WEAVING NEW MIRACLES

WEAVING NEW MIRACLES

It's strange yet uplifting how life has a way of allowing one to appreciate its layers if we're just paying attention.

Over all the years I've lived here "on the farm" I've always been working, doing my project management thing away from home base and Karen has been the one to have spent the lion's share of time here as a working and studying artist in a home studio.

Consequently I never got to spend that time with any real day-to-day continuity to see the subtlety of nature and little miracles unfolding around me every day.

I've been watching the weavers, the beautiful golden masked ones making new nests for potential partners only to have the mama bird reject a sterling homebuilding effort for reasons known only to her. Tirelessly, the male will chatter to her, accept the verdict and begin the process from scratch on another likely branch and very often in a completely different tree.

But although I have witnessed this process off and on many times, I've never actually seen the relationship drama unfold between the birds themselves; the "conversations," the inspections, the obvious condemnation by the project manager on structural or aesthetic grounds and the resignation of the architect-builder when he is compelled, by unwritten contract, to source a new site for construction to recommence. And that, I thought, would be that - but it isn't.

Once the dwelling has been erected on site B, daddy weaver systematically demolishes the condemned building on site A. There's a whole complex dynamic on the go here. It's sublime to behold.

Yet other weavers are making nests in trees I only just realised had become big and tall enough to safely accommodate them, trees that were nonexistent when we moved here in 2004. This became even more apparent to me when I recently reviewed an old Google Earth map I'd used back then to plot the distance of our perimeter fence. The landscape was almost bleak in comparison to what's grown here in ten years, not least of which has been my spirit and absolute love of this beautiful place. I still get teary whenever I write about it.

I recall the same sensation overwhelming me in autumn then winter when I see the grass yellowing, thinning out and plants shedding their summer foliage - it's akin to artistic self-doubt - will the place ever be beautiful again? Will it recover? What if it doesn't? 

Will I ever be able to paint with words again? Will I find an audience? Will I be good enough to find employment in Australia? What if...?

And lo, the seasons turn, the rains fall, the paradise that is this place I am to leave behind, blossoms into new life, relationships and adventure and my faith in everything is restored, including myself.

And more than anything I experience sublime joy and gratitude for this eternal upliftment into infinite potential.

Whether there be some unseen divine hand guiding facets of life that we will never truly comprehend or whether this is just the great unfolding of an evolutionary yet cyclical order of things, I think the Native American view of observing the primary creative force of the universe through the natural world is perhaps the way it strikes a chord within me as the miraculous presents itself to me every single day of my life when I am savvy enough to experience it.

And now - other, strange, beautiful miracles await to be discovered anew.

I cannot wait. 

FREEDOM...?

Someone asked "what is freedom?" and it appeared that nobody wanted to address the question as it doesn't really have a singular, cogent answer.

And the context in point pertained to "political" freedom.

And that subjectively means different things to people but even so, it's as fuzzy as all hell.

The US Constitution supposedly defines, enshrines and is geared to protect the individual and collective freedom of its citizens through this mechanism we euphemistically call democracy. 

The constitution of my own current country of residence, South Africa,  claims a similar ideology.

And in this context, I guess the most pertinent approach to an answer is unfortunately through comparison - which political system offers its citizens the most "freedom?"

It would be a fascinating find (I'm sure it's been done many times) to come across a spreadsheet showing, by country, what freedoms and restrictions are currently enjoyed by citizens across the world.

And the dilution of this analogy is, as with South Africa, simply: are the majority of our citizens "better off" (more free) than they were under the previous system or in the case in point: are we more "free" in our democracies than those who lived and/or still live communistically? In the conversation where this was raised by an American friend, Cuba was the case in point, understandably, given its geographical proximity and connection with the US. Then there's the Eastern version of communism...another animal entirely.

However, it's a simple question with, undoubtedly, a very convoluted and complex answer.

Using South Africa as an example (I know this dynamic having lived here for over 40 years): the majority of South Africans now enjoy (constitutionally, at least) freedom from discrimination based on their ethnicity (we know in reality that ideology doesn't necessarily translate into desired behaviour, however, that now thankfully pertains only to radical minorities). South Africans are free to say what they want about anybody and anything publicly without ending up in detention as long as what's being said doesn't constitute "hate speech."

We're free to practice any religious expression and, it has to be said, there's currently possibly more opposition here toward the Jewish community (Gaza/Palestine situation primarily) than Muslims which is probably unique in Western democracies, which South Africa, to some degree, purports to be.

So without a blow-by-blow analysis of our theoretical constitution versus its practical implementation, suffice to say that yes, South Africans are seemingly more free than they've ever been. 

But it's bogus. 

If one looks at the prevalent situation here as far as violent crime goes, the majority of middle-class suburban South Africa exists behind walls topped with electrified fences in estates that are policed by armed private security companies, such as the one inhabited by Oscar Pistorius and his erstwhile girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. So the illusion of safety from the threat of crime is just that - a state of mind. Ironically, Reeva was murdered by one of the trusted members of the inner circle not by some marauding thief from the nasty "outside world."

However you dice it and serve it though: South Africans still live in fear. Almost 200 women are raped every day in this country while the current daily murder trend is around 47. 

So as far as freedom from crime and fear is concerned it really doesn't seem valid.

Freedom is thus an abstract constitutional concept defined by the need, certainly for millions, to exist in gated, secure communities because they believe it isn't safe to live in any other way. That's not freedom. It's a lifestyle, sure. But it ain't freedom.

However, we're not hysterically psychologically hogtied by media hype over things like Ebola as people in the US seemingly are, given the sensationalistic and fearmongering exposure seen in the mainstream media there. South Africans aren't as readily duped by those strategies. No, we are fearful of other more localised and mundane things such as carjackings, rape, murder and home invasions - all insanely prevalent and beyond anything that should be deemed acceptable or normal. Yet that's life in South Africa.

More insidiously, we also have similar cyber-eavesdropping legislation here as in UK, US, certain countries in Europe, Australia etc. 

The rampant corruption that obtains starts at the highest office in the country and there is no accountability even when people are caught. 

The judicial system is a farce and readily influenced by those with power and/or money. 

Whistleblowers are also now being accorded pariah status (as in US, UK, Australia) to reduce criticism of state, again such once-noble and patriotic acts being disingenuously packaged as threats  to national security.

There's no Patriot Act though and a much more benign version of Homeland Security here...so far. 

We can harvest rainwater freely, live off the grid if we so choose but we do have zero-tolerance militant police who brook no compromise if you're a person of interest.

There is much less chance of secret detention without trial now, however, there's no official subversive element that opposes government (such as the outlawed ANC did back in the day with the Nat government). If such movements had to surface, I would bet there would be the same level of paranoia and dirty tricks to emerge as did under apartheid and people would end up in our own local Guantanamo... maybe Gautengamo..?

So how does communism front up to that?

Does your constitution cater for and/or protect you under the listed circumstances:

Can you say what you want anywhere any time? 

Can you create a political party to oppose the incumbent regime without being fatally persecuted?

Does your vote actually count for anything? 

Are you formally restricted in your desire to procreate?

Will your religious convictions cause you to be persecuted, especially if you're Muslim or not a follower of the "state" religion? (Israel springs to mind)

Does your country still enforce the death penalty? And if so, what "crimes" merit that sentence? 

Or are you in a (theoretically) more morally evolved country that doesn't enforce capital punishment? 

Are you, as a minority, persecuted?

Are you, by dint of your sexual persuasion or gender, persecuted?

Are you free to harvest natural elements and resources and live off the national grid without being persecuted?

Is your personal privacy sacrosanct as far as surveillance is concerned? 

Is your sovereignty recognised by all other "free" countries globally?

Does your nationality prejudice you in any way and restrict your ability to travel abroad?

How does government policy affect your ability to produce food sustainably and idependently?

It's all comparative really and begs the question: is covert hegemony, such as exists in the US, South Africa etc. where personal freedom is hobbled by subversive legislation disingenuously presented as augmenting our safety, more just and humane than the dictatorship that overtly outlaws any criticism of state?

In both cases, we're still looking over our shoulders...

The other question: do we exist in a country where playing the system can be construed as a work in progress and we can still collectively bring pressure to bear against government and make changes through civil society  / disobedience without resorting to violent revolution or fearing for our personal safety and freedom by having dissident views?

So, what is freedom really?

For me: Living without fear. And additionally living in joy. And being able to share love regardless of circumstance or the influence of any man-made policy designed to control our behaviour.

We don't have to be angst-ridden or cynical or be strapping explosives to our chests or brandishing placards on Wall Street or convincing others of our beliefs to be making a difference or to be free. But we do have to be actively involved in the process in some way that will help to ensure that we bring about those conditions through peaceful change.

THE AGE OF ABBREVIATION

The age of virtual instant access may well be the contemporary cultural trend where our archaic collectables, mementos - call them what you will - seem redundant in the eyes of the pubescent thumb-texting technocrats, but with the supplanting of these tactile items (greeting cards, books, magazines, records/CD's etc.) by what's "accessible" in the cloud, ownership has fundamentally changed and I would argue, nuance has died. 

It isn't that hard to accept the world is an evolving, dynamic environment but I believe it to be fallacious to simply accept that technological advancement is by default an anthropocentric improvement. It's a change unarguably but it's only better from a time, size and convenience perspective. And if those are the precepts whereby we validate our existence then by all means we've achieved heaven on Earth - we've arrived. I elect to think otherwise without denying myself the use of technological tools. The untrendy concept of "balance" springs to mind. 

However, the "use it or lose it" premise most certainly does apply here. If less of something is being consumed, usually through the aggressive marketing of the online equivalent, then the tactile version begins to dwindle until it becomes an esoteric (in the original sense of the word) commodity and a specialist niche market evolves from that. Literature is the most obvious example. I'm a writer and I selfishly advocate the advancement of eBooks certainly, but a tablet will never feel better in my hands than a paperback or a coffee table book still does. And you will never experience the smell or the energy of the book unless that too will be interfaced via our handheld devices some time in the future. I suspend any astonishment in this area - I'm sure it will be done. 

With the advent of an electronically generated and maintained pool of data-resourcing, i.e. The Internet, we have been reprogrammed to think in an entirely different way and, I would posit, think less about individual problem solving and summarily hand that power over to the gods of cyberspace who even go as far as to evaluate where we are, what we've asked before and what we historically like to do in this space so they can algorithmically predict what we're going to ask this time around. And chances are we'll allow our search engine to do that for us too while they're algorithmically hinting at what others who bought this also bought. 

I had a spat online just yesterday with someone who wrote a post which, without the categorisation, labelling and stereotyping of groups of people, made absolutely no sense. Remove all the labels and the comment had no point. And that's what big brother does "for" us - categorises us into target consumer groups. That's what it boils down to. 

Our education system is not designed to create original thinkers who will trailblaze new pathways for the overarching benefit of humankind, where the majority will become high-powered decision-makers; the whole system is geared toward dumbing the rest of them down while simultaneously producing consumers. If we had a system that augmented the intelligence and worldliness of the masses, the population would become empowered and the elitist regimes that control everything would become redundant. It's our perceived yet illusory dependence on those we've elected and the technology they sell us that maintains us in this ongoing state of acquiescence. 

We haven't yet figured out the real evolutionary paradigm that's most powerful of all - there is strength in numbers and collective choices dictate our future. As passive consumers we don't realise or exercise that power - we're too busy handing it over via another handy cloud app that frees up more space in our home and saves us from leaving the house while the competitive distraction of sports and reality TV oozes from our screens, interspersed with massive doses of fear-laden newscasts running on repeat looping. 

This is how we elect to become informed. This is how we interface with others for the most part too. Conveniently. 

A fantastic meme I saw the other day said simply: stop the glorification of busy. 

And that's it in a nutshell. While we may be able to produce and procure things more efficiently than ever before, it's paradoxically bizarre don't you think that we've got so little time on our hands? Not really. Not when we fill up all the space and time we should have available to us with our constant link to everything through devices and IC technology. We are consumed with inane distraction because everyone else is doing it and "it's what's trending."

When the old fashioned businessman re-read the letter his secretary had typed for him, signed it, handed it back to her so it could be snail-mailed to the respondent, he generally phoned the client and arranged to have lunch or meet face to face while the wheels of non-instant access chugged along. There was time for other stuff too and if he was out of the office he was pretty much unreachable. Yet shit still got done and it got done properly albeit with less stress and in a longer timeline. So what? Nowadays, if you're not at your desk, they'll try the mobile. If you don't answer that, they'll text you or see if you're online somewhere else and message your through that vehicle. What they don't get or accept is that you might want to be unavailable. 

But here's the thing - it's okay for someone to be unreachable. The world does not come to an end if you don't have an answer within twelve nanoseconds of your desirous urge becoming manifest. 

We might have arguably better technology but that doesn't make us smarter - it only makes the devices smarter and as the devices become smarter we become dumber and more acquiescent while we believe that we're too busy for anything really - even reading to the end of an email or having the time to read a book. Who reads when you can skim and get the gist of it? Point being, the gist is what the consumers deem workable but those writing the stuff we skim, know the nuance and the devil to be in the details and that's the place the drones never look until it's too late. 

We may have less and less need for physical "clutter" when we can simply download or stream 1's and 0's to see or hear something that once we held in our hands or placed in a playback device but unless we have a backup somewhere that resides within our physical domain and we don't need a licence to validate the information, we don't actually own it. 

I love technology. 

As a tool. 

But the system is no longer a tool, the roles are reversed and through our total reliance on it, we become the system's bitch. 

So party on, bitches! 

I'd still rather have collectables and tactile stuff that reminds me of times and places as well as the now and I'd like to think I'll always have time to go for a walk with my wife. Those are important things in my life and I own them. 

As they said once upon a time in the Orange Free State: nothing is that important that it can't wait two weeks... 

Amen to that. I'm relearning that ideal and I like it. 

#ODETOROBINWILLIAMS

ODE TO ROBIN WILLIAMS
Oh, Mork! Our Peter Pan has left
Leaving the world, forlorn, bereft.
My captain, oh my captain, why
Depart this world with no goodbye?
No Doubtfire, Goodnight Vietnam
We know you always gave a damn.
There's no Patch Adams red nosed face
Will heal our hurt or take your place.
Aladdin's genie, give us one
A single wish for our favourite son
Our Bicentennial Man can't go
No Death To Smoochy, no, no, no.
Our Garp, our Flubber can't be gone
The Popeye, Jack show must go on.
What dreams may come, you were a dream come true
Our best old dog and we will so miss you.
You'll always be our fisher king,
The greatest dad, you magic thing.
Frenetic, funny, on the ball
You mocked them one, you mocked them all.
The world has lost a special man
Which seems a really shitty plan
While we were laughing at your stuff
We'd no idea you'd had enough
Your soul was ours, you laid it bare
Yet we failed to see your own despair.
If you'd only asked, made a little fuss
We'd have helped you through as you did for us.
While we wept with mirth as you played the clown,
I've this feeling that we let you down.
And that's the saddest thing of all
In the laughter we never heard your call.

Brigit Strawbridge: Mass Insect Extinction; the Elephant in the Room?

Brigit Strawbridge: Mass Insect Extinction; the Elephant in the Room? 

THE PALESTINE PARADOX

The ultimate paradox has to be what Israel continues to do in Palestine. It is the most profound case of collective cognitive dissonance in the universe.

Illusory power driven by innate insecurity is what has more chance of destroying true Judaism than coexisting in an open state which practices religious freedom and tolerance. 

Hamas suffers from the same delusion. 

No belief system or culture has any chance of long term sustainability if it is forced on people through conflict. 

What is really being defended here?

A MESSAGE FROM THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE

By dint of humankind's self-proclaimed custodianship of the planet as the supreme species, we rate ourselves more advanced and intelligent than any other creature with whom we purportedly share the rock.

Ergo: we should have some idea of how to make shit work by now. Sadly, when it comes to our much vaunted egotistical intelligence, we aren't really evolved at all.

Some three thousand years after the birth of mainstream religion (some admittedly came a bit later and many belief systems were extant long before that), we still cannot agree on anything pertaining to what that actually means.

We ostensibly agree (for those who do believe) that there is one supreme divine deity yet we have concocted books that interpret what that means exactly as there is a bunch of real estate involved and divine decrees which appear in some books but not in others.

These religious manuals were written by a host of people back in the day and it seems that this one deity on whom the works were all allegedly based had a real problem communicating its intentions unambiguously which seems rather odd for an all-seeing, omnipresent, omnipotent entity unless there was a mischievous intention behind it all. Who knows? Maybe there's an apocryphal Book Of Goofy still lurking undiscovered in a cave at Qumran that will put it all into context - the world was just a crazy joke and we keep missing the punchline.

Imagine for a moment that you were the Supreme Deity, creator of the universe and everything in it and you wanted to give these talking monkeys you'd just made some form of survival guide for their time on the planet....

Wouldn't you write one manual in the plainest, unambiguous manner and ensure that everyone understood its meaning? Hell, you wouldn't even have to use language or words - you could just program it into their DNA... but as 99% of it is supposedly "junk" anyway, maybe a few thousand years of ignoring our innate higher nature has just got that bit of junk switched off...

Instead, it is claimed, I supposedly wrote a manual for the Jews, a manual for the Buddhists, a manual for the Muslims, a manual for the Christians, one for the Sufis et-al? Why?

If I'd wanted to do that, I'd have made one for the scientists too just to show them that the divine order of things actually does conform to a logical, explicable arrangement - it's just that they haven't necessarily made the equipment to understand or measure it all just yet...but keep looking - oh and tell that Dawkins bloke to cheer up a bit, please.

That's what I would've done if I'd got the job as Supreme Creator of life, the universe and everything - made one book that explained everything and made it very plain that creating different sets of rules and interpretations and using different manuals to further your own loaded agendas wasn't in the interest of acknowledging the single deity nor was it ingenuous in any manner or form.

I didn't say that this lot was entitled to that real estate because I thought they were my finest work... Lucifer and the other angels were actually my finest work and look what happened to them...

Some clever human said at some point that with great power comes great responsibility and that's been the problem with you humans from the get-go - you've never taken responsibility for your own business and deeds - always fobbed it off on me...or that other handy scapegoat - the devil...as if that was an opposing force to the creator of the universe...pfffffftttttt.....

You lot decided to write your own books, claim they were my doing and then beat the shit out of each other when these interpretive manuscripts failed to convince your neighbours that they were doing it wrong when their own manual said otherwise. Can't you see the circular argument that's in play here? No? 

Hmmmmm....

So if you all still agree that I'm the ultimate judge of humankind let me say this - what a bunch of stupid, egocentric morons you are expecting multiple sets of human-contrived dogma to work when they're simply designed to highlight your differences and place one contrived set of beliefs over another.

Rather take all of those books, see where the common ground is and delete all the other stuff that doesn't apply - y'know the stuff that says your mob are better than this or that mob.

Here's the cold, hard reality - none of you are chosen and conversely you all are - and ultimately no matter which strand of life's infinite  spider web you choose to walk along, you are all going to the middle point (whatever that means to you - death, ascension, oblivion, nothing, nirvana, whatever...) and the strands of the web are all linked and validated by a common spiral strand that holds it all together.

If I was to describe that common thread in your language, I'd call it love - it's the universal glue that keeps it all in place.

And after so many thousand years of proving to yourselves that fear and war and acrimony serve no higher purpose but only sow the seeds of discontent and destruction, don't you think that by now you should have learned that this self-serving, fear-based, materialistic, man-made religious bigotry isn't a constructive way forward?

You haven't?

Well, all I can say is that you should perhaps go back to the manual and read it again properly. Not the one that your own brand of manipulators wrote - the one that I imprinted in your heart and that speaks only one common language - the language of love.

It's really simple... 

Try it. It even feels nice.

And there will be no divine smiting involved at all if you decide to love your fellow planetary colleagues - smiting too is the domain of humankind. There will be only good consequences...

I don't know how else to put it really.

And if you don't believe in me, that's also fine - just be kind no matter what. 

You don't have to be a happy-clapper to be a nice person - it's a choice - yours.

May you all one day go in peace and love. That day could be today.

Signed

The Great Architect of the Universe, The Big Bang, God, Allah, Yahweh, Goddess, Wakan Tanka, It, Collective Consciousness, Nothing, Everything, 42, Your Conscience, Morality etc.