Ramadan Rocks! And Other October Revelations

October has been a good month for me, particularly shooting-wise. I've had interesting assignments and lovely interactions with the folks I've met on them.
(1 photo package) Ramadan is great! It's such a beautiful concept- purification, overcoming the desires of the body with the strength of the soul, allowing for the mind and heart to be fully focused on the love for and relationship with Allah. And what amazing dinner parties every evening at sunset when the fast is broken. For a religious holiday that I didn't know much about, I felt incredibly connected and inspired to be part of it.

I went to a home gathering and the the local mosque. The food was to die for, the mood joyful and loving. Kids running amok getting hugs and scoldings from relatives and family friends. Women embracing, leaning in close to talk and holding each other's infants. The men filling themselves beyond repair with the excellent and endless array of foods, leaning their heads back, laughing with each other, teasing each other, holding children on their laps. A really warm, safe feeling of belonging to a cherished community saturated me and made me feel soft and cozy. I just wanted them to pretty much adopt me. (Can a semi-Quaker, quasi-Lakota-traditionalist, magicalrealist, ex-Californiahippie & now Midwestern meditative be an outskirts member of a mosque community and celebrate Ramadan without coming to Islam? hmmmmmm )













































































(2)The Elkhart musical instrument factory strike has been going for 6 months and the encampment has been manned 24-7 by strikers since it began. The Union is in talks with management but nobody knows how it will turn out.





















(3)Portrait of a local painter comissioned to create themed weekly Notre Dame football poster-murals.




















(4) Breaking a decades old tradition at a very stodgy private school a bag pipe teacher demands that both boys and girls get to take his class-- together.




















(5)A thriving homegrown community center in South Bend aimed at connecting young boys with grown men who can mentor and love them, even if no one else does.






























(6)A woman visits the grave of her son- a police officer who was killed off duty while on a date 6 months ago.
















(7)The children of a man killed in an accident, which his young son accidentally caused, wrap themselves in quilts made of his clothing.