BREXIT - THE RIGHT DECISION FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS?

The chickens have no choice but to come home to roost one day.
I've lived in Scotland, South Africa and now Australia and while the average person I've come across isn't necessarily a latent bigot, I do believe that this xenophobic hatred masquerading as patriotism that's engendered as much by inheritance as it is by our so-called leaders, is about as misguided and flawed as it gets yet so many buy into it.
Whenever one talks about inclusion - all races and ethnic groups, there's still a deep-seated cellular mindset entrenched within people (usually white, usually [relatively] privileged) that harkens back to some comfortable point of reference when their national identity was born and sovereignty assumed over the land they now occupy.
We are all of us emigrants if we rewind just a short way in (known) human history. 
Most scholars agree that the human race evolved in its variant forms from a genetic genesis in Africa so it follows that everywhere else, bar no place, was colonised by immigrants. So to conveniently just hang one's hat on a date and time at which point ownership was asserted is a supreme presumptive arrogance. But when you have the guns and bullets and a lot of poor citizens to sacrifice as cannon fodder, it's easy to vanquish an indigenous people who object to your presence then tell them afterwards like a brutally beaten child that it's all for the best and one day they'll be grateful. I'm wondering when that day will come...?
For the original inhabitants - probably never.
The assertions of nations (particularly the Brits) when it comes to who got there first and the bloodthirsty empire-building nightmare (for original residents) that ensued is nothing more than a selective, convenient device designed to perpetuate the status-quo.
While nothing can adequately redress the injustices of the past, decisions in the present can still create sane, just and inclusive societies despite the rigorous attempts by the state controlled corporate-media to turn us all into fearful xenophobes.
This (not so) little gamble has, I believe, backfired for all the wrong reasons but for perhaps the right result. 
It shall over time, potentially illustrate to these lily-white Poms exactly how important immigrants are to the efficient operation of the British democracy and, if the truth be told, the policy makers are those wielding the commercial power in any nation state and many of those people are without doubt, immigrants.
Colonialism may have assured innovation out of necessity but the price at which this came has been horrifically attritionist and it forms the basis of much inherited thinking in our modern societies where the "conquered" people still rank as "inferior" to their lords and masters even if only by dint of trade and commerce and strategic global decision making.
The nett result of this anthropogenic evolution is global unrest, a widening divide between the controllers and the suppressed masses and complete frustration on behalf of the latter who, ironically as a result of their masters' actions, have now decided to say fuck you, we want out. We want to give it a go under our own steam...
This decision forces Britain to relook at the whole operating structure of the country beyond their borders while dealing with the obvious consequence of having proclaimed their exclusiveness and superiority to the world, as disingenuous as those claims may be.
The responses, which initially might be belligerently resistant will undoubtedly settle into a pattern of mutual benefit all round although I'm sure that's going to take years to attain.
Will it ever be equitable for all people under current political structures though? 
I have no idea...
At a more prosaic level, however, the ultimate irony of the Brexit phenomenon has to be the reality that those (in the 18-24 year old age group) who were majorly opposed (64%) to leaving the EU are the ones who are fated to live with the consequences of the decision that's been made on their behalf principally by pensioners of 65 years and over at 58% of the vote with the balance being made up by those in between. As the age demographic increased so too the desire to leave the EU.
Make of that what you will, however, it's unarguable that the majority of the younger generation may feel rightly disgruntled having to endure a situation they voted against.
Conversely, they can just get on with life, aware of the potential they now have to do things very differently to the generations that preceded them and which led to this decision in the first place.

TIL DEATH DO US PART....IN THE MEANTIME, THERE's RUBY

In the dim recesses of the house, tinkling chimes in a myriad designs dangled from the ceilings causing me to duck and weave in order to prevent a percussive symphony of variant melodies filling the rooms as I went.
A collection of dolls in beautifully tailored couture stared unblinkingly at me from pedestals, recesses, shelves and furniture, forlorn it seemed, in the knowledge that they were no longer part of this home - soon to be sold, no doubt to someone who'd have little idea of the careworn arthritic fingers that had stitched and embroidered their fine gowns with an affection cultivated by a lifetime of dedication to family, pets and one man through it all.
These gnarled, wizened people, hunched husband and wife with their bright-eyed cat, the jewel of their lives, appositely named, Ruby - followed me through each room, talking up the history of its transformation over twenty five years, the affection and pathos obvious in each syllable.
Every wall in the house, save the kitchen, was covered with pictures of cats of every conceivable type and colour, each print mounted onto a cardboard backing and carefully slotted jigsaw like into a composite tapestry until not a scrap of paint could be seen.
It should've seemed pathetic - it wasn't. It was the most endearing thing I'd ever seen. It caused me to tear up and swallow a rising lump in my throat.
And now, a retirement home - Jane was too wobbly on her feet and the housework was becoming beyond challenging. I could see the loving light still sparkling in her husband, Peter's old, faded blue eyes as if to say: if I go, who will care for her then?
I moved into another fabulously cluttered chamber of curiosities, wiping a tear from my eyes with a surreptitious sweep of my hand. Ruby purred against my legs and Jane smiled broadly and beatifically at me having discovered I was the rescuer of seven cats of my own. I was one of the good ones.
The paradox of this human existence, the riddle of the Sphinx flashed into my mind as I witnessed very old people transmogrifying into foetal forms once again, curling within the womb of a sacred home, umbilical walking sticks connecting them to its energetic heart. A heart soon to be transplanted...
There was something paradoxically oppressive and yet liberating about this encounter. I wanted to escape as much as I wanted to embrace them.
I smiled, wished them well, stroked Ruby one last time, touched Jane and Peter affectionately on the shoulders then walked out into the misty morning, my tears mingling with the rain on my cheeks as I slowly headed for the car. 

FATHER'S DAY

I miss my dad every day not just on Father's Day.
I'm sure that's normal for most people who've had the joy and privilege of knowing a father who cared for them and has now moved on to other realms.
There are those who've had unspeakably terrible experiences with fathers too, of course, and I don't even know how to begin to empathise with them as I only ever skirted the fringes of the flaws that made up the man I knew as my dad.
I was lucky.
I acknowledge that.
I had the benefit of having a teacher. Sometimes those lessons were being taught by a flawed and vulnerable human being and he was doing everything wrong but given the values that our parents believed in and tried to live by - we could recognise that those values gave us the insight to know they were being parents for the first and only time and were doing the best they could - even when it was tough and the decisions were beyond our understanding. 
We could always come back to a place where love lived amid the drama and the trauma and the complexity that is a family dynamic. 
They were trying their best. 
Others weren't and aren't so lucky so to those - please let all of us who've had the benefit of the unconditional, infinite love of our dads that continues to flow eternally through us from that heart-shaped place in the universe - let us channel some of that love, caring, compassion, joy and lightness of being with those who are most in need of it.
That's the thing about love - it's the highest frequency and it's infinite - we can't deplete it - it's always there. Parents and those who love us, are simply conduits for that energy and allow it to wash over us and through us when they experience the gift of a child in their lives.
It's there, it's always there and it awaits only to be sourced.
The beauty of it all is that the switch is in our own hearts. We don't need dads or mums or sisters or brothers or lovers or friends - we only need to switch it on - everything and everyone else are just bonuses. The best kind of bonuses and we should never forget that.

Then, to top this, we sometimes are given the most awesome opportunity of all - to become dads ourselves. In this way we experience the flow of that love first hand as channellers of the infinite energy.
This may seem soppy and a bit space-cadetish but it's how I see and feel the world. 
I want to be a dad that allows that love, without any judgement, to flow to my children for all time. I don't know if I'm doing that but I swear to God, I'm trying.
I don't care what they do or how they do it in life - just that they are doing what they want to do and they're doing something that makes them happy and is uplifting so that they too can feel the love and it let it flow.
That would be the most gratifying thing of all.
Flick the switch.  
Pay it forward.
Forever.

The Windows and Gates Ramble - Portals To Who Knows Where...

My lovely wife adores me for many reasons, not least of which may be her successful passive strategy of "husbandic" domestication, a phenomenon that occurs exactly as the metaphoric frog in the pot of boiling water. You simply don't notice what's happening around you then boom! boiled alive or, in my case, tamed and domesticated... 
How the fuck.....etc.
She is so clever and cunning that one - a real woman - erm...when she wants to be...and a brat for the rest of the time - a wonderfully, beautiful, engaging irresistible brat it must be stressed but a brat nonetheless. Likes-attracting-likes and all that toot. So, what's not to love? We are all imbued with a shred or two of narcissism somewhere within our complex humanness.
So in that sense, I guess, a Larmarckian evolutionary inheritance of my mum's no-nonsense domesticity along with Karen's gentle, covert suggestive manipulation over the years all seems to have resulted in this thing that loves to cook and clean (and I mean proper housework - vacuum-cleaners, emptying of dustbins, garbage management, sweeping, mopping, dishwasher pack and unpack rituals and laundry - with a pathological aversion to ironing) and will do most anything about the house with the exception of windows.
That old chestnut - doesn't do windows....that's me. Fuck the windows. 
Where we live looking out over the verdant undulating treetops to the forest reserve beyond, the layer of greyish tinged grime on the glass gives the panoramic splendour a certain soft, filtered effect without even booting up Photoshop. 
Windows? That's Bill Gates' territory and look how he turned out - a failed software developer (there's a lesson in there somewhere) yet obscenely wealthy nonetheless god-complex geekmeister with eugenicist tendencies....
When you realise the depth of the heinous eugenics philosophy -  culling, preventing procreation unless they're desirable specimens - master race stuff and all that - then you see Gates, one of this planet's wealthiest self-confessed eugenicists peddling strange chemical-concoctions, euphemistically called vaccines, in the poorest third world communities then one must surely take pause.
I did, I do.
Hey folks, look at me - I'm Bill Gates and you're a mass of hapless, impoverished human fodder that has no business procreating so I'm here to help - try this really cool new lab-synthesised muti we call vaccines - one jab and all your troubles will be over - no more cholera, no more measles, mumps, rubella - oh and no more babies.... (there's always the fine print lurking somewhere in the offing) 
What - you can't read? Here, have a double-dose just to make sure...
Etcetera...

So maybe there's a deep-seated psychological premise underlying my pathological aversion to Windows in all shapes and formats - maybe it's a syndrome or something - AAS (Anti-Antichrist-Syndrome) for that's how I see Mr Godgeek for the most part, his contributions to trapping people behind computerised devices for the best part of their lives notwithstanding.
What does this have to do with being a compliant, domesticated husband?
I really have no idea. But look at me - I mean, come on - what a catch, right?
(offline sotto-voce) catch? Maybe one that would be better off being thrown back....
Ah well, keep the home fires burning, humans and don't let the fuckers grind you down.

ALL OR NOTHING...

Jozi and Shooks in contemplation....

Hey, Shooks - I know they talk about

 us having nine lives and all that but 

can there ever really be nothing at all?

Was there ever nothing at all?

Well, can you feel this claw in your ass?

OW! That hurts, asshole!

Sorry, Jozi but see - you're "aware" of that claw - 

you're aware. You have awareness - you're

conscious (despite what those materialists say).

The quantum guys - now they're the bomb. 

It's all theory and anything/everything is possible. 

Along with that, they've discovered (theoretically)

that time isn't linear at all - we've seen that - 

remember the days when we we were witches' 

familiars....sigh. So there's something now - there

was always something. There was no before and

so in reality; the Big Bang just happened, hasn't

happened and will never happen but we are 

experiencing a shared reality nonetheless. 

So even if we use up our nine lives 
there will be something after that?

There will be - there is - even if it is whatever it was before it all didn't start - we were/are part of that so we will be part of it again/still.
Does that make any sense?

Do you wanna go shred the bedroom blinds

then puke on the Afghan rug?

Yeah, fukkit! Why not!
Because in another dimension -
we've already done it...

Have Faith

I've never been a fan of religion and as I grew older I saw it more as a form of spirituality in a straitjacket - in short, I was scathing of much that was peddled by patently false prophets, how the Church was exempt from the burden of taxation, televangelists waxing virtuous while reaping the fiscal rewards and hypocritically sinning like demons and even more onerous - how it was used to manipulate people, politics and communities divisively especially as a disingenuous case for going to war.
But here's the thing - I'm not anti-religion per-se and I'm certainly not anti-faith. In fact, the swing by so many to the realm of cynical, biting, militant atheism is more distasteful to me than the bible-thumping proselytisers who might hang on to a belief in a 4,000 year old Earth and other such strange assertions.
Many of the atheist brigade though are just plain fucking nasty. Unnecessarily so.
They might also be surprised to learn that empirical science (their unacknowledged ism), while it may not yet have proved the existence of God in the singular omniscient omnipotent supernatural way using rigorous scientific methodology, it certainly has shown beyond any doubt (many studies show this: no matter how much they tried to dismiss this, it just couldn't be done) that people who pray and/or have a system of faith live longer and healthier lives than those who are bereft of any faith/religious/spiritual conviction.
There's much more to this world and life than just skin, bone, physicality and materialism and many anomalous paradigms cannot yet be explained by our material sciences - placebo impact and the effect of affirmation through thought and prayer (mind over matter) to name but two and there's a hell of a lot to be said for religions that consolidate communities and maintain strong moral and ethical parameters in which these things can be realised.
Besides, if nothing else, it lets you stay alive and healthier for longer - provided, of course, your belief system doesn't involve murder, mayhem and self-destruction to try prove your point.
Be kind, I say. My dear old dad used to say: you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar and he knew what he was talking about...although he was as profane as they come.
Namaste, humans. x