September 18, 2008 – Ellie Steffen, a Woodstock, N.Y., artist who paints animals, including some of mine, from my photos, captured the soul of Elvis, my 3,000 pound Swiss Steer. Ellie powerfully reinterprets my photos, and I was blown away by her work, which is for sale at the Doghouse Gallery in Woodstock, N.Y.
  Ellie and I share a lot, and one thing we share is a passion for our lives. We are determined to live our own lives, every day. And to create and create.
  I don’t want to push the analogy too far, but there is a reason people who know fear love Winston Churchill. He is, along with Thomas Merton, a hero and inspiration to me, although I cannot imagine two more different people than Churchill and me.
  If you read about his life, you see that he was often quite frightened, but he dismissed fear as an indulgence and as a waste of time. His resolve was perhaps his greatest weapon.
   What is our goal, he was asked, when the war broke out and his work seemed hopelelss. Our goal, he said, is victory. It seems simplistic, even jingoistic, but because Churchill could imagine victory, he acheived it.