Dear David,
Thank you for your response to Usman, though directed to him, I thought part may have addressed some of my questions in an oblique way. Let me confess that after posting I was consumed by a bit of anxiety that I might have offended some forumites by my use of the word “share” - in a context which suggested, in a provocative way, that those who choose not to let their prized Keris be undressed in front of the camera were not “sharing”- and in the politically correct environment in which most of us operate, that suggests selfishness. I am wrong to write it like that, and if I gave offense or caused a sensitive reader to wince- I apologize. I thank you, David, for your heartfelt response to the question of posting to the net- I see your point. Perhaps I need a lesson from Miss Manners about not inquiring too closely into the personal beliefs of others and obnoxiously demanding a justification for their private convictions- but if I gave offense, it was mostly out of ignorance. In my defense, I think as a novice, I have been frustrated by the dearth of Keris related publications in English. A lack I do not understand given how fascinating the whole topic is. I have Tammens (at an exorbitant price it seemed to me, Frey, van Duuren, Spirit of the Wood, Margaret Wiener, Keris/Drs. Hamzuri, Solyom, and the Ensiklopedi Keris- as a reader, I cannot tell how frustrating it is to look at pictures in the Ensiklopedi Keris- and see a header with a term I recognize, and not be able to ingest the substance of what follows. I suspect the same experience would be intensified were I to order Keris Jawa at $150.00 on Ebay- plus 72.00(!) for shipping). It is a feeling of starving for reference material in English that perhaps gave my comments about Keris photography a bit of unintended bite. There is one person I need not name, who is so generous of his time and knowledge in this field, that is, if I have given him offense, after his kindness to me, then I need to be kicked in my behind in a public manner. I guess as David says, there is no compelling aesthetic imperative which demands that a Keris lover post photos to the net- any more than he should be compelled to post photos of his wife and children to that electronic Wild West. Case closed(?), mea culpa
