My name is Richard Lowe Jr., and this is a summary of the philosophy I try to live by. It came together over a hard life, and it holds up.
I have many interests and I pursue life with energy, with a strong sense of responsibility to help others and to be ethical at all times. I am a professional writer and ghostwriter, and writing is my primary passion. I am also a photographer, a web designer, and an architect of sorts. I love history and geography and the chance to see the world through other people’s eyes, which is one of the great gifts of ghostwriting.
The first pillar: life is meant to be lived
Anyone can sit and watch television. There is no skill or creativity in it. I would rather get up and write a book, make a photograph, build a website, travel, and see the world. I have watched too many people waste away complaining they never got the chance to do anything. I prefer to do things. When I am on my deathbed, I want no regrets, knowing I lived the most productive and ethical life I could.
The second pillar: create your own life
Life is what you make of it. That is one of the truest statements I have ever heard. I have been through times so bad I thought the weight of the world sat on my shoulders. I have also learned the value of a good friend, a good meal, and a beautiful performance. My life is mine to create. It is not what others make of it, unless I let them.
The third pillar: keep changing
I plan for the future and spend little time looking back. Who cares what mistakes I made twenty years ago? I am alive today. I still find it astonishing that I, once one of the most introverted people alive, now have hundreds of friends. Life is about change, and when life stops changing, you are done.
The fourth pillar: find beauty and let it heal you
When Claudia passed away in 2005, I forced myself out into the world to keep from caving in to grief. I began photographing renaissance festivals and belly dance shows, and I found the performers to be some of the most compassionate and ethical people I have ever met. The color, the movement, and the meaning in the dance pulled me out of grief and brought me back to life. Beauty, it turns out, is not a luxury. At the lowest point of my life, it was the thing that saved me.
The fifth pillar: give something back
I have photographed well over a thousand belly dance shows and produced a couple dozen myself, and my favorite was a showcase called Belly Dance Kaleidoscope. Several of the performers are devoted to charity, and I have sponsored shows to raise money for good causes. A life lived only for yourself is a small life. Some of the deepest meaning I have found came from using what I can do, a camera, a stage, a story, to lift other people up.
That is the philosophy. Live actively, own your life, keep changing, let beauty heal you, and give something back. It carried me out of the darkest years I have known, and it carries me still.