2 photographs)

WIZARDOFBAUM QUOTES II

Close your eyes and think good things and life may be short in the big world, but your being is bigger than the entire universe.


A smile goes a along way, but your feet will carry you further away from those who’s will to hurt you is behind their own smile.

A friend has to like themselves before they can like you, which explains why nobody has friends.

Don’t turn your back on your buddies, for your back wont look good with knives in it

Trusting in most people is like trusting your car to go 3,000 miles on a gallon of gas

Your best friend is in the mirror

Friends are like the seasons, they come and go

People think that the world evolves around them and they, in themselves are the universe, but, in fact, they are only a grain of sand on the beach; a speck of dust in a storm

ONE WHO TALKS AND DOESNT LISTEN ONLY HEARS HIMSELF

Those who don’t listen don’t need ears

One who looks for love in others has none to give to themself

Before you can love, you have to love yourself

Giving of oneself is the power of the soul and spirit

Man with no friends has no enemies,.......,guy with teeny weenie needs to stand close to toilet..........,,woman who marries out of loneliness ends up alone,....... ,girl who dates anyone ends up with no one,......... ,man who uses cheap toilet paper ends up with finger up butt,........ ,man who looks down on others has nobody to look up to them, ..........,man who eats beans with pineapple will make Hawaiian music, ............,man with bad breath has nobody that will listen,......... ,if the world is like Pinocchio, more than half would have plastic surgery........a person forgiven for cheating is allowing them to cheat on u again,...... , rebounds is only good in basketball, not love,....... ,if love comes to u and flies away, let it go for true love will not fly away,....... , if at first u don’t succeed, try and try again and even then,, try again.........man who uses lawyer may win case but lose all money..........lawyers take a third of what u have and leave u with two thirds of nothing.............lawyers are like vultures, they sense death and take what’s there..........man who thinks of himself, ends up with himself...........man with bird in hand ends up with bird poop in hand..........man who seeks revenge only makes himself angrier than other person will be..........look up into the sky and see that despite what we think is so important in out lives or head really is not

THE PEOPLE YOU MEET..by Mark Shapiro

Its the people you meet in life that will have the biggest influence and inspiration and you’ll know who they are for they will stand out to you in your soul and spirit and they will allow you to explore who you are and not who they want you to be