Get over yourself

It seems to me that we are born alone and die alone. We are trapped by our own bodies and can only escape briefly through sleep or mind altering routes through numbing the mind/body connection by turning the brain off (with the likes of TV or other similar passive activies) or alcohol/drugs but at the end of the day we are still embodied and it is all about us baby.

Seemingly, part of the irony of this life is the realisation that although it is all about us on the one hand (rarely will anyone pay your rent, feed you by hand, or help you cultivate your love for punk rock music, etc.), it is all about everyone else, in a very real sense. After starting the conflict resolution courses, it appears that the greatest conflicts arise because we're not actually listening to the other person and are simply stuck in our own positions, unwilling to budge ("I want a raise of 15% and if you're not going to give it to me, I'm walking"), whereas if we could just get over ourselves and out of our positional trench, ask the other person questions to find out where they're coming from, their interests and issues, we might be able to come to some understanding and resolution at the end of it all. In order to come to a resolution, it has to become less about you and more about them in order to bring all the threads together, as it were.

If life isn't all about us, in the end, it makes day to day interaction easier on the one hand. Being open to others isn't the norm and I suspect if we were even remotely respectful and civil to one another, many of the problems that plague us would disappear overnight. Litter? Well, if you're being respectful of others, you will be well aware that that piece of plastic wrap will go where the wind takes it, making the city ugly, dirty and potentially dangerous for wildlife. If we actually cared about others (and ourselves arguably) it simply wouldn't be an option to drop that plastic wrapping. Although, taking that argument further, the plastic wrapping wouldn't have been necessary in the first place because it arose out of sheer nastiness in the 80s with dolts tampering with products which lead to illness and even death.

At any rate, it seems the challenge is to get over ourselves.

Local Erratic

Cars speed past on the nearby Highway behind me. Walking up to the massive split rock that was dumped here during the time when glaciers roamed, there are gophers of all ages and sizes, without fear, looking at me - save the big one with only one eye (not pictured).



Rock climbers and children scale the rock face with sprayed graffiti tags near one guys foot - I can't find the ocher that is said to be on the rocks.

Moving around the rock there is a place in the centre where the 2 parts had split. As could be expected there is broken glass all round and remnants of many a party past lying about.



The smell of an old fire fill my nose as I run my hand along the multi banded quartzite rock face. A child runs in as their parent prepares to take a photo. I shimmy past the narrow opening and get out of the way as the child's face beams despite the obvious rubbish about.

Moving west I find a flat rock close to a group of cyclists having their lunch. I notice a face in the rock and decide it would be the best place to eat my sandwich and banana, with my almost silent companion. During lunch, I get the feeling like my companion is speaking to me. He jokes about being a hitch hiker and that the glacier dropped him off here. He's waiting for another ride.

From this picture he looks like a turtle, but in person he looked more human.

To the side, he reminds me of a buffalo. It's humbling to think that this massive rock was deposited by the glacier as it retreated. It certainly does put things into perspective, if only for a moment.

Feist - The Water

The telegraph cables hum
And few can decipher who the message is from
And it deliver it quietly
Cause some don't get much company

The harbour becomes the sea
And lighting the house keeps it collision free
Understand the lay of the land
And don't let it hurt you
Or it will be the first to

The water, the water
Didn't realize
It's dangerous size
The mountain, the mountain
Came to recognize
It's a steep and rocky sides
More than realized

Pale as a pile of bones
You hope for your babies
And this is how they grow
Wind-battered, knocked over
The teeth by the shoulder
Watching the grey sky
That's acting like a good guy

The water, the water
Came to realize
It's a dangerous size
The mountain the mountain
Came to recognize
It's steep and rocky sides
Came to recognize
It's steep and rocky sides
More than realized

The lives of others - Leben der Anderen

may i suggest a film that is thought provoking? the lives of others (leben der anderen), a german film. bravo.


and, who is to say the blacklisting of artists like the character jerska (the character on the right in the photo directly above) in the former gdr doesn't happen today without the obvious oppression of the stasi?

as has been the case, i suspect, since the dawn of time - and as george orwell in animal farm so succinctly put it - the pigs always win in the end. however, this film celebrates humanity in the midst of the pigs celebration. while they're drunk from their power, humanity can still prevail.

Mouth to Stoma

I can just imagine that the first time I'm out and about as a first aid pleb I will need to give mouth to stoma.