Tuesday, January 29, 2013
From infancy and before the child of the New Millennium is watched by inhuman eyes. Their parents record their every move, photograph them constantly, take videos daily, always sharing and remembering their child using artificial lenses as their medium and memories. What is it to be that child? To be constantly conscious of being filmed and recorded, and not just by your loved ones? My life sort of rides that wave, i live in that world kinda. More than any generation before mine. But i would like to explore the extremity of it. The Facebook Poster Child. The Face Seeing Its Face. Would it make you self-conscious (in a new way, perhaps); how would you harmonize your awareness of your Inside when all you see is your Outside; how would it change your perception of time and memory (when all things are recorded, when is now?); how would eye contact, culturally and personally be perceived differently when most of it is made through digital devices and across great spaces; where would you hide when you needed to be alone? And editing? Real-time editing of so-called 'reality'-- the reality of your shared and stored memories could be manipulated by anyone. How would that influence our view of the past and how can we trust anything when anything can be changed or even generated artificially? All these questions have been bothering me lately. We are so blessed to be born into this age of plenty and opportunity but what is the price? And just how different is our lifestyle to those of our great-grandparents? One lonely brain can't know.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Socks and the System
my new mirror makes me look nine feet tall. from this height it's surprising how close my toes are. stocking'd toes, insulated from the cold by ingenious human inventions. spun wool! knit yarn! space heaters! the simple things! oh, how we all yearn for perfect comfort. oh, and how we will never achieve it. until, perhaps, we give up the quest. but would we be human without striving for more, better, higher goals? maybe, but we would be bored. capitalism could be described as a system designed to keep us occupied. always competing and struggling and reaching for that impossible height which only grows higher as we climb. success in an unachievable notion, and laughably so. but survival, procreation: these are still our instincts. no matter how much capital we amass or create, however you like, we must sustain our bodies, keep them warm and functioning which, in our system necessitates that we acquire and then spend large amounts of capital throughout our lives. this puts a middleman between our instincts and our actions and distances us from ourselves, as well as the products we create and consume. i'm not sure where this thought is going, whether that space is just something that comes with a population of 7 billion and a largely globalized market, maybe it's what we strive for: to be removed from our base animal ancestry, or maybe it's why so many people are shooting people all over the world. who are we, anyways? what motivates us? where are we going? i see chaos in the future. when i call on all my knowledge and experience and try to predict where this system is going, all i know is that it will die. soon. violently. there is no alternative. the people who are so afraid of themselves are learning something beyond fear. i'm not sure yet what it is. maybe it's rage. Maybe it's grief, or psychological boredom. Or maybe it's something we have been taught by messiah after prophet after saint after guru. maybe it's Love. unconditional, unabbreviated. maybe. i have hope. and warm socks to last me through the winter. and a mirror that makes me feel... tall.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Home
Clouds shift their way across a motion picture of the sky,
framed with a large, circular skylight.
Raindrops left from a spring shower render sunlight into its wider spectrum on the outer face of the glass.
Their presence on the lens of the vision gives an affirming contrast to the great speed with which the wind carries the cloud-bodies through the atmosphere.
The clouds swim in the flow,
propelled by change, by metamorphosis.
Their forms permutate with wild abandon,
Every moment a new shape is held and discarded.
Beautiful shapes and always just right but only for that instantaneous wink.
And then,
the next aspect takes over seamlessly, languidly, gracefully,
almost so that you cannot see any difference,
as if the cloud-body never really changed at all.
Night now.
Raindrops hold only the deepening blue of the evening and the ever green of the trees.
Darker now with want of sun, the green waits for the moon to kiss it silver, magical, mysterious for another night.
The clouds have retreated into obscurity, hastened by the wind to the horizon and beyond,
to merge with the sun or coalesce into rain drops to bless the Earth.
A bird sings beyond the skylight, out of sight but very close.
It will probably sleep here tonight.
framed with a large, circular skylight.
Raindrops left from a spring shower render sunlight into its wider spectrum on the outer face of the glass.
Their presence on the lens of the vision gives an affirming contrast to the great speed with which the wind carries the cloud-bodies through the atmosphere.
The clouds swim in the flow,
propelled by change, by metamorphosis.
Their forms permutate with wild abandon,
Every moment a new shape is held and discarded.
Beautiful shapes and always just right but only for that instantaneous wink.
And then,
the next aspect takes over seamlessly, languidly, gracefully,
almost so that you cannot see any difference,
as if the cloud-body never really changed at all.
Night now.
Raindrops hold only the deepening blue of the evening and the ever green of the trees.
Darker now with want of sun, the green waits for the moon to kiss it silver, magical, mysterious for another night.
The clouds have retreated into obscurity, hastened by the wind to the horizon and beyond,
to merge with the sun or coalesce into rain drops to bless the Earth.
A bird sings beyond the skylight, out of sight but very close.
It will probably sleep here tonight.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Declaration of Independence Brought up to Date
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all People are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among People, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Peoples; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present Leaders of America (here-in-after referred to as 'It') including both the Politicians whose faces are shown to the People and the Veiled Powers who provide monetary compensation to have their Inhumane Interests furthered, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Peoples. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
It has refused its Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
It has forbidden its Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance.
It has set in place a False Government under which the Peoples have been defrauded into relinquishing their right to True Democratic Representation, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
It has called together surreptitious Councils to decide the Fate of this Great Country with no public records kept or true Representation of the Free People therein.
It has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by placing in seats of power only those already under Its control.
It has made Representatives dependent on Its Will alone, for the appointment of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
It has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
It has intentionally contaminated our water with Fluoride and other terrible chemicals which have no place in our Most Precious Resource.
It has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our Peoples.
It has broken the Laws of Nature by amassing Weapons of Mass Destruction with enough power to destroy this Planet a hundredfold.
It has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
It is currently involving our Peoples in wars without the Consent of those People and with no real reason beyond continuing Its own despicable stranglehold over the Resources of this planet Earth.
It has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving its Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For stationing large bodies of armed Police among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders and Extortions which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For depriving us of Free and Fair Trade with many parts of the World:
For effectively killing our Free Economy by allowing monopolies to be formed and condoning only trade which fits Its covetous Agenda:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For embezzling trillions of dollars from the People for the sake of Greed only:
For depriving us through our own Legislatures of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting Peoples beyond Seas to be tried and tortured for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free System of Laws, establishing an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into the rest of the World:
For taking away our Rights, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
It has abdicated Government here, by declaring us all Terrorists and waging War against us.
It has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
It has transported large Armies of Indoctrinated Soldiers to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Government of a civilized nation.
It has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive through manipulation and propaganda to bear Arms against their World, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
It has blatantly lied to the People on many occasions on subjects of Great Importance to their very lives.
It has purposefully created a society in which Creativity and Individuality are devalued while Conformity, blind Consumerism and Ignorance are applauded.
It has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the establishment of a Police State in which all Peoples are Criminals and therefore subject to indefinite detention, deportation and death.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. Any Government whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to rule a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our so-called 'Representatives'. We have warned them of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our freedoms. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the People of this Country and this World, in General Existence, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this Land, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Peoples are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Peoples; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the False Government of the United States, and that all political connection between them and the aforementioned Government, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent peoples, We have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Peoples may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all People are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among People, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Peoples; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present Leaders of America (here-in-after referred to as 'It') including both the Politicians whose faces are shown to the People and the Veiled Powers who provide monetary compensation to have their Inhumane Interests furthered, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Peoples. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
It has refused its Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
It has forbidden its Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance.
It has set in place a False Government under which the Peoples have been defrauded into relinquishing their right to True Democratic Representation, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
It has called together surreptitious Councils to decide the Fate of this Great Country with no public records kept or true Representation of the Free People therein.
It has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by placing in seats of power only those already under Its control.
It has made Representatives dependent on Its Will alone, for the appointment of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
It has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
It has intentionally contaminated our water with Fluoride and other terrible chemicals which have no place in our Most Precious Resource.
It has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our Peoples.
It has broken the Laws of Nature by amassing Weapons of Mass Destruction with enough power to destroy this Planet a hundredfold.
It has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
It is currently involving our Peoples in wars without the Consent of those People and with no real reason beyond continuing Its own despicable stranglehold over the Resources of this planet Earth.
It has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving its Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For stationing large bodies of armed Police among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders and Extortions which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For depriving us of Free and Fair Trade with many parts of the World:
For effectively killing our Free Economy by allowing monopolies to be formed and condoning only trade which fits Its covetous Agenda:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For embezzling trillions of dollars from the People for the sake of Greed only:
For depriving us through our own Legislatures of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting Peoples beyond Seas to be tried and tortured for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free System of Laws, establishing an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into the rest of the World:
For taking away our Rights, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
It has abdicated Government here, by declaring us all Terrorists and waging War against us.
It has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
It has transported large Armies of Indoctrinated Soldiers to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Government of a civilized nation.
It has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive through manipulation and propaganda to bear Arms against their World, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
It has blatantly lied to the People on many occasions on subjects of Great Importance to their very lives.
It has purposefully created a society in which Creativity and Individuality are devalued while Conformity, blind Consumerism and Ignorance are applauded.
It has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the establishment of a Police State in which all Peoples are Criminals and therefore subject to indefinite detention, deportation and death.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. Any Government whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to rule a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our so-called 'Representatives'. We have warned them of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our freedoms. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the People of this Country and this World, in General Existence, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this Land, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Peoples are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Peoples; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the False Government of the United States, and that all political connection between them and the aforementioned Government, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent peoples, We have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Peoples may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Hello, again.
It's been a while, my invisible indivisible audience. I been busy, i guess. Been in Belize, you know. Been Going Places and Doing Stuff and Meeting People and Being In Love. But i have missed the release of characters this Spot gives me. Do you blog, friend? Do you Write? Do you want to express and be heard in that expression? Do you want your ideas to Change the World? Do you think they could? Jury's still our for me on that last. Well, maybe not. Maybe it's just a matter of composition and broadcast. Or maybe it's just a matter of character, because i am more than sure that my thoughts have been thunk, composed and 'casted before now but, then they weren't MY thoughts. And the ego makes all the difference, right? Maybe. Anyhow. Things have been most triumphant here. My skin has absorbed enough vitamin D to power a whole person indefinitely. My feet have felt the soil and sand of a Foreign Land, and have integrated it into their very crust. My heart has expanded a hundred fold through the excellent edification of a Certain Special Spaceman of the extraordinary sort. My brain knows more stuff everyday. My soul has found a foothold in This Body and is officially nesting. My life is better than Perfect, it is Imperfect, which is just about as good as it gets. Yea. That's probably all for now. Got plans, you know? I'll be back.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Mass
(wrote this in May)
A gargoyle positioned itself on the northeast side of the cathedral’s dome. The sound of virgin choir boys’ voices seeped out the golden half-sphere and fell to the streets, sliding down roofs, collecting in rain barrels. At its perch, the granite figure collected what it could catch of the sung prayer of the innocents. As the resonance entered the stone the creature began to vibrate. Its paws chattered against the structure they clutched until, by an act of pure will, they were stilled. For a long minute, the living rock held its position, silent as its immobile brethren. The song ended. A sigh escaped the assembled multitude. Rays of sun kissed the frozen figure’s beak, reflecting off the innumerable crystalline bits. One sharp amber eye was revealed from ‘neath its mineral caul. Feather began to find grip among stone and flourish. Life spread from head to toe and tail-tip and the griffin shook itself, shaking dust from its lustrous coat. And then Mass incarnate took to the skies, carrying the hopes and dreams of the people to the heavens above.
A gargoyle positioned itself on the northeast side of the cathedral’s dome. The sound of virgin choir boys’ voices seeped out the golden half-sphere and fell to the streets, sliding down roofs, collecting in rain barrels. At its perch, the granite figure collected what it could catch of the sung prayer of the innocents. As the resonance entered the stone the creature began to vibrate. Its paws chattered against the structure they clutched until, by an act of pure will, they were stilled. For a long minute, the living rock held its position, silent as its immobile brethren. The song ended. A sigh escaped the assembled multitude. Rays of sun kissed the frozen figure’s beak, reflecting off the innumerable crystalline bits. One sharp amber eye was revealed from ‘neath its mineral caul. Feather began to find grip among stone and flourish. Life spread from head to toe and tail-tip and the griffin shook itself, shaking dust from its lustrous coat. And then Mass incarnate took to the skies, carrying the hopes and dreams of the people to the heavens above.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
So?
Today, everything is different.
It's all even cooler than yesterday.
How does it do that? Everyday, everything, always getting more and more fascinatingly fantastical!
And everywhere i look, i see great and awesome people thinking great and awesome thoughts in their great and awesome heads which great and awesome thoughts become great and awesome actions performed with great and awesome style all over this great and awesome world.
And the thing is that the more i look, the more all these people's thoughts congeal and the less i feel i have to say because i see it already expressed, already understood. It seems to me that everyone knows just about everything, we're just not paying attention to the convergence. Instead we have been focusing on the mundane and frivolous (though numerous, shiny and well-publicized) inconsistencies among us. which is stupid 'cause we're all in this thing together and we are all very much in love with life, even when she's a bitch. See? Two things everybody shares already! Isn't that radical?! And then there's death and breath and water, and then there's hangnails and sunburns and hairy pits, and then there's sadness and anger and mania, and then there's everything else that ever was or will be important.
people of the world! you are ALIVE!!!! ISN'T THAT AWESOME?!
It's all even cooler than yesterday.
How does it do that? Everyday, everything, always getting more and more fascinatingly fantastical!
And everywhere i look, i see great and awesome people thinking great and awesome thoughts in their great and awesome heads which great and awesome thoughts become great and awesome actions performed with great and awesome style all over this great and awesome world.
And the thing is that the more i look, the more all these people's thoughts congeal and the less i feel i have to say because i see it already expressed, already understood. It seems to me that everyone knows just about everything, we're just not paying attention to the convergence. Instead we have been focusing on the mundane and frivolous (though numerous, shiny and well-publicized) inconsistencies among us. which is stupid 'cause we're all in this thing together and we are all very much in love with life, even when she's a bitch. See? Two things everybody shares already! Isn't that radical?! And then there's death and breath and water, and then there's hangnails and sunburns and hairy pits, and then there's sadness and anger and mania, and then there's everything else that ever was or will be important.
people of the world! you are ALIVE!!!! ISN'T THAT AWESOME?!
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