This one needs no commentary, just watch it – to the end if you can.
It’s well worth it.
Monthly Archive for July, 2009
What we need now must not endanger what we need tomorrow. This is the essence of one of the key principles of sustainability.
source: www.csdesign.org/sustainable.html
I’m fresh from reading an excellent blog post on sustainability that does what is says it will and ‘demystifies’ the concept. Well worth a read.
A lady I know and I were recently working on a grant application and she noted that when something is ’sustainable’ it’s not really great. Her opinion, and I imagine the opinion of many, is that if you describe, say, a relationship as ’sustainable’ it doesn’t sound very good. As an aside, I must say that this particular person is quite interested in things looking or sounding ‘nice’, whereas I would say I am more a substance kind of person, less concerned with appearances. And there’s arguments for both sides of that coin. Without surface, there is not depth: some would say the superficial level of something is merely the first thing noticed. And I love things that are aesthetically beautiful, no doubt.
Back to the main point though, is ’sustainable’ enough? Or can we aim higher? Human beings are brilliant and eminently powerful creatures, so one may ask is it good enough to be merely sustainable?
Let’s take interpersonal relationships as an example. Some people may prefer intense and brilliant interactions, and not be so concerned with the long-term nature of a relationship. To others, there are opposite priorities. My best friend in high school was a gorgeous and gregarious blonde girl who made big first impressions and was extremely popular. I was the one that didn’t get noticed straight away but had deep and loving friendships with fewer people. Years after high school – throughout which I longed to be more like her – I received a letter from her. She admitted that whe had always wanted to be more like me, someone who grew on people as time went by. In the end I believe that both of our qualities are wonderful, and that we learnt how to adapt, and how the other one operated by observing each other. She taught me to ‘turn it on’ so to speak and I taught her a quieter way.
To me, sustainability is about taking less then you give. Although the concept is most commonly used in discussions about the environment at the moment, I would like it to be something we consider in all our affairs. I would hope that I give more to those I care for than I take. That my needs from them today do not proclude them from being my friend tomorrow. I would hope that what I do for people I love today might build both of us up and help us both to continue to grow.
So with this solar eclipse tomorrow, 22 July 2009, I do hope that we gain some deeper understanding of how to live truly and thoroughly sustainably, no matter how infantesimal the understanding is. Not solely with compost and vegetable growing (not to deny those things are also great), but also with the relationships we hold. Personally, I will endeavour to weigh my own needs just slightly less than the needs of those I care for and give all I can to really be there for them. Happy sun-dance people.
Reading a well-written and insightful blog about Buddhism today, I loved the part that discussed how “the special opportunity for liberation that the human realm offers is a vital teaching” along with the mention of “gaps of clarity”. At the moment my life comprises of a series of these gaps, broken up by those things involved with living – eating, sleeping, washing and child-rearing for some examples.
This evening, after the cooking of the meatballs (imagine the child, fingers deep in mince, saying “this is fun Mummy”) and then, thankfully, the eating of the meatballs, and after the highly imperfect spat in the car about, you guessed it, I can’t even remember what now… I had a beautiful realisation. For ages now I have intellectually understood the idea of being a multi-disciplinary artist and yet still, in the dark corners of my thinking, I have felt that I had to choose.
Mind-voice 1: Am I a painter?
Mind-voice 2: Well, I do love to paint.
Mind-voice 1: Or maybe, I’m a writer!
Mind-voice 2: Oooh, writing, yeah, that’s so cool. I’ve always been a bit of a natural at that one.
Mind-voice 3: Chocolate biscuits…
And then suddenly it hit me, like a cold wahu fillet to the cheek, I DON’T HAVE TO CHOOSE!
Brilliant. I may have to choose clothes to wear, hairstyles (when I can be bothered), what to grow in my beautiful garden, which man to go out with (on a good day), but dangnammit, I don’t have to choose any one particular specific form of creativity. They are really and truly all good. They are all reflections of me expressed outwardly. They are all ways to communicate the inside bits to the outside bits and keep the flows happening.
Last night I went t see a very special friend of mine, the incredibly talented Peta Sergeant, in her current theatre show Savage River. (Hurry and go see it at the Stables/Griffin Theatre! Awesome show… and yes – I am biased but fair.) It struck me as I waited for her to emerge after the show that she is one of those brave souls who puts it on the line. She has relentlessly pursued success as an actor and is incredibly deserving of the many roles she gets. She lives her creativity and left her home-town of Brisbane, Australia, as a teenager to attend NIDA, the school renowned for breaking its students to pieces and putting them back together again as amazing actors (think ex-students such as Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman). She is also a singer and songwriter with the Bellows, a great cook, she makes beautiful handmade things (I still love the leather handbag she made me years ago), a filmmaker and a rockin’ wife extraordinaire. And I am only just seeing what a genius she is.
So now, I’m here, all inspired, tap-tap-tapping away on the keys and dreaming up ways to fit a piano into my tiny apartment, and how I’m going to make amazing things this week in any way I choose, in any medium that takes my fancy, just ‘coz.
When people ask me “why are you doing your blog” it is as if they want me to say “oh, to make a little extra from Google Ads” or some half-assed, cockimany reason… but I answer “I’m just doing it”. Surely by now you’ve noticed that those things that come from love + action are the greatest, most successful and most satisfying ventures in life. I bet billionaires rarely make meatballs, ya know?
We’re going to ask you a question, and we’d love to see your answer with comments on this blog… When was the last time you did something just for the love of it? When have you acted solely to fulfil a dream or longing?
The reason we pose this question is to shine a light on the inspirational results that come from such action. Phillipe Petit for example carried out wire-walks between the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons (shown above), over Notre Dame and between the World Trade Centres. People stood and watched and he heard their murmurs from 450metres above ground. When the dumbfounded and clearly affected policemen that witnessed the event from the top of the towers were asked about it, they could hardly describe it. Even they were clearly heart-touched. When they asked him why he did it, he answered that there was no why. According to the Academy Award-winning documentary Man on Wire, he tells the story of being in a dentist’s office as a young man and sighting a newspaper article about the planned building of the Towers in New York. He ripped the article out and raced back home, compelled. And that was before they were even built. As a child apparently all he had wanted to do was climb things, no-one could stop him.
There are some beautiful pictures of some work done in old disused newspaper dispensers in the USA. When I visited New York I used to see them standing like colourfully dressed bystanders on every corner. This lot put flowers in them, alive and grown, for the enjoyment of passers by. What a beautiful re-use of urban flotsam and jetsam. They’ve managed to turn their beat around with the power of an idea and a bit of soil and seedling action. Have a look for yourself on their website.
Man of the moment Michael Jackson said it like this:
‘Fun inspires me..out of bliss comes magic and creativity.’ – MJ
And here’s the amazing thing about our unstoppable nature as human beings: when we are compelled and driven by this kind of genuine love, not much can stop us achieving it. It’s powerful, just as are we.
There’s a strange principle at work in all life, sometimes it’s called love. The more love we involve in the things we do (the real green, heartfelt kind of love that is) the more life, the way we live it, and the things we make, sing and shine and uplift. Strong memories of sitting in my room as a teen, drawing, writing and listening to music are great reminders of this. When I was about 15 years old, one of the by-products of this “love-time” was the picture shown here.
The picture is oddly prophetic. Today I spent the morning making a patch of soil for my local cafe ready for planting. I did what this picture here above is talking about and made a patch of land fertile around a tree so it can grow food for the local community – and I loved it.
Just like Michael Jackson, a lot of us peak early, then perhaps look around the world for a time only to find we had it all in us to begin with. Some of us get lost along the way – whether it be by the ‘paths’ we take through danger or addiction or destructive behaviour. Mr Jackson was an incredibly beautiful and talented child, his voice and lyrics sang the world into meaning for many people, including me. He was incredibly generous with his inherant gifts. It seems he was perhaps too sensitive and hearty and lost his way amongst money, fame, isolation and painkillers. Maybe something in him gave up on love.
People are sharing their memories on his site put up by Sony Music so we can all grieve his passing together. When I think of all the wedding dancefloors, daggy nightclub DJs and house party mixes that have included a moment of “Don’t Blame ii on the Sunshine” or all the times I’ve felt overjoyed when I find “Rock With You” playing on an AM radio station in the country whilst on a roadtrip, I feel humbled and grateful. As a teen we would sing “PYT Pretty Young Thing” at the top of our voices on the back of the school bus. I was lucky to have been a teen when Thriller topped the charts for record time. It was truly thrilling back then.
So my hope for everyone reading this is that we remember our innermost passions and stay with them, and never, ever give up on them no matter what. If we find ourselves in an innoportune place to live our loves, know that whatever got us to where we are today can get us out of it.
Today, green means love to me. I love Michael Jackson and his music, and I love the fact that despite his addictions and his madness much of the world is celebrating his life and his gifts. Rest in PEACE Mr Jackson, let’s hope you find your love and your meaning somewhere, somehow. Your mission, reader, should you choose to accept it, is to make a decision to be the love, and do it now.
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