Oneness: “Seeing” Time and the Wonder of Life Emerge in the Everyday

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's Working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential.

0:45 Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor Elise Cortes. Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program. Thanks for joining again this week. Great to have you. This program has been brought to you with passion and price. Since February of twenty fifteen, it's also been ranked on the top ten most inspirational leadership podcast on the web. I'm your host, doctor Release Cortes. I'm joining you from San Antonio, Texas instead of home, Dallas. I'm on the road here doing a program for U T Austin. If we haven't met before and you don't know me, I'm an organizational psychologist and local therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Gusto Now help companies to enliven and fortify their operations by building a culture and leadership activated by meaning and purpose our missions to help our clients create a destination workplace where people flocked to join are integerly motivated to perform at their best, can grow to their full potential, and are committed to stay and dynamic to deliver on the company's mission, all which translate to higher profits for you.

1:51 You can learn more about us and how we can work together at gustodashnow dot com and my personal site at Leastcortes dot com. Getting into today's program we have with us today David Alexander. He's the president and co founder of x stam a digital asset management to fortune five hundred organizations, including NBC, Universal, Viacom, the Hallmark Channel. Over his commercial career, he photographed the Eagles Hotel California album cover, the Blues Brothers album covers and movie poster, and the Terminator movie poster, among so many others. He is a photographer and author of Pictures of Time, Seeing Time the Ordinary World, one of the topics of our conversation today. He joined it today from his home in Ashland, Oregon. David, welcome to Working on Purpose. Thank you, Elise, appreciate it. It's really really great to have you. I really was looking forward to our conversation. I loved your beautiful, beautiful book.

2:39 David. We can start there, maybe just what you got out of them that I want to maybe surface, what you were, why you created it, and what you hope it does. But for me, David, just as a start, I really was compelled at how you arrange the images, you know, where humans were seeming to either mimic nature or vice versa, or perhaps together the energies. Maybe we're colliding, is what it's I saw. The I saw the oneness basically of a lot in a lot of your photos, and just I was so compelled by just the striking beauty of nature and the wildly interesting nature of people, and that you captured this stuff like like literally in a moment in time. And so that I'll just start with that as to really what was compelling to me about what you've created and marveled at your ability to see in a way that gave us a view into those pictures that maybe we wouldn't ever discover on our own. Wow. Well, thank you. First of all, I really appreciate your insights and that you got that and that you got that from the book. So in my commercial work, as you alluded to, I photographed people. I photographed a lot of people, and a lot of them were a lot of them were celebrities. But the more I did it, the more I saw just people.

4:05 The more I saw people, the more I saw life, and I saw elements of life where I knew that if you looked closely enough, you could really see how life works just by looking at people. And once I, once I had that insight, I knew that I was going to have to move on from commercial work and explore what really was this idea? And that's what Pictures of time. Is. It took me about thirty five years of work to really become clear about what this work is and what it's about. And as you said, I see, I really see the inter connectedness of life, and that's what the book's about. It's seeing how you know there really isn't a difference. I don't see differences anymore between living forms.

5:01 With a flower, a person, a finger, a bird, We're all made up of the same things and we're all the same things and it's beautiful. As you said, I what a way to start this program, David. So I'm not quite on your level yet because I haven't had the exposure to to what you've had. But what I will share with you because I I I'm very, very interested in the idea of oneness this and I believe strongly in the concept of oneness. I had Steve Ferrell on my program who started the Team Humanity, I think is what he calls the organization, and he's all about this notion of oneness. I'm really where I've come to so far in my path is I really totally can see the beautiful, tender interdependence of all of life. And I got that because of watching My Octopus Teacher at the documentary. Have you seen it? By chance? No, you're what teacher? Did you call my Octopus teaching? Oh? Yes, I did great? Right, And so for me, what I got out of that was, I just was so clear because of the way the photography, the cinematography and the narration that you know that there's that beauty, this this recognition that we're all on this planet together and all these systems that work, you know, the forest system, the ocean system, the air system.

6:25 It's a system, and so and we have a we're in this system. We're part of it, and it's part of us. And so I can that I can discern that I can understand so far today, and your work is always is clearly you know, at other levels above that. Well, you know that's interesting because based on everything you just said, I think this could be the end of the interview. It's a wrap. Here we go five minutes and seven minutes in. What what I think is particularly interesting about my work is that it's photography. It's just seeing the everyday world and what's around us and often really hidden in plain sight, just everywhere, Like I lift my hand like this and I move it like that, and it reflects movements and forms and shapes of really almost everything else that's alive and natural in the world. And it's just a matter of taking a moment, taking a deep breath. In my case, I'm a photographer, and I see, I look, I look very carefully, and and I'm really this work is it's it's been about my visual observation of the world that I then photograph.

7:41 It's extraordinary. It's it's how I see life now. M Well, so part of what's happened in my evolution, David, I'm I guess I'm trained as an organizational psychologist, so I'm a management consultant. I'm a log with therapist. I love, you know, the the the element of life that's really emotional, social, spiritual, and I'm really interested in lately I've had topics people on that are talking about things like wonder and awe, and I'm very interested in the idea of the various kinds of awe that the University of Berkeley has put forth, one of them, of course, being you know, the nature. And I'm one of those people who can be completely moved to tears by just a beautiful, stunning sunrise and being connected to the notion that we're all connected to the oneness piece of it, and so I'm definitely interested. I had one of the questions I wanted to ask you is how your photographs, especially the ones in Pictures of Time, illustrates, are that the integral connection to the natural world? How, in your words your eyes does it illustrate that? Right? You know, as you said in your introduction, it's actually the paid spreads. In many cases, it's you know, I believe that each end of vial picture stands on its own, tells its own story. But when you see a picture of a tree and a picture of a flower, or a hand or an arm, and you'd see the connection, you get that it's just life, that we're all connected,

9:16 and that's that's really The graphic designer, Tommy Steele was a brilliant graphic designer and I, as we were putting the book together, we understood that it was the page spreads that really tell the stories in the book. Yeah. Well, for those people who don't really know what you mean by that, including myself, page spreads, what do you mean? Well, it just happened. When I have a book here, luck, what have its each page bread is when you open the book and you're looking at two pages, that's a page bread, okay, okay, and it's and the story.

10:00 The story is the resonance between the pictures, all the pictures in it's spread, and so for me, part of them. What I feel is the magic of the book is that each time you turn the page, you're really getting a different story about life and really connections that go back to the beginning of time. And if you feel that, if you're open to that, and all the incredible number of hours that I've spent photographing and seeing, that's really I mean, I feel that I see that it's not it's not really a philosophy. It's my experience. It's my experience of life. M One of the many reasons I wanted to have you on the program, David, is that I of course people are my general jam that's who I work with, right However, I just I'm so aware of how much we can learn from and be inspired and lifted when we really connect with nature, and I'm really interested in like, for example, I've just lost the name of the company, but they were the carpet company that started in the eighties or whatever, and then really realized how they were destroying the planet, and then they went out to really create a sustainable carpet company. And part of what they did in order to do that, I hope I can remember the name of that so that I can pass that on to There's a documentary out on it, which is part of the reason I know about it. But part of what they did in order to turn their company around is they turned to nature.

11:28 How does nature handle color variation, how does nature handle decomposition, et cetera. And they incorporated that those kinds of designs into their carpets so that they can become biodegradable instead of lasting for generation or eternity. Perhaps that's incredibly inspiring, so that for me, I'm very interested in giving nature it's due in a way certainly that puts it in its rightful, beautiful, reverent place and also helps we humans be lifted by the fact that we're connected to that, right we're part of that right Well, that well, that's fantastic. I'd love to know the name of that carpet company using you know, as we know, pigments, the original colors in in you know, amazing paintings that you know medieval Renaissance. We're from natural substances. You know that that everything really evolved from natural things. And you know, as as time has gone on, we've learned to to make a lot of you know, there's been a lot of a lot of chemicals have entered into our lives in ways that you know are are good and complicated. Yes, yeah, I want to go there next. Before we do, I did remember the CEO's name.

12:48 His name is Ray Anderson. That will help inter interface. I think it's called Interface. It's the name of the carpet company the mind originally gets there. So one thing I did want to ask you about, which I've been already you know, intrigued with myself as is some of your you know, some of the exquisite beauty of some of the flowers and plants that you have in your book are so they're alluring and there and and they of course to me, hint a little bit in some cases of certainly sensuality sexuality, And I wanted if you could just speak to a little bit about what you've learned about that or if that's so or for you, or what you what your experience has been. Sure, So when I photographed people. When I record album covers and movie posters was mainly the work, the commercial work that I did. I saw there were certain forms and certain shapes and certain ways that people express themselves. That's what I carried over into this work. So when I photographed a flower or a tree or whatever, it doesn't it doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's alive or natural. I really see the same forms and shapes that I learned from the you know, incredible number of hours that I spent photographing people, and so to me, I'm

14:18 really seeing the same thing. One of the things that's that's really become particularly interesting to me. Just in the last week or two, I've been going over my old commercial work and trying to organize it, probably into a into another book, and I've started seeing connections between those foot crafts and the photographs and pictures of time, which I didn't even realize. I wasn't I wasn't even aware of. I have a picture I don't I don't know if you can see this, So okay, if I open this up again, so this page is there's a man and a woman yes each other on the Pompadou Plaza in Paris, and these are some trees that are really in the same form, hugging each other. Yes, And I've found in my commercial work a photograph of Donna Summer that she looks exactly like that. She stays.

15:30 She's so beautiful and shapely and sensuous, and she's in a moment where she has her arm wrapped around herself in a way. It's the same picture. Yeah. And I've started seeing that in a lot of the work I've done, which really says to me, I'm really I'm really advanced. I've just you know, I've just broadened the scope of what I do. I think I've always been. I've always been searching for the same thing, which is really interesting because, as you may know, I went to law school. I graduated from law school, and I just knew that law wasn't the right It wasn't the right direction for me. But but with law being all about words and language, you know it was it was, it just spoke to me that I needed to do pictures. The world needs this of you.

16:26 David. Hang on with that, because I do want to talk more about just what started the law and how you got away from it. But let's take our first break, I'm your host, doctor re Lea's Cortes. We've been on the air with David Alexander. He's the president and co founder of Exstam, a digital asset management to fortune five hundred organizations, including NBC, Universal, Viacom, and the Hallmark Channel. I've been talking a bit about his book and just what it suggests about oneness in life. We're going to continue the conversation after the break. Stay with us. Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce.

17:26 To learn more, or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise A. L Se at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on purpose. Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Alice Cortes. We've been on the air with David Alexander. He's a photographer and author of pictures, author and photographer of pictures of Time, Seeing time in the ordinary world. So a lot of people who listen to this program, David are interested in finding a way to move from a career that isn't satisfying, isn't meaningful. They want more, They want more, something that's more meaningful, more purposeful, but they don't know how to do it. And I part of the reason I started the show is I wanted to provide examples of how people had sprung themselves into more of a right field. So how did you figure out? Well, how did you make you made that you already knew that you figured out, But how did you make the leap from law to being a commercial photographer.

18:48 That's quite a chasm, my friend. And you know when I by the time I graduated law school, i'd been in school long enough so long couldn't go to photography school. I needed I needed to just learn photography, and so I got I got a camera in my second year of law school. I started taking pictures, and I had a couple of friends in law school, one of whom was a photographer and the uh the Harvard Crimson when he went to Harvard and Andy, they gave me a couple of tips. I put built a dark room in art in the bathroom that I share for my roommate. Not particularly fair for him, but that's the way I was.

19:37 And I just started shooting and making pictures. It was something I knew I had to do. I knew I couldn't practice law. I don't know if any of the people you're referring to. It's really interesting that people who really feel they need to make a change. I think that it's it's so individual. Everyone's got a figure it out for themselves. There's no there's no set path. My path was struggle, really yeah. I mean, you know, I was from Los Angeles, went back to LA after graduating from law school and really started knocking on doors and just you know, shooting, making pictures, trying to build a portfolio, getting rejections. You know, it was pretty It was really hard, and gradually one one thing led to another.

20:33 I'll share one thing. I don't know if this relates to anything anybody else wants to know. But when I was in law school, I went and met with a photographer who I read about was giving a I don't know, a summer workshop or something like that. And he was a teacher at Art Center School of Design in LA And the first thing he said to me, I told him, I not on his door. He didn't know me. I didn't know him, but he was incredibly nice, and I wish I could remember his name. It was amazing. And really what he said was, you don't need to go to photography school. Here's what you do. And he said, you shoot the same subject ten days in a row, and these are the days of film. I only shot film, by the way, commercially, never at digital. And then do it differently each day, and you begin to expand the way you see. You force yourself, and after ten days, pick another subject and you know that may be broader. It was brilliant advice. I never did it formally, but it was always in my mind as I was doing my work. I never wanted to shoot the same picture twice. I always pushed myself to do something I had never done, and I thought nobody else had ever done. So I was always taking risks. Risks when I was shooting, I scared myself a

22:03 great deal much of the time. But that advice about expanding the way you think in the new area that you want to grow in and figuring out how to do that, that was amazing advice. I mean, I can still tell you that from my heart because it really it really resonated with me. Well, thank you for sharing that. And one of the things that I mentioned just before we went on the break that I just it bears repeating, but I just think how the world would have had a loss if you didn't if you had gone the law route, if you hadn't listened and just you know, followed that compunction and followed this and you know, knocked on those doors, we wouldn't have gotten your unique window to the world. And that's why I'm such a I'm a proponent of purpose and meaning only you can see something through your unique lens of purpose. And so I'm interested David too.

23:00 And you have this very unique way of helping people to understand, you know, the revealing the behind of the scene view of life and time through your work. What have you learned, like help us get help us come behind that curtain with you. What have I learned? You know, I've really well, I've learned sort of everything you've meant to. I've learned how all of life is connected. I've I've learned that very really is no difference between you know, my hand and an animal's paw or hand, or a bird's claw, or a tree or a tree branch. And and and it's I think the biggest lesson is the humility that you that you get from that you you you know, you're not that important you and as you said earlier, you know we're or maybe you said before we before we got on the show, like when you watch a sunrise or something. It's all part of us, everything in our everyday world. You know, we were so busy.

24:08 We're caught up in all the things that you know, gotta pay bills, gotta do this, got social this, that and the other. But the fact is we live in an amazing, magical world that's full of all of these deeper truths that are all around us. If we begin to open ourselves up to that, it will change us. And it's certainly changed me. Now you're talking my love language, David, that is I completely agree with that. And part of what I'm trying to do by in my own journey and also as I share guests like you, is I really want us to move away from this anthropore worph per centric view. However you say that word, focus on humans and really, you know, be reverent and just let the beauty and magnificence of nature and all other lives wash over us. And that's part of why I wanted to have you on is. I think the world desperately needs that, and I think if we could do more of that, people would be more healthy, more vital. We would probably see less crime and violence and all kinds of things, and so we would get along better. We would get along better. I'm creating a new course, and once I do it, David, I know it's going to involve nature.

25:26 I'm going to tell you about it because I'm going to want your perspective on it. But I'm with you soldiers in arms here, David. Okay, So then where I want to go next. We're still on the plant thing here is I'm really interested and I've been kind of investigating this myself. But how have you seen flowers and plants that grow together come to share an affinity for each other, and I love, I love, I love that question. So you know, there have been all these studies and books the last so many years about how trees communicate with each others through their roots. Well, I'm out so and once I left Los Angeles and moved to southern Oregon, I've spent We lived on sixty acres for quite a while, which was connected to a lot more open acreage, and I was out all the time, walking and photographing and watching over sixteen years, changes and behaviors and movements of everything that was out there. And it was real clear to me that, you know, I just asked myself, Well, if trees communicate them people, why don't all other life forms communicate with each other? So when I see flowers and I know, we can say it's a coincidence, we

26:56 can say it's a metaphor. I don't believe that. When when when you see and there are pictures in my book of this, you see the leaves of daisies touching each other, they're in contact and they may well like trees, be in contact in the ground too, and they're you know, what does it mean? How do you know? Are they supporting each other? Are they protecting each other. Are they forming a community like we hear about and read about with trees? Who knows? But maybe, But I believe it's true with everything. How do we know? How do you and I know we're communicating with each other. We just we do it the way humans do it. But it doesn't mean it's the only way to communicate, for species to communicate with each other, and it's the whole world opens up that way, m hm. And that goes back to the oneness that you were talking about. I read somewhere, and I want to do more investigation into this, but I read somewhere that trees will actually cooperate with each other such that if one is not getting enough water another will, you know, either cut off its own supply or make something available to this other tree. And same thing with protecting against some diseases. So in other words, they're cooperating with each other to survive and thrive. And I think that's magnificent. It's also a fundamental quality of life. And that and that's you you're asking what

28:27 have I learned? What are you learning? You know? What are what are we doing? That's these are the things that you learn when you open yourself up to this stuff that life is. Life is really usually supportive inherently so, and so what I of course want to help create a more you know, a place where people can realize their potential. They're they're living their purpose, they're contributing from their purpose. And it seems to me that if we could better understand that we are really so supported by everything and we're all connected by all that, that we be fortified in that journey, right, And it's not just and we can support everything else too. We're just we're integrated. We're integrated into into the hole and it's it's really extraordinary when you when you take that in. You know, I'm going to interrupt this for one second. I just want to thank you. You know, I'm I'm learning a lot in this conversation. This is cool. Thank you, David.

29:33 I love that. Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be able to converse with a fellow traveler that has some similar interest. It's wonderful. And to that end, because I do want. Part of what I'm doing on the planet is I am out to awaken people that they can do more, they can serve more. And I'm interested in you know, if we could see through your eyes, through your photographs and through your book, then I think that we we could become really better stewards of the planet, just like my octopus teacher really elevated my understanding of the tender interdependence of all species and wanting to walk more softly on the planet, being much more choiceful of my waist and how do I recycle, and my in choosing who do I want to buy products from because I support the way that they practice sustainability or something else. So I'm interested in how your work can really help us be better stewards too of the planet. All right, well, thank you, you know, I mean, I'm I will keep doing what I do, and frankly, it gets deeper and deeper. I'm about I don't know.

30:36 I would guess eighty percent finished with the photography for the second Pictures of timebook, and it just keeps opening up. I keep seeing more connections, more life that is interconnected and expressing itself, you know, part of it. I'm going to get back to something I started to say before about the connection between the commercial work I did and what I'm doing now. I see personality and character in every living thing that you know, a blade of grass is as alive as I am, and that if I if I know how to look, how to look carefully at a blade of grass or anything else alive, I can learn everything I need to know about life. And it's just my own inhibitions, my own limitations that might keep me from from really being able to see that clearly. But I'm trying, and that's what That's what that's what this work is about. It's unbelievable. Well, I love that, David. We're going to take our next break and you definitely are coming back on when you get that next book out, So just be where you've been warned you're coming back. I'm your host doctor. Really score te as We've been on the year with David Alexander. He is president and co founder of x stam, a digital asset management to Fortune five in her companies including

32:07 NBC, Universal, Viacom, and the Hallmark Channel. He has photographed such amazing icons as the Eagles Hotel California album cover, the Blues Brothers album covers, then movie poster, and the Terminator movie poster, among so many others. Are so much to this man. We'll be right back. We're going to get a little bit deeper. Doctor Elise Courts has as a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose.

33:13 This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise A. L i Se at eliscortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thankteresting with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. We've been on the air with David Alexander. He's a photographer and author and photographer of pictures of Time, seeing time in the ordinary world. So I'm going to just start this next bit here with just maybe a really good fun zinger, and that is what is time? Now that you've been doing this and you've been steeped in this What is time for you? David? Right? Right? Good? I mean that is that is the question. It really has to be asked, doesn't it.

34:04 For sure, it's a part of this work. I've I've read books about time. There's an amazing book by the physicist Alan Lightman that you may have read called Einstein's Dreams, which is basically a creative exploration into any number of forms of time. And it really it really challenges your ability to think. And it's a really fairly simple book to read. Uh. You know, my my experience is, I don't know if I can separate time and life.

34:45 You know it's time. I can't. I can't really say what it is, Like I can say what my phone is. But but time is, you know, I know it's or part of time. We're part of the flow of time, whatever time is. I know that we're connected to the beginning of time, and we're connected to the unknowable future of time. And I look at the photographs that I make as opening up a window. If they're successful, if they like communicate to you or to other people who look at them, I look at them as opening up a window to time.

35:30 Where you can since the beginning, Like the one page spread in the book, there's a just a tree and it's a branch of a tree, and there's a man sitting in an art museum in France pointing at a painting to the person next to him, and they're identical. His arm in the branch, and you know they had to be connected at some point in the beginning of time. I see the beginning of time there branches and arms and legs, and you know, like we look at trees and we see, you know, things that look like human parts, and because we're we're human, we filter everything through the way the way we think. I had a philosophy teacher in junior college who said he liked saying if horses had gods, they'd be horses and their gods would be horses. And it's like every species these sees things through their own filters, and so you know, I'm trying to break through that actually, but it is, you know, I'm a person, and this is it's the way, it's the way I work.

36:49 But in pictures of time, you can see these connections and they're real. If there's just one, it's you know, a coincidence. Or a metaphor or whatever. When you see the scope of the book, I think you begin to see the larger picture that it's real and you can imagine. And this takes imagination the unknowable future of how things will evolve. You know, they will evolve, how they'll evolve. We can't know that, but we can imagine it. It's inherent, I think in the moments and the connections among the photographs in the book. So beautiful, so alluring. That's another thing that I that the philosophy piece is interesting to me, and that's where I wanted to go next. Is I wanted to have you touch a little bit on just some of the philosophical and definitely spiritual themes that you're wanting to surface or put forth or treat in your book or your work. Well, you know, it's pretty much everything that we've talked about. It's it's really it's that humbling appreciation of life. It is. It is really true.

38:05 I know this sounds maybe unbelievable, but it is really true that I no longer see the difference between me and a flower or a leaf. I feel, you know, you think of a leaf, what do leafs do? They absorb? Sunlight and they feed trees. They have this job and then they then they complete their purpose and they fall off and we step on them or we sweep them up, and we you know, in the meantime they've performed this heroic feat of life, of sustaining life. And you know, we can we can think of so much in life the same way. And that's that's really what underlies, you know, and it expanded my understanding of life. And it's just I really want to stress this that photographers aren't scientists.

39:06 We're not, you know, we we don't. We just see what's there. But this is I'm just speaking as a photographer, not as a scientist, although I've been reading a lot of science these last so many years because I'm curious about about a lot of of what's underlying a lot of this stuff. But the fact is it's there to be seen and photographs so so, you know, scientists use amazing microscopes to look at the details of quantum particles and that, you know, the basic elements that make up life. And they use unbelievable telescopes that are now in the sky or networked across the Earth that are like seeing into you know, the universe itself and on in the middle level. What I think of as the middle level is the level we live on. We're not on the quantum level. We're not out in space. We live in this level where we interact with each other. And on this level we can see a lot of a lot of things that open up the view of what the quantum scientists are seeing and what the astronomers are seeing. It's all in front of us. It's all the time anywhere in the world and on Earth. It's just I'm amazed. Honestly, I live

40:39 my life in kind of amazement these days. Well, and I want more of us to do that, David. It's a lot of time to get here. I can do yes, I get it. I get it. But I want more people to do that because again, I think it makes for a better human existence and a better world. And on the tree front, David, this is something that I've been experiencing for a long time. I'll say to you things on this I'm just playing with nature. I'm a I'm a runner. That wasn't until I broke my foot five weeks ago. Now I've got these fun friends called crutches, but anyway, they're my constants. But I love to run, and I love running outside, and I live, you know, in a treed neighborhood. And I have been so aware of this. I can't tell you countless times, David, when I'm out running, and especially there are times when I noticed one maybe either I'm feeling a little tired or you know, I'm struggling, I'm dragging. I'm really present that I'm not running under a tree and the leaves are falling.

41:36 The tree is tossing a leaf down to me to see if I can catch it. She's playing with me. That's how it occurs for me. And I've told people that and they're like, Okay, she's a little out there. I mean, what whatever, That's how I That's how it occurs for me and my my one of my favorite animals is an owl. And what I just what, I just what? I what I discovered accidentally. I came home one night and in the dark, about eight o'clock, and I got out of my car and over my head in my driveway I heard who So I did what any human being would do. I turned my head up to the sky and I returned who Oh. He responded he or she responded with another who, And then I was like, well who. So we had this volley and I realized I'm talking to an owl. So I ran into my house and said to my dar, said, Gatty, come out here. I'm talking to an owl. And by this time, you know, I'd run over to the front door, and now he hopped over to another branch to continue the conversation. Like he was like, where you're going?

42:37 We're talking, right, And she goes she's hiding behind the door. She's like, how's are mean. I'm like, not this one. We're talking. But what I'm amazed at is I I find if can just give ourselves over a little bit, just what happens, what opens And I don't know he or she was just I don't know, but in my view, we were having a conversation. What's yours? And what I just shared with you? Am I just crazy? Well? So I went some years ago, twenty five years ago, I went to Kenya with some friends of mine who my old buddy had been a teacher there for thirteen years and he got to know the Massai people and he would bring his school classes out there and they would live with the Massai for a period of time. And so we went back to this area which was really remote where they live, because they welcomed him back. He's an old friend. And then we went camping, backpacking with a group of Massie people, one of whom whose name is Moses.

43:53 Excuse me. He could talk to He knew every bird, all the monkeys, all that, he knew the sounds of every animal that was out there. And while we were there, he was having conversations like you're talking about, but deep conversations because he he would do the tones and the sounds. It was. It was mind blowing and how natural. And this you know, this is a guy who just grew up in the forest there and paid attention and that's you know. So yeah, no, it's good.

44:34 Good for you. So I'll share something with you that I'm not sure i've ever told anybody else about when when when I'm because this is going to sound as weird or weirder than what you said about the tree. When when I'm out photographing and i'm and I'm open, it's not always the case. I'm not always as open as I am at other times to what's around me him, particularly in nature. But it's also true when I photograph people, but particularly in nature. You know you're photographing, say a tree, Well, every leaf is amazing. Every leaf is unique, every branch, every part, every everything you see is equally as amazing as everything else. But I actually hear something like almost speak to me and as photograph me or it's and you know, and if you really pay attention, you can hear that all over you know. But but that's that's what often now most of the time guys made a photograph the actual things that I photograph that I just there is something some connection that that just draws me to something, and I actually hear it sometimes when I'm really open as almost a sound. I'm pretty sharing that I went I went to law school, I photographed rock and roll album covers

46:07 and movie posters, and now I'm listening to leaves. That's pretty That's quite a journey, David, I like it, definitely something to celebrate. And so now I think I know the answer to the next question I wanted to ask, and we're almost out of time, But I since you just said that you will you take what compels you, then that must mean that none of your pictures, especially if people are posed. Oh never not now, everything I did commercially was post. No. Now it's now it's I do my best to be invisible or to just you know, glendian to whatever scene and you know, no, I just try to just like if I'm photographing, you know, something in nature, a tree or whatever, I don't want to influence whatever the scene is. I want to photograph what's there, what's happening, what's natural, and the interactions. You know, what I find is that people, for the most part, really reveal themselves when they're comforta where they're just walking down the street. There's they reveal. You know, if you get into a conversation with them, they might adjust and get tight and react and like try to be whatever something or not. But most of the time people are really revealing a deeper truth about themselves. And I'm

47:38 loving that. I'm loving seeing that and digging in and photographing that well and holding it with reverence is what I see, holding it with reverence and respect, giving it its due. Yep. So we're out of time here for the actual conversation until you come back next with the next book. You know, this program musless to do by people around the world, and many of them are interested in how to really pay more attention to what you've done, really pay attention to what compels them. Where, Where does the world want them to go and serve from? What would you like to leave them with, David, Well, I'd like to leave them with the understanding that life that the world we live in is amazing and it's just a matter of paying attention. It's just it's all around us. Take a moment, take a deep breath and just look around, and the people are included as there's no you know, there's no hierarchy. It's all life and it's right there.

48:45 But it also liked them to know how to get my book. Yeah, well we're gonna we're going to do that. So let me all give that shout out there too. But David, I am so happy to know you, to be connected to you, and I can't wait to have you back on and keep continuing to follow your work and be lifted by you. Thank you for being you and honor thank you for this conversationally. I really appreciate it. You're so welcome. Listeners and viewers, you are going to want to learn more about David Alexander and the work that he does and his beautiful new picture book called Pictures of Time, Seeing Time in the ordinary world. The best place to do that to make it happen is to go to his website. It's Pictures of Time dot com. You can actually get right, you can get the book there as well, correct, David, Yes, oh yeah, there's a button to launch to get you to the book to buy the book. But you can just go on Amazon too as well.

49:36 Okay, that's what I did. See it on Amazon too. Okay, good, okay. Last week we missed the live show. You can always catch it via reported podcast. We were on the air with doctor Maya Dikovich talking about her new book, The Possible Self. She taught me and our listeners so much about the self will concept and how we can use it to encourage our own desire change, the personal development as leaders and just people in general. Next week, we'll be on the air with Jeff Wetsler talking about his new book Ask Tap into the hidden wisdom of people around you for unexpected breakthroughs in leadership and life. See you there. Remember work is one of the best means and adventures and realize means of realizing our potential and making the impact We crave, so let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose, featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes, each week on W four C. Why Together, We'll create a world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion performance and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.