‘Everything I’ve always done ..I’ve done by myself (be that good or bad)’.
However the reality of that statement is untrue – it’s just that for forever it has ‘felt’ like that.

Smiles, punctuating

perfect lines,

hasty heartbeats, shuffling

through time,

a line of cliches is life,

overused and hollow

from inside.

Long ago pink, now

benumbed white,

clattering conveyor belts,

tongues greased in bile,

bring forth words,

cues, rotten lies.

Heads turned junk yard

of outdated tripe,

ears drip mucous and

grime, filled to the brim

with jaded vowels

and consonants

decomposing in light.

Frozen in time

a stunted human race,

apes sounds

filling empty spaces,

sleeping as it walks awake

dazed, gaping at sentences

spoken, now floating

as nothingness in air.

Hurling noise

at each other and life,

conversation is the

loud static

in a broken down

telephone line.

Helpless eyes flit

incessantly, groping

for meaning

in catch-phrases,

failing once more

they scream in malice,

fake courage is born

in decibels and din,

as fate lies in wait

silent and pale,

a growing shadow,

in a dark tale.

I crash, screaming

into this nightmare.

‘I’m fine,’

‘You look good,’

‘I love you,’

‘I promise,’

‘You are beautiful,’

‘Our love is real,’

my mouth froths

at its sides,

empty bubbles, hidden rile,

masquerading

as meaningful words, rise

from my dead insides.

‘Fight for Freedom,’

‘March for Peace,’

‘Save the World,’

‘Prevent Animal Cruelty,’

‘Wipe out Poverty,’

the words flow easily,

from my practised lips,

walking mummies

consume it eagerly

like fermented spirit,

by soulless bodies

of chronic alcoholics.

Blessed head rush

takes over for a while,

only to disappear

with the next sunrise.

Give me my high,

deny it and I’ll die,

I seek to speak,

hear your voice,

need the noise

to deny, breath as I die,

In words lies respite,

from the nameless

terror I carry inside,

even if just for a while.

So I repeat words

that I heard you speak,

shake my head, nod,

as you whisper, wail,

and regurgitate it.

The night settles in,

neon lights -

night owls in the streets,

blink at humanity’s

progressive defeat -

blankly stare at us

struggle to stay afloat

in someone else’s dream,

chanting into the void,

words – what do they mean?

A lady looks at me, pleadingly

says, ‘Say something please,

help me, save my soul,

don’t punish me with

your silence anymore,

I need to hear your voice,

I’m lonely than before.’

I stare back at her, silently,

wish I could tell her proudly,

‘I ripped out my tongue

last night, young lady,

I no longer know

how to speak.’

Instead I laugh, hysterically,

blood dripping down at my feet,

I scream inside my head,

‘I’ve conquered hypocrisy

and deceit, from this day,

there will be no words

for me, just deeds.’

]]> http://lightafiretonight.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/a-scream/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:35:04 +0000 Ajit Menon http://lightafiretonight.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/a-scream/

I am good. I am bad. I’m ugly. I’m useless. I’m wretchedness and a stain. I’m waves of unrestraint passion running through your veins.

I’m a liar. I’m a thief. I’m your lover and secret wish. I’m live with you under the same roof – a stranger to your dreams.

I’m stupid. Brave. I’m paranoid delusions. I’m intelligence, beyond your understanding.

I’m a saint. Sinner. Lunatic. I’m the reason for your pain. The throbbing want in your groin.

I’m black. I despicable. Desirable. Demanding. Docile.

I’m beauty without blemishes. A wart on human soul. I’m hideous little cockroaches that feed on rotten garbage. I’m rotten garbage.

My face, my hands, my eyes, my lips, legs and torso, my faith, my world, everything is made of words that you speak of me, to me, about me. They change and transform and trans-mutate and disintegrate and realign and redistribute every single molecule that lives in me. Every second of every day of every year of my life, they make me. Give me form and shape. My image.

I am millions and millions of your words hanging in void, floating through space. Every word that leaves your lips waits in the air till it knows what to do with me. Then it takes over and moulds me as you want me to be. As you want to see me.

I’m everything your words make me out to be. And when your lips stop to move, when you no longer speak, when those millions of words don’t appear before me, I disappear. I vanish into the silence where once your words gave birth to me. Death is empty silence. I know that today.

]]> http://mieszkaniawasowko.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/appropriate-advertisements/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:29:48 +0000 assimow http://mieszkaniawasowko.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/appropriate-advertisements/ http://lightafiretonight.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/disappearing-in-time/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:42:00 +0000 Ajit Menon http://lightafiretonight.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/disappearing-in-time/

I sit down and throw the days of my life, one by one, into the bonfire of time. They burn orange and deep blue, rising up in to the sky silently. How many have I burned? How many more? I have stopped counting long ago. The flames rise over me. They try unsuccessfully to touch the heaven above. I feel their heat in my eyes. Yet I see no light. They burn the surface of my skin. I stand in indifference as the merciless time incinerates my life.

When the flames have died and there is nothing more to burn, I may finally see the dark remains of my life before my eyes. Charcoal – and ashes that wind will carry on its winds to places unknown. I may miss myself then. At that point in time I might cry. But not yet. Right now I feel dead inside. I focus on the fire before my eyes and find momentary purpose in the mindless, monotonous motion of my body. The sight of my dying life hypnotizes me.

It was only yesterday I was born and now I am disappearing in time. Soon I will be no more. No body. No mind or soul. Just a heap of charred hopes that were offered in sacrifice to time. Dreams that died to live yet were never born. Exalted moments that could have been but were suffocated inside the mind. Over and and over again.

A love that never could be would die silently. Without knowing why. Seeking an explanation. In helpless submission. A life that once was a promise would accept the ugliness of indifference. It would die by the hands of a hundred years of someone else’s beliefs, without even trying to defend itself or escape the threat. The horrific site would repel all living beings. But I would stand and stare without feeling anything.

What did I trade my life for? What were my breaths worth? The days of my life burn in time as I stand and watch myself becoming less of matter and more of air. Soon I will be a story someone wanted to write but never did.

]]> http://thecharmingfreak.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/the-wild-life/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:18:29 +0000 edgyshark http://thecharmingfreak.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/the-wild-life/

I don’t want to live in/with society.

I want to live like an animal, I want to run like an animal, into the wild. No clothes, no shoes, no inhibitions. I don’t want to have to think of half a billion consequences that my actions are going to land me in. There’s not enough time to live like that anyway.

I want to live in the wild forests, below the green trees and in the serenity of the tranquil waves of the sea. I don’t want to be answerable to everything anything I say, or justify anything I do. Because we were never meant to live like that, and mankind is losing faith in its own self.

I wish people would listen to the call and wake up to an epiphany that not only preaches, but also helps them practise what it was like, the time that man was first born. When the roots of Adam beautifully haunted the cherished greenery in nature’s lap.

When Adam was lonely, and so was born Eve.

I believe that man was one, and broke into two because you always require that one companion. You cannot live alone.

But that is how it was intended. No more, no less.

And I am going to do exactly that. When the time is right, when the universe helps me to conspire against all of selfish humanity.

No, I don’t even need the universe. I just need you. And I know you know that I need you. And I know you need me too.

Live on, into the wild. Just like we did in our past lives. I believe you and I were together even then, if not physically, then in our thoughts. Because our thoughts have been running parallel beside each other, racing across the universe for light years now.

Now, they have created friction, after all this time. As far as we can remember.

And that, is the beauty of it all.

x EdgyShark x

Exhibition dates: 12th November – 6th December 2009

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These are terrific – I want one!
A big thankx to Alex for allowing me to reproduce the images.

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Alex Lukas
‘Untitled’
2009
Acrylic and silk screen on two book pages

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Alex Lukas
‘Untitled’
2009
Acrylic and silk screen on two book pages

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“Glowlab is pleased to present ‘The Eventuality of Daybreak’, a solo exhibition by Alex Lukas featuring a new series of post-apocalyptic urban landscapes that blur the visual boundaries of fiction and reality.

Lukas’ work explores the existence of disaster, be it realized or fictitious, in contemporary society. Hyper-realistic motion pictures and unforgiving news footage depict seemingly identical – and equally riveting – facades of tragedy. The artist recognizes that relentless visual bombardment has resulted in society’s desensitization to the aesthetics of destruction.

For ‘The Eventuality of Daybreak’, Lukas has selected photographic spreads of well-known metropolises from vintage publications and uses them dually as canvas and unlikely subject. Through a deft handling of paint and carefully placed screenprinted passages, the artist pushes these aging illustrations in futuristic contexts. Submerging these cities conceptually and physically, Lukas inundates images of American cities with layers of media representing cataclysmic floods and crippling overgrowth.

Also included in the exhibition are works on paper depicting near-future scenes of devastated landscapes – crumbling infrastructure, overturned trucks and telling signs of human despair. As a counterpoint to the underwater cities, these darkly atmospheric and barren vistas signal devastation through an unsettling sense of absence.

Lukas’ intentional use of dated imagery presented in tandem with contemporary situations forces the viewer to reconcile two differing ideologies of urban space. The artist’s work calls into question society’s collective acceptance of the urban environment as an arena of destruction, once thought unthinkable and now seemingly inevitable.

‘The Eventuality of Daybreak’ is Lukas’ first solo exhibition with Glowlab. Lukas’ work has also been exhibited in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Stockholm and Copenhagen as well as in the pages of Swindle Quarterly, Proximity Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Village Voice, The Drama and The New York Times Book Review. Lukas is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and currently lives and works in Philadelphia, where he is a member of the artist collective Space 1026.”

Press release on the Glowlab website

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Alex Lukas
‘Untitled’
2009
Acrylic and silk screen on two book pages

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Alex Lukas
‘Untitled’
2009
Acrylic and silk screen on two book pages

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Alex Lukas
‘Untitled’
2009
Acrylic and silk screen on two book pages

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Alex Lukas
‘Untitled’
2009
Acrylic and silk screen on two book pages

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Glowlab
30 Grand Street between Thompson St. and 6th Ave, New York

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 12-6pm

Glowlab website

Alex Lukas website

His book, Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, is on my Christmas list (in case you felt like getting me something nice). But you’ll get a good taste for it on his website.

There is a whole gallery of ‘business cards’ to peruse, and I recommend you peruse them immediately. Some are witty and delightful, some are insightful and depressing, all are worth the distraction.

You might think it’s a complete case of dominance when one says that, but it’s not.

In fact, it might sound all pompous, but it’s the awesomest thing someone close to you can even tell you. And then there’s the whole going two ways about the situation and bringing it to your discretion in a way that can ‘tease’ the other person.

I said, “I’d rather take the highway.”

“You’d rather take the highway, haan? Random strangers and this and that? We’ll see.”

Of course I won’t take the highway. Even if I do, I’ll take it with you, stoopid.

Highway pictures taken on Will

I’ve taken the highway.

The highway, to hell.

x EdgyShark x

Thanksgiving is almost here, and we are in the festive and thankful mood.  We are planning celebrations, big and small, and we all feel thankful for something, despite the challenges some of us had to endure this year.  But let’s go beyond the dinner table and adopt a meaningful way of life.  Read on.

 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2426550/giving_thanks_beyond_the_dinner_table.html

Compassion a treasured delight,
boundless in scale and generosity,
heart flowering in applied bhakti,
my path from darkness to light,
and what aids my real education in evolution,
the engaged remembering–
noting dark dreams of poverty,
paying attention to hurt imagined,
with such recall strengthens awakening reality.

I dream a confession of repulsion,
striving for compassion i ache in hatred,
and i wish heart opening apply in me,
so harsh judgment be damned–
let me stay fixed upon joy,
golden treasure suffuse my existence.

Compassion overcome my smallness,
make vulnerable my sore tenderness,
and relax this choke-hold upon understanding–
beloved let no destitute escape be mine,
grant me your strength to love,
i long for peace.

I watch a house fly flit in and sit on the rim of my mother’s tea cup. Hesitantly, it tries to dip its two front legs into the milky brown liquid. The tea must be too hot for her liking. Or too unsavory. Either way she gives up her effort and moves off without wasting time. I let my eyes follow her as she makes a neat landing on the small pile of cream biscuits on the coffee table. I am sure she would find that much to her liking. Oblivious to her presence, my uncle extends his right hand for a biscuit. His big, thick fingers may have seemed like over-sized hotdogs to the tiny creature. It takes off immediately, moving away from harms way. But the promise of a delicious brunch holds her back from leaving the room. She circles the air, waiting for an opportune moment to descend.

I think I must have imagined it but I felt the fly was watching me as well. She must be amused to see a human share her fate right now – present in the room yet not present to those in the room, we became one in a while – a consciousness too small, too insignificant to be noticed. To her, these people were threats to be wary of. It wasn’t much different for me either. Parents and elders in the family must have found it necessary to police a stubborn 10-year old all the time.

I sit on the floor watching them talk, waiting to be transported on the wings of their words into a world that would offer me temporary escape from the boredom of life. The air is cluttered around me with words. Big words, small words, casual words, formal words, words spoken in haste, in hate, in indifference. Words spoken without a reason, in unison, in the moment. The atmosphere is laced with intermittent burps, laughter, mumbled disagreements and sighs. They all hang in the air as if ignorant of their purpose, floating aimlessly, lazily. I try to put them together and find meaning. Desperately.

I wait in anticipation for them to cast their magic spell on me. I wish a fantasy too. I wish to laugh, cry, time travel, stand amidst the ruins of my family legacy and watch my grandfather drunk and naked, chasing a cat; I want to conspire against my absent uncles and aunts, share the shame of their infidelity, experience poverty, study under kerosene lamps, eat only home grown spinach and drink water to survive, walk 5 miles to school bare-feet, skinny dip in the village pond while large buffaloes rest peacefully in it. I want to escape the suffocating monotony of my everyday life.

But the words that come out of their mouth just keep swimming around me in the air. They sound empty. Hollow and flaky, they drift towards one another instead of reaching my mind. I watch them collide in midair and, in an act of pure reflex, cover my ears, expecting to hear a large explosion. Instead I see them crumble like saw dust and get sucked into each other’s vortex. Till there is nothing but a large black hole that has swallowed every single word that has been spoken and now hovers ominously before me for more like a hungry monster.

Words don’t cast magic spells. Not today. They get sucked into the black hole that exists in the air. I see the reality before me start to vanish. Without warning, the world is replaced by a two-dimensional mime. I don’t know why, but I know the invisible void that mercilessly devoured their words is here to stay. So is the silence that divides our world. It will embalm me alive. Then force me to face a world that keeps talking to me while I no longer can hear.

I look for the fly. She seems to have left the room. My uncle has finished the biscuits. I watch his lips move animatedly but hardly hear a thing.

]]> http://cjatwood.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/kingdoms-of-experience/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:26:34 +0000 cjatwood http://cjatwood.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/kingdoms-of-experience/

Every event large or small that you have knowledge of, either empirically or through another person’s experience, snowballs. Life and its experiences is a snowball effect. The original lump of ice that sits at the core of the snowball is forgotten – so far has the snowball travelled and so much weight it has added that how it began is a vestigial of the snowball as a whole and there is only empirical knowledge of it in as much as the very existence of the snowball deems that there must have been a beginning; wherever or whenever that was. Of course life wouldn’t exist without that beginning, but no aspect of your identity now, your DNA and how you have developed your psychology through time is a result of any knowledge through experience of your own birth – all that matters is that it happened.

The most recently added snow is what gives the ball its contemporary image, what lies a few centimetres below the surface layer, maybe some golden snow or a frozen plum, is historical but without it the surface, your current image, would not be as you know it. Similarly, you can’t build on history and experience but then reach under the surface and erase it. Experience is permanent. Whether you remember what was picked up in the snow 100 meters ago, or what somebody you met at that bar 3 years ago said, is irrelevant – it altered you in a way that can’t be reversed, only built on by further experience.

No one can simply not experience, every snowball grows, whether by fresh snow falling or just the gentle steady motion of it rolling from the top of the hill down a hill of little gradient towards the bottom. Experience can be good or bad – it’s scary to think that you could go out for a drive one day and end up horribly mutilated in an accident, put in a coma for many years, brain damaged. But you could decide to go out for a walk one day and make the most amazing discovery or you could meet someone that changes your life.

Don’t be static, keep moving. Always say yes, experience everything you can, you don’t have to live by convention or by law; you are beautiful and unique; you are not living in this universe, you are a part of this universe, free to do anything and everything.

Is the higher self also the essence of who you are?

The essence of who you are is who you choose to be, or how you act and relate to others. The higher self is part of you. The lower self and lower instincts are also part of you. Higher and lower self are part of the essence. High or low, that’s a choice, or it may be dictated by circumstances.

For instance, if somebody is born into a gang-like family where he only sees murder, shooting and a fight for survival on the street at the very basic level, then that’s what he learns and what he perpetuates. It would take a great effort for him to rise into the higher self. Versus someone brought up in an ashram who would automatically think about that.

So the essence of who you are is what you choose to believe and how you choose to act. Not what you profess.

One of the joys of life is its complexity. Nothing is quite black and white. If you take the trouble to think about things, you realize it’s not two sides of a coin, black and white, you can look at it from a prism. Everything has several points of view. Everything has a multidimensional meaning and existence. It’s tiring to think like that all the time. It’s easier to simplify things into simple rights and wrongs.

The reality though is that there ALWAYS is a “but”. It is wrong to kill, but if you do it in the interest of the nation, then it’s ok; it is wrong to lie but if it saves a life, then it’s ok. And so on. There are always “buts” associated with anything you state. So one should not lament the complexity of life, but rather celebrate it.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

These quotes came from one man. Someone I look up to, and someone who’s messages I truly believe in.

Carl Sagan was an amazing man. If there is one person who walked this earth that I truly consider a hero, it would be him. I can’t speak for everyone, but his words are what inspired me to delve back into the worlds of science and philosophy. There are many nights I’ve stared at the ceiling, thinking about my, our existence. Even though he’s passed on, he’s still very much an active figure in today’s world. I like to think that he’d be happy knowing that even now he’s making a difference.

Science is a passion of mine. Philosophy as well. There’s something exhilarating about learning. It’s not something that’s always accessible. It can be tough to introduce yourself to it, to acclimate to it. There is, however, a way that I think is brilliant and truly enjoyable.

The Symphony of Science is a musical project by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form.

There’s not much I can say about Symphony of Science that it doesn’t say for itself; but I will say this: This project is something truly worthwhile. Never before have I felt so drawn to something. I think this can change the world. Without further rambling, I present the three videos that have been made to this date.

If you enjoyed these, please head to the Symphony of Science website to download a free mp3 of each, learn more, and – if you’re feeling generous – make a donation. Please spread this. Tell your friends, families, strangers…anyone.

What purpose is there in intellectualizing existence? Does it bring us closer to the truth? What is the truth? Is it being able to describe the patterns that an electron takes, or how exactly memories are formed in the brain and stored by our consciousness, or soul? Is knowing the truth understanding how energy transforms into it’s various forms and knowing that our existence may be more than what we perceive with our bodies? Is it feeling the energy that exists around us as vibrations and signals?

What are we trying to find? Some say we are finding ourselves, that it brings us closer to knowing who we are and what we are. What if we’re asking the wrong questions? Maybe by intellectualizing this existence we are really looking past what we are meant to see. Maybe in trying to find answers through the logical mind, we are really digging ourselves a hole, and creating answers for questions that were never meant to be asked. What if all we are doing is creating another distraction for ourselves? After all, if the truth is the truth, should it not be so simple that all can understand? Should not the truth be so simple that even a child could understand it? Should not the truth be so simple that even someone who cannot read, or write, can understand it when they experience it?

And though we may answer yes to the simplicity of truth, there are those who would have us believe in a fantasy so conceptualized that they themselves cannot comprehend it’s magnitude. They claim to understand and hold the keys to a knowledge that no one owns. With business cards in tow and a new spiffy title to boot, they show their pearly whites.

The truth isn’t for sale. It is not a secret that is hidden from site. It is everywhere, in everything, in all that we do and in all that we are. It is not some vibration, or some new fantastic form of energy. It simply is. It is who we are, and what we have always been.

Nothing can deter you from feeling what you want to feel like. So if you feel down and out, try and feel awesome instead, and you’ll see the world turn around on your fingertips in a way of sorts.

I felt great. There’s nothing better than being on the road, and listening to your favourite music. And thinking about taking over your fears at the same time. Just do it. Do whatever you want to. Don’t let anything stop you. Release all inhibitions. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel great, you’ll learn to make yourself feel great.

There’s nothing that you can’t do. Tell yourself that, drill it in. You’ve got one life, yes, it’s all about you.

I’ve learnt these things from someone. You can take it from here. And by telling you, it’s sinking into me too.

I Feel Awesome.

Just remember, you’re not doing anything for anyone except yourself. And when you do do it, there’s nothing that feels better than that.

x EdgyShark x

Just as you are
come now and understand the mystery of your life
and this existence
it is simple if you allow source to bring to you all the answers you seek
don’t force your mind to try and determine all that is
simply allow source to bring to you the answers you seek
allow source to bring to you solutions
and seek source’s guidance from moment to moment yes
know that you can be directed in all your ways
know that source can give you that sort of direction and inspiration
you must let go of the limiting belief that you are unable to reach this level of understanding
of guidance
and alignment
you must embrace the ability and know that source will guide you step by step
trust and be patient
know that all is worked out in divine order
yes
all comes to you and unfolds just as it should
expect the miracles and enjoy them
celebrate and be grateful for the richness of this life
for you are here to enjoy every breath every moment
you are here to commune with source and co-create
for you are the very nature of the divine
and you are more than just this body more than just this human form more than just the mind and thoughts you currently are aware of
so much more so much deeper so much grander than that you are indeed
for there is a part of you that is awakening day-to-day
and arising into your consciousness
you are becoming aware of the part of you that is most divine that is most sublime and that will break through the limiting beliefs and cleans your past
your present and future
cleans now so that you can be free from guilt free from disappointment free from erroneous thinking
and enter into the true meaning of living the true meaning of abundant life
of abundance
of all the good that is

that is why you are here once again
that is why you exist to be incredibly at peace and in love with all that is that is your existence
follow the bliss because bliss leads you to alignment with all that is
leads you to harmony and grace peace and love
bliss is simply an emotional and spiritual indicator that you are aligned with where you need be
do not be afraid of confused
do not tangle the limiting belief you have about bliss
the social conventions you are familiar with the true meaning of bliss for bliss is pure and good and wholesome
and righteous
And something to be enjoyed indeed every moment
which you can do
believe that you are an extension of source in all its splendor
you are the divine in human form
know that you have every right to shine and be set free from any limitations
know that you are the very nature of the almighty and that you can seek and find whatever it is your heart desires know that as an extension of source all things are for you
all things will bring about the balance your heart desires and all things are part of you
you are part of all that is
know this and understand that the balance can be enjoyed and your role is to allow source the inner connection
to guide you to fulfilment
to guide you to limitless love to guide you to doing exactly what you desire most
being of the best and highest benefit to all you can including yourself your awareness your consciousness of what is
you are expanding as you think of these things and you will continue
just allows source to do its good and know that all is well and always will be
yes that is all

- Morning stream of consciousness writing from John Stringer

Sign up to get these messages delivered to your email at http://snipurl.com/myrn

They say hope keeps us alive.
Good begets good.
Love makes the world go round.
There’s God within each one of us.
Right.

Deep down, I guess, we all like to live in a fool’s paradise.
Hold on to our favorite fallacies that seem to mitigate the trials and tribulations of our life.
Believe in seductive lies.
Like Hope, that colors the beholder’s eyes.
An untruth perpetuated to rob every generation off it’s pride.
A drug that offers an illusory escape in time. Rewards one’s imagination for a while.
The balm that soothes that pain of being alive.
In almost every case, bandied to justify a miserable existence being passed off for a life.
In fact, Hope is only a by-product of a conflict inside. A consequence of the struggle between Man’s wants and his powerlessness over the world he finds himself in.

Like Faith.
Both stem from Want.
Hope and Faith.
Two sides of the same coin.
Selective suspension of one’s own faculty of thought.
Hope is active anticipation.
It consoles.
Faith is passive anticipation.
It cajoles.
Both are a sub-conscious desire to mold metaphysical reality according to one’s will.
But, as yet, magic is entertainment on earth not a way of life.

Hope is the luxury of the naïve optimists. The cotton-wool over every dreamer’s eye.
Yet it is born only in a soul that desires.
Still maintains the statuesque of constructive engagement with life.
Not a privilege for spirits like you and I.
As a race, we don’t want to feel anything anymore. It’s a cruel world out there. We pray every day.
We learn new ways. Always grateful that we feel less and less with each passing day. Maybe even proud sometimes.
If you want to know whether your prayers are answered, whether God exists, look inside.
Numbness is the sign.
A heart that’s frozen cold before it dies gives no room for hope.
It is indifference that keeps it alive.
Inertia keeps it alive.
Stupidity and cowardice keep it alive.

Even when a lie, Hope is a sublime notion.
Sublime is the enemy of our times.
It denies the comfort of existing without responsibility.
Destroys the luxury of sleepwalking through this continuum of space and time.
Nullifies the sensation of staying afloat without a design.
It demands awareness and a conscious mind.

Sublime is sacred. Divine.
Anti-Christ of our prosaic lives.
Sublime – it’s a muffled scream that’s extinguished before it can give shape to the anguish of Man’s dying pride.

Vestiges of our history are scattered with corpses of sublime.
Incapacitated love of life. Greatness denied.
Hope is our ancestors indulgence of life. A dream someone else had a long time ago and cherished for a while. A fantastic love story that man repeats to warm his cockles in trying times.

Hope was, and is, a fool’s paradise.

]]> http://artblart.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/vale-sue-ford-1943-2009/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:11:31 +0000 bunyanth http://artblart.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/vale-sue-ford-1943-2009/

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One thing always struck me about Sue Ford’s work when I saw it.

The work had integrity.

Whatever she produced it was always interesting, valid and had integrity.
She followed her own path as we all do – and her voice was clear, focused and eloquent.

I loved her series ‘Shadow Portraits’ – an erudite investigation into the nature of Australian identity if ever there was one!

Vale Sue Ford.

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The Age obituary for Sue Ford

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Sue Ford
‘Dissolution’
2006
from the Last Light series

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Sue Ford
‘Silhouette’
2006
from the Last Light series

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Sue Ford
‘Apparition’
2007
from the Last Light series

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Sue Ford
‘Transparent’
2007
from the Last Light series

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Sue Ford
‘Shadow Portrait II’
1994 – 2002

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Sue Ford
‘Shadow Portrait III’
2003

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Sue Ford
‘Shadow Portrait IV’
1994 – 2002

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Sue Ford
‘Shadow Portrait V’
1994 – 2002

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Sue Ford
‘Ross, 1968′
1968

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Sue Ford
‘Big secret!’
c. 1960-1961

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Sue Ford
‘Orpheus’
1972

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Sue Ford
‘No title (Photogram of two hands and garden path)’
c. 1970

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These days, watching the news seems to be more of a crime.. everywhere one watches, there are crimes committed in the name of religion. Thousands of innocent people being bombed, massacred and killed – and the reason – Religion.

I have always shied away from making any kind of ‘bold’ statements on this blog for fear of being profiled as a fundamentalist or a fanatic. Let me assure you that I am neither. I am just a plain ‘old’ writer and a citizen of this world, watching TV and trying to gobble down my dinner. And what I see on the news usually makes my stomach churn. So, for the past so many days, I simply changed the channel.

See, that is what most of us actually end up doing when we OD on these killings and wars. We simply change the channel. Watch Comedy Central instead. Hmmm…. Easy way out, right?

But here’s a thought that has never left my mind. Does changing the channel mean that the reality has changed for those people whose houses and lives are being destroyed? And the answer is: not really.

While I do not claim to be an authority on world religions, I do know for a fact that no religion tells us to kill people. Not a single one. But then religious fanatics do kill people in the name of their religion. And in this entire heedless killing, who really wins? Honestly, from where I stand, the only winners are the politicians. And the losers are all of us. Yup. We are all the biggest losers in this silliness.

And why are these wars being fought?

Bottom line: Each religious fanatic thinks: (1)his / her religion is the best / oldest / wisest / truest religion; and (2)his / her people have been hurt / hated / discriminated against / treated unfairly by the people of the other religion.

So, again, let me say what I feel here: As far as I know, no religion tells us to kill people, or to hate people belonging to other religions. In fact, as per my understanding, each religion tells us to love other people, to be compassionate and caring towards our fellow human beings.

And yet, so many of us, religious fanatics or not, end up not even following these most basic principles of our religion: compassion and love for our brothers and sisters across the globe. And we call ourselves believers? Really? Are we?

Why can’t we all live in peace? Why does the phrase ‘World Peace’ become a joke from a movie? While a part of the world enjoys a nice life, why do so many of our brothers and sisters perish in unnecessary wars?

What kind of a world are we living in?

All this disgusts me to no end.

Does it matter whose God / Prophet is the best / truest / wisest / oldest? Does it really matter that much? In this silly debate are we not turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the actual message of this God / Prophet?

What is important to you? The Message or the Messenger?

If the Message is what matters, then you won’t be out there killing people…. and if the Messenger is the important part, then buddy, you need to really take a good look at yourself in the mirror and see where your head’s at.

Killing in the name of Faith is defeating the purpose of Existence itself. Because Existence is about Life and Love and Happiness and Compassion. Existence is about being good to people no matter what Belief-System they follow. Existence is about ‘Live and Let Live’. Not about ‘Kill and Kill Some More’.

Geddit?