'Love lit a fire in my chest, and anything
that wasn't love left: intellectual
subtlety, philosophy
books, school.
All I want now
to do or hear
is poetry.'
'Love is that that never sleeps,
nor even rests, nor stays
for long with those that do.
Love is language
that cannot be said,
or heard.'
Rumi
Monday, October 31, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Cheese amidst chaos
He nestled at the back of the cinema, amidst the hoards of children...and sat through a cartoon about penguins at Christmas, to await the main feature - 'Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit' - in the mid-afternoon matinee.
Funny moments that the children didn't understand made Him quietly laugh...
ahh, the pleasures of spending the days with open afternoon like gaping time-holes that require filling...
...and the thought of cheese pervaded the atmosphere: do you have any cheese in your fridge?
Triviality amidst a planet falling apart at the seams...
Funny moments that the children didn't understand made Him quietly laugh...
ahh, the pleasures of spending the days with open afternoon like gaping time-holes that require filling...
...and the thought of cheese pervaded the atmosphere: do you have any cheese in your fridge?
Triviality amidst a planet falling apart at the seams...
Monday, October 24, 2005
Moving Through
Been away for a few days: seeing old friends - and new - amidst the metropolis of London. Attempting not to loose time; travelling with my digitised notes and lectures on Mp3 so as to keep busy with knowledge nourishment... keeping ties, making ties, hoping not to sever others; making contact, keeping distances - a whole plethora of interconnections.
Weaving the Web: we are the living Internet. A mesh, both animate and inanimate, of networks, connections, threads, pulses, radiations, and responses. What we do comes rebounded back; each action echoed through myriad of reverberations.
We watch our steps, allowing each to become our healing game.
Just like this song: The Healing Game by Van Morrison
Weaving the Web: we are the living Internet. A mesh, both animate and inanimate, of networks, connections, threads, pulses, radiations, and responses. What we do comes rebounded back; each action echoed through myriad of reverberations.
We watch our steps, allowing each to become our healing game.
Just like this song: The Healing Game by Van Morrison
Monday, October 17, 2005
The Man
Listen to the Man: some things just get better.
Press Because Of by Leonard Cohen
Enjoy - see video below.
For A.
Press Because Of by Leonard Cohen
Enjoy - see video below.
For A.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
In contradiction
I've been enjoying quiet days - going out little. Reading much, pushing myself against tiredness or unfilled moments. Stretching forward like a rubber band. Soon these days will turn into work as soon as the classes start next week. Then I'll be in those classrooms, transferring what I know of the subject to others. Energy will be needed then.
What do people require the most? Is it learning? Knowledge? Fulfilment?
Well, it comes to my mind that although these are needed, the first requirement to be satisfied is 'attention'. People feed on attention, and only after this has been fed, or quenched, can there be a space for learning.
In terms of my students, I feed their attention so that satisfaction can be applied to the work at hand.
For myself, I'm attempting to quench it, so that other spaces become available within. Solitude often helps here, I find.
Again, that contradiction: half of me wants to network, to form connections. The other half wishes for solitude. They mingle like siblings, and quarrel as only siblings know how.
Much like a world in contradiction, we mirror its many sides.
What do people require the most? Is it learning? Knowledge? Fulfilment?
Well, it comes to my mind that although these are needed, the first requirement to be satisfied is 'attention'. People feed on attention, and only after this has been fed, or quenched, can there be a space for learning.
In terms of my students, I feed their attention so that satisfaction can be applied to the work at hand.
For myself, I'm attempting to quench it, so that other spaces become available within. Solitude often helps here, I find.
Again, that contradiction: half of me wants to network, to form connections. The other half wishes for solitude. They mingle like siblings, and quarrel as only siblings know how.
Much like a world in contradiction, we mirror its many sides.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Demographics
Here are some numbers which may help to put the World’s situation into perspective.
"An amazing 25% of people in the World under the age of 25, live in India. In fact, 50% of India’s total population is under 25 and 80% is under 45.
If we set the World’s population at 100, there are nearly 60 Asians, 21 Europeans and only 4 Americans. Out of the 100, 70 are not white, 70 are non Christian and 80 live in sub-human conditions. Only 25 have food, clothing and a roof over their head, 1 has a computer, 1 has a university education and 70 can’t read and whilst we can invest in a wide range of markets, 92 can’t. The bottom line is that if you have money in the bank or in your wallet you are among the 8% of richest people on the planet and, based on the bigger picture, that’s something we should all be thankful for."
This came via a financial report that I came across whilst being somewhere I shouldn't.
Lord - why can't cats cure our economics?
"An amazing 25% of people in the World under the age of 25, live in India. In fact, 50% of India’s total population is under 25 and 80% is under 45.
If we set the World’s population at 100, there are nearly 60 Asians, 21 Europeans and only 4 Americans. Out of the 100, 70 are not white, 70 are non Christian and 80 live in sub-human conditions. Only 25 have food, clothing and a roof over their head, 1 has a computer, 1 has a university education and 70 can’t read and whilst we can invest in a wide range of markets, 92 can’t. The bottom line is that if you have money in the bank or in your wallet you are among the 8% of richest people on the planet and, based on the bigger picture, that’s something we should all be thankful for."
This came via a financial report that I came across whilst being somewhere I shouldn't.
Lord - why can't cats cure our economics?
Friday, October 14, 2005
Distraction
'You've so distracted me,
your absence fans my love.
Don't ask how.
Then you come near.
"Do not...," I say, and
"Do not...," you answer.
Don't ask why
this delights me."
Rumi - Birdsong
your absence fans my love.
Don't ask how.
Then you come near.
"Do not...," I say, and
"Do not...," you answer.
Don't ask why
this delights me."
Rumi - Birdsong
You know who I am
"I cannot follow you, my love,
you cannot follow me.
I am the distance you put between
all of the moments that we will be.
You know who I am,
you've stared at the sun,
well I am the one who loves
changing from nothing to one.
Sometimes I need you naked,
sometimes I need you wild,
I need you to carry my children in
and I need you to kill a child.
You know who I am..."
The words of LC
you cannot follow me.
I am the distance you put between
all of the moments that we will be.
You know who I am,
you've stared at the sun,
well I am the one who loves
changing from nothing to one.
Sometimes I need you naked,
sometimes I need you wild,
I need you to carry my children in
and I need you to kill a child.
You know who I am..."
The words of LC
I came so far for beauty
"I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned.
I thought I'd be rewarded
For such a lonely choice
And surely she would answer
To such a very hopeless voice.
I practiced all my sainthood
I gave to one and all
But the rumours of my virtue
They moved her not at all.
I changed my style to silver
I changed my clothes to black
And where I would surrender
Now I would attack.
I stormed the old casino
For the money and the flesh
And I myself decided
What was rotten and what was fresh.
And men to do my bidding
And broken bones to teach
The value of my pardon
The shadow of my reach.
But no, I could not touch her
With such a heavy hand
Her star beyond my order
Her nakedness unmanned.
I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned."
Leonard Cohen speaks: how many things can be left behind in the search...? an unsigned masterpiece?
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned.
I thought I'd be rewarded
For such a lonely choice
And surely she would answer
To such a very hopeless voice.
I practiced all my sainthood
I gave to one and all
But the rumours of my virtue
They moved her not at all.
I changed my style to silver
I changed my clothes to black
And where I would surrender
Now I would attack.
I stormed the old casino
For the money and the flesh
And I myself decided
What was rotten and what was fresh.
And men to do my bidding
And broken bones to teach
The value of my pardon
The shadow of my reach.
But no, I could not touch her
With such a heavy hand
Her star beyond my order
Her nakedness unmanned.
I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned."
Leonard Cohen speaks: how many things can be left behind in the search...? an unsigned masterpiece?
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Are our loveable Smurfs in smurfing trouble?
Smurfette is left for dead. Baby Smurf is left crying and orphaned as the Smurf's village is carpet bombed by warplanes - a horrific scene and imagery not normally associated with the lovable blue-skinned cartoon characters.
Can this really be true - are they attacking my friends the Smurfs?? I declare war on all anti-Smurfettes! Long live the loveable Blue-Ones..
Actually, these are the scenes being shown as part of a new UNICEF ad-campaign on Belgian television. An anti-war message..... phew!
Sunday, October 09, 2005
The song that I came to sing
The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day.
I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.
The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.
The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by.
I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice; only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house.
The livelong day has passed in spreading his seat on the floor; but the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house.
I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet.
Rabindranath Tagore - 'Gitanjali' (13)
I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.
The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.
The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by.
I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice; only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house.
The livelong day has passed in spreading his seat on the floor; but the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house.
I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet.
Rabindranath Tagore - 'Gitanjali' (13)
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Nutty Research
Time to mention the Ig-Nobels: the alternative to the Nobel awards for... mmm..alternative research:
- 77-year old Japanese inventor NakaMats dutifully photographs all of his dinners, lunches and breakfasts. NakaMats has been taking the pictures for 35 years. They have helped the inventor come up with new theories about longevity.
The photos have also earned NakaMats the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize in nutrition.
- The Ig Nobel Prize in medicine went to Gregg Miller, inventor of Neuticles, artificial testicle replacements for neutered dogs and other animals, which come in different sizes and levels of firmness. In his videotaped acceptance speech, Miller noted the time it took to develop his invention. "It took two years to get the balls rolling," he said.
But the one which I like the most:
- The Ig Nobel Prize in fluid dynamics: Two European researchers calculated the pressure that builds up inside a penguin about to poo, and reported their findings in a paper entitled "Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation" (.pdf). (A 'must-read' - especially for the penguin diagram!)
The two co-authors could not get visas to attend the ceremony, and delivered a videotaped acceptance speech. The researchers said they hoped the rejection of their visa applications "had nothing to do with the explosive nature of our work."
So - good to know we are safe with such scientific research looking after our world...
- 77-year old Japanese inventor NakaMats dutifully photographs all of his dinners, lunches and breakfasts. NakaMats has been taking the pictures for 35 years. They have helped the inventor come up with new theories about longevity.
The photos have also earned NakaMats the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize in nutrition.
- The Ig Nobel Prize in medicine went to Gregg Miller, inventor of Neuticles, artificial testicle replacements for neutered dogs and other animals, which come in different sizes and levels of firmness. In his videotaped acceptance speech, Miller noted the time it took to develop his invention. "It took two years to get the balls rolling," he said.
But the one which I like the most:
- The Ig Nobel Prize in fluid dynamics: Two European researchers calculated the pressure that builds up inside a penguin about to poo, and reported their findings in a paper entitled "Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation" (.pdf). (A 'must-read' - especially for the penguin diagram!)
The two co-authors could not get visas to attend the ceremony, and delivered a videotaped acceptance speech. The researchers said they hoped the rejection of their visa applications "had nothing to do with the explosive nature of our work."
So - good to know we are safe with such scientific research looking after our world...
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Time trickles
Time trickles and time dilates; it can expand like a cumulus, a stratocumulus of clouds. It can evaporate or fuse.
And we each have our own time, as if we determined the number of breaths we would breathe in our lifetime, and each day we are using them up. The question remains: how to use our breaths wisely. Should we dispel them like fools? Waste them over niggling emotions that we shoulder like the Old Man of the Sea?
How do we carry our-selves? Time knows its course. Should we wander aimlessly whilst Time watches and ticks to itself?
‘If we don’t change our direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed’
Old Chinese proverb
And we each have our own time, as if we determined the number of breaths we would breathe in our lifetime, and each day we are using them up. The question remains: how to use our breaths wisely. Should we dispel them like fools? Waste them over niggling emotions that we shoulder like the Old Man of the Sea?
How do we carry our-selves? Time knows its course. Should we wander aimlessly whilst Time watches and ticks to itself?
‘If we don’t change our direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed’
Old Chinese proverb
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Love or Death?
‘We must love one another or die’
WH Auden (September 1st, 1939)
The first day of Ramadam for 2005 was October 4th: oruc tutiyormuyum?
No, I am not fasting. However, as a small contribution I give up all alcohol for the month. My evenings exist in a whirl of chinese tea aroma, curling through the pages of my books against the solitary eyes.
In ourselves do we learn the treasures of our own places. In life do we die many times.
WH Auden (September 1st, 1939)
The first day of Ramadam for 2005 was October 4th: oruc tutiyormuyum?
No, I am not fasting. However, as a small contribution I give up all alcohol for the month. My evenings exist in a whirl of chinese tea aroma, curling through the pages of my books against the solitary eyes.
In ourselves do we learn the treasures of our own places. In life do we die many times.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
To arrive where we started
Arriving back in the UK to the cold wind, I noticed the lack of vibrancy in the people around me. Shouldered to the colder climate their faces showed both complaint yet defiance. What we need is energy.
Creativity feeds off from energy. Warmth can provide this, as the sun beats us with its rays. Here in the UK we are stoic: hardened to always complain; hardened to always defy.
We should think as a species rather than as races. Sometimes we all seem to need a kick up the butt.
Sometimes I linger too long in places; other times not long enough. There are changes coming. Soon, perhaps, we will no longer recognise where we came from, if we move fast enough.
Like an infant growing into a child...we stagger, we cause chaos, we laugh... we wonder at it all: so many spaces to move into.
As TS Eliot so succintly put it:
'We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.'
Amen!
Creativity feeds off from energy. Warmth can provide this, as the sun beats us with its rays. Here in the UK we are stoic: hardened to always complain; hardened to always defy.
We should think as a species rather than as races. Sometimes we all seem to need a kick up the butt.
Sometimes I linger too long in places; other times not long enough. There are changes coming. Soon, perhaps, we will no longer recognise where we came from, if we move fast enough.
Like an infant growing into a child...we stagger, we cause chaos, we laugh... we wonder at it all: so many spaces to move into.
As TS Eliot so succintly put it:
'We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.'
Amen!
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