photo - r. whittaker




What does it mean? There are many “explanations” of which this photo is an exact visual representation. Shot in 1992 on the streets of Alameda, perhaps accidentally, it makes many strange facts clear in a single stroke.

My younger brother, John, and my wife and I were out for a walk. He was visiting us from Baton Rouge, where he worked at LSU as a professor and head of their philosophy department. I'd not yet realized I'd never top John's PhD from Yale. And perhaps, when I noticed the tree ahead, and suddenly realized its height could be used to make a perfect portrait of my brother - the tune played here was in the key of second fiddle. I loved him dearly. And yet...   

On the other hand, lifting this image out of all personal context - and with this image serving as a guide - one could speculate freely. Very freely! Might the image turn one's thoughts toward String Theory, for instance? Do we have before us a small model of “The Mind of God,” as pop-cosmological rhetoric has it!? Has the matrix of the eleven mysterious dimensions been rendered here in a way one can almost grasp!?

Such questions preoccupied the editors back in the days of The Secret Alameda. The photo above appeared on the cover of issue #4 of TSA. (This was before the reformation, before the days of works & conversations.) Not many people had heard of us then. And w&c is still far from the trodden paths.

Yet we push on in our work of providing a place for the genuine thing, that is, something aligned with what our friend Jacob Needleman said about real art... that it provided hope.   

We thank all of you who have contributed in the past. May blessings flow your way. As always, 100% of the contributions we receive is used for the production of the magazine. I’m even reducing my salary from zero to Zero. That's in terms of dollars. In terms of non-material compensation, however, I can't pledge any reduction in such intangible goods.—rw