Friday 28 August 2015
Thom Yorke "Harrowdown Hill"
Oldy but goody, based on the death of Dr David Kelly back in 2003. An equally disturbing story if it were suicide or murder.
Wednesday 26 August 2015
Life, what is it but a dream?
A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July --
Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear --
Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream --
Lingering in the golden dream --
Life, what is it but a dream?
- Lewis Carroll
Life is but a dream...
Monday 24 August 2015
Thoughts this morning
I like Sunday mornings as it's the only day of the week that Dara doesn't get up for work. We have nothing to do but chill, talk, drink tea, read. It just feels so good to wake up after a good nights sleep, with no hangover, in a comfortable place with no rush to do anything. Even better being next to someone that you love. That couple of hours is just absolute bliss. I'm a smug bitch.
This Sunday morning Dara read the news and I read some of my book. We conversed, as you do, putting the world to rights.
I mentioned that I'd seen a post on Insagram by someone I follow ('that_paleo_guy'); he posted a picture saying 'SATURDAY SOCIAL MEDIA SHUTDOWN #saturdaysocialmediashutdown' and in the caption he put "Time to detox from social media for the day. Shutting off the cell phone and tablet until the sun comes up tomorrow morning. No notifications, no distractions from the digital world, no blue lights, no nothing. Time to refresh. I'll see you all in the am. #peaceout #timeout #refresh #reset #reboot #unwind #familytime #metime #nodistractions #feelgood" - I thought that was a good initiative.
I also told him about this set of photos by photographer Izabela Urbaniak of her children enjoying technology free summers.
I have mentioned before on my blog (and in conversation with D) that I really do appreciate my morning walk with Finn as a time to be away from the madness of the world, to not absorb information, to just be with nature. However, I still feel like I spend way too much time sucked into the internet, scrolling though status updates on Facebook and new posts on Instagram. It's often the first thing I think to do when I wake up - check for notifications, refresh, refresh, refuckit. It can't be healthy. This guy explains it well:
"Generation of idiots, smart phones but not people!" Oh dear.
I thought to myself on Sunday morning "I am going to spend less time online and more time in life, organic, natural life." I enjoy using social media as a platform to connect and share photos, humour, interesting articles, perspective on things, it's a great thing but it shouldn't be as pertinent on my mind.
When I do eventually nestle down and start a family, I'm going to encourage alternative methods of enjoyment and stimulation. I don't wish to deprive my future sprogs of technology as we do live in a technological world, I want them to fit in but I don't want them to be consumed by it. I'm sure not many people admittedly want their kids to be obsessed with technology but undeniably, TV or a game on your iPhone are useful solutions to curing a child's boredom while you're occupied with something else. I will strive to avoid this - summer's without technology sound dreamy and unimaginable in this day and age, yet it wasn't that long ago that these technologies were invented. Let's take a leaf out of Dollyandfife and Izabela Urbaniak's book.
Let's go outside, let's get sucked into the natural world more often.
Reflecting on my current state of mind...
We all change and evolve as we go through life, we have different information sources around us, different influences. Thinking about my own mindset - At this current time the things that are most influencing my outlook are; videos I watch on Youtube (The Young Turks, The Trews, Secular Talk, The Labour Leadership campaign, mostly Jeremy Corbyn ), the book I'm reading (currently: The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire), the conversations I have (mainly with fellow dog walkers and Dara), the things I see on Instagram (I follow a wide variety of people but my favourites besides my friends are - dollyandfife, moistbuddha, michelgaubert, mydaywithleo, beigecardigan, fuckjerry, thefatjewish), work and my goals for the future. (It's ironic because most of what influences my outlook on life I have accessed via the internet, the thing I want to spend less time on is the thing that's educating me. Handy but addictive.)
At other times in my life I may have had or may have more conversations with different people to those I converse with at the moment. I may watch or have watched more TV rather than Youtube videos and on completely different subjects, the books I have read or will read cover completely different topics, so the influences on my mind and my perspective are variable but at the moment, the things that most influence my outlook:
- Youtube- Learning about politics, philosophy, spirituality, injustice, flaws in society, humanity...
- Books- Same as above and in addition, oppression
- Conversations- Talking about these things in conversations, and I've also been talking about history and how much society has changed and is changing (I'm thinking of a recent conversation I had with Tom and Frank who I met walking the dog, they were telling me what life was like when they were young back in the 60s and 70s)
- Instagram- The people I mentioned that I like best on Instagram crack me up and remind me that although things are shit and the world often lacks humanity, society is broken in ways but we sometimes just have to laugh. We mustn't take eveything too seriously as it will ruin us. We have to continue to find humour in the world. Other people I follow are inspirational in other ways.
- Work- My workplace pleases me and my boss inspires me as he is so successful and intellectual. I am grateful to be in this position.
- Goals- I'm mentally planning our wedding, I'm thinking about finance and how long it will take for us to buy our own house. Naturally the thought of 'nesting' leads me to thinking about starting a family, popping some sprogs out...
Within that I watched Russel Brand's last ever episode of the Trews, watch here:
"I think that we've gone as far as we can with the Trews for now. And the thing that's been interesting over the course of the year is the reaction to some of the stories that we've reported on and the reaction in the press and on TV, to me.
... So it's been like an extraordinary time for all of us, there's a presidential election in America that's thrown up ludicrous characters like Donald Trump but also the potentially optimistic participation of Bernie Sanders. Is there a possibility through conventional political means to return the will of ordinary people to the seat of power it's a really big question. When I talked about revolution at the beginning of this mad journey on Jeremy Paxman, I was kind of gung-ho and stuff but I think what revolution means, well what revolution literally does mean is a change of power not using the conventional means of power. We're gonna have to come together in a different way to create the change. Now I believe that more than ever. I really believe in change, I feel really optimistic about the inevitability of change...
... I believe in the possibility of ordinary people to change their circumstances if they come together, and I believe in me and the Trews and what we've been doing. I'm gonna be learning, 'cause I know change is coming and I want to be part of that.
... I can't do it the service it requires until I go away and learn some stuff so that when we come back it will be more truthful, more inclusive than ever, 'cause the worlds going mental and more than ever ordinary people need to come together.
... I'm going away to think and to learn, because its worth it, because this is an important time because there is a possibility of change.
... So really the obligation to tell the truth as always lies with you as much as it does with me. The only real weapon we have is to be truthful with ourselves, truthful with one another and to formulate new organisations, new ways of pursuing change."
So all of that combined going through my mind is probably why I've been having the weirdest dreams. The capacity of the mind and it's ability to process information is unreal. It would be a shame to waste it on gossip and game shows. Russel Brand talks about Truth being the only weapon we have, I think the real weapon is our mind. Being truthful is something we should all live by for sure but it is our mind that we must harness and evolve. The mind is the tool which we use to channel our energy, our mind is what we use to set our goals and obtain them, our mind controls our emotions, our perceptions, our behaviour. Our mind gives us the ability to make a difference in the world through our consciousness, our minds are what makes us unique.
We should strive to share ourselves through interconnectivity, be equal and one with everyone and everything. We don't need to be rich, popular or highly educated to acquire that. We should be open minded not ignorant, continuing to learn. While it naturally scares us, change is inevitable, so let's embrace it and influence it positively.
As we learn, reflection is so important. Allowing time to process information that we take in and to consider alternative perspectives, that in itself exercises the mind and develops intelligence.
Friday 21 August 2015
WORD! Eve Ensler
Q: There are a lot of causes out there that are being talked about, you know, poverty, sickness and so on. You spend eight years on this one. Why this One?
A: I think that, if you think about women, women are the primary resource of the planet. They give birth, we come from them, they are mothers, they are visionary they are the future. If you think that the U.N. now says that one out of three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in their lifetime, we're talking about the desecration of the primary resource of the planet. We're talking about the place where we come from, we're talking about parenting. Imagine that you've been raped and you're bringing up a boy child. How does it impact your ability to work, or envision a future, or thrive, as opposed to just survive? What I believe is if we could figure out how to make women safe and honor women, it would be parallel or equal to honoring life itself.
Eve Ensler
Ships? Sure I'll sail them...
Ships?
Sure I'll sail them
Show me the boat,
If it'll float,
I'll sail it.
Men?
Yes, I'll love them.
If they have the style,
to make me smile,
I'll love them.
Life?
'Course I'll live it.
Just give me breath,
Up to my death,
And I'll live it.
Failure?
I'm not ashamed to tell it,
I've never learned to spell it,
Not failure.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Live and Unplugged
A true and beautiful soul. Feed your soul through Maya Angelou, listen here:
Wednesday 19 August 2015
Mos Def: "We are in Critical Times"
Thought's on upheaval. In light of the happenings in Ferguson and other parts of America.
Racism, inequality, imbalance of power, Yasiin Bey responds.
"Free the people. Free the land.
My country is Earth."
Katie Hopkins - Russell Brand Trews
"Isn't it a bit mad, to see human litter strewn about. This is the kind of images that Katie Hopkins doesn't care about... She's just the puss emerging from the pimple that is our policy."
"Until there's a shift in the lens of the way we see the world, of like "oh right we're meant to be here helping each other", until you make that shift, that you can only make really as an individual and hope that it emanates on a familial, social, communal, national, international level, unless we start making those individual transitions, that's why again what Katie Hopkins says is important, because we can't afford to allow that to be our prevailing mentality in our conversations in our chats in bars, cafes and workplaces, far less allow it to become policy. For us to live under the politics of cruelty, a kind of incremental holocaust. If compassion is not a component, then there's no humanity left to save. Once we kill the compassion within ourselves then we are all then cockroaches, waiting for the apocalypse, and it can't come quick enough."
"I suppose what you can do, is find your own humanity, look for the humanity and connection that you feel to other people and be kind. "
Thursday 13 August 2015
Speak only
"Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot."
D. H. Lawrence
Gary Cooper with his wife Rocky, 1930s.
Wednesday 12 August 2015
Neil Gaiman - What a guy!
"So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom... and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise and then just behave like they would... and now go, and make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Make the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art."
David Icke - Mind Control & The New World Order
Interesting and disturbing:
"People said - in very large numbers in the early 1990's - that I was crazy, insane, having a midlife crisis, I'm sure some people still feel the same, but I tell you what - If I'm seen as sane by a world this crazy, I'm disappointed."
“Fictions are necessary for the people, and the Truth becomes deadly to those who are not strong enough to contemplate it in all its brilliance. In fact, what can there be in common between the vile multitude and sublime wisdom? The Truth must be kept secret, and the masses need a teaching proportioned to their imperfect reason.” Albert Pike
Tuesday 11 August 2015
Monday 3 August 2015
Immigration revisited
With all the media attention on the Calais hold up crisis currently happening, the discussion/debate/argument about immigration is wide open again. An interesting article a friend of mine just shared via Huffington Post, well worth a read. It's good to get some actual facts about immigration because a lot of what we're led to believe by the media is completely exaggerated and tailored to create a more shocking news story. It is completely reasonable for people to be concerned by migration if they or their family are being effected by seemingly exhausted public services, or unable to find good quality work that pays a living wage. People feel at threat by what they see as a severe immigration crisis in their home country, well truthfully there is a severe migration crisis, but it's not just here in the UK - it's global, and it isn't a straightforward situation, there is a large background to why this is even happening.
I don't know what the answer is, all I know is that as a nation we have to take some responsibility for what is happening in these countries and the cause for why people are so desperate to leave. We should not get angry, we should widen our knowledge on the situation and focus our efforts on influencing global change to restore war torn and impoverished countries. As a starting point, we're better to learn the facts at least and as always, not regard what we read in the newspaper as gospel.
I enjoyed Robin Lustig's final note on his Huffington Post article:
"Do I have the answer to the global migration crisis? No, but here are some suggestions that might help: set up proper, EU-run processing centres at the main entry points: southern Italy, Greece, Hungary. Genuine refugees should be offered asylum according to an agreed quota calculated according to population and GDP. Those deemed non-eligible for asylum would be offered a choice: wait in a camp until your number comes up, and then go where you're sent -- or go home.
The tragedy is that so many people are so desperate that they're prepared to die in an attempt to find a safe place to live. And our response is so blinkered that all we can think of is building higher fences."
There seems to be no easy, humane solution whereby all parties are satisfied. Let's see what our leaders come up with.
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