Extol December 2017-January2018 | Page 52

I FOUND THIS TODAY 50 EXTOL • DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 IN NEED OF SOMETHING TO COUNTER THE INCREASING POLITICAL DISCORD ON FACEBOOK, JIM NICHOLS HAS FOUND A GEM THAT IS RESONATING WITH OTHERS. Story & Photos by Jim Nichols In late 2011, Facebook was full of politics and I wanted to try to balance it out. The result? A Year with My Left Hand – a daily post showing my hand in a variety of environments and configurations. Fast forward to 2015 and the political discord was stronger than ever. I don’t think it subsided after the 2012 election. If anything, it got worse. My left hand posts were limited by the calendar. I needed an open-ended approach to share some stupidity on Facebook to counter the political posts. On Jan. 1, 2016, I launched I found this today, a collection of items discovered on the frequent walks I share with my wife. A sweater in the park, a child’s bicycle in an industrial park, a potato at a busy intersection. It amazed me what could be discovered when you’re paying attention. Weird stuff. Random stuff. My kind of thing. That same January, we went out west. “No need to limit my finds to Kentuckiana,” I thought, “might as well share what I see out here.” The result? A toy from a fast-food meal, beers left behind at Joshua Tree National Park, a shawl on a Las Vegas sidewalk. Guess what happens there doesn’t always stay there. At the time of writing, I’ve made 127 posts to