Beowulf and starlings

Ghin practising his non paparazzi moves.


Me and Ghin in kitchen - just after the other boys tooks off.


At Camphill for the lights switch on in Holywood.


Lisa and Lara...


Mothers and friends...

Sorry it's taken such a long time between posts. It's so difficult to find time to post and since i'm so crap with the pictures, it seems pretty pointless to put writing up without the pictures. Ghin is sleeping now and Olive's chicken is in the oven. Have i given you the lecture yet about the importance of buying local. In addition to her chicken tasting so good, it also keeps. Now what do i mean by keep? A couple of weeks ago i got two chickens - week, three weeks ago...one i dismembered and froze, the other i roasted for another Sunday lunch. Now some of the breast i put aside - raw - to cook. And forgot about it for four days. In 'normal' chicken, it would have gone 'lendeh' as the Malays would say, and i would have had to bin it. This one only stayed perfect; there wasn't any sliminess or smell, or anything like that. "It's because she hangs the bird", i can hear Alan's voice intone. But it really is amazing.

Now to Beowulf. First, there are violent scenes which i thought were unnecessary, but we have to keep the boys interested, right? However, the story itself was amazing and way better than the original tale. If i had to do a short description of the film, i'd say it was about the fear of woman in the Western male psyche, as influenced by Judeo Christian myths and their antecedents. There are three main women in the film - the acceptable face of feminity (the chaste queen), the monstrous female (Grendal's mother - she has no name, also called the 'hag') and then the maid who is let down by the impotence of patriarchy. I absolutely loved it. The crux of the story is that the male, despite his mission to slay the demon, is only able to sly the demons of another man - he then conceives his own demons on the monstrous female and the cycle then continues. It is Western dialectics and dualistic thinking worked in at every level. The shadow, dispossessed and disowned, but very much alive returns to seek his revenge. He is created from the 'sins of the father'... what is great about the film i that, like most Japanese anime, it does not judge. You don't think that the monsters are evil, nor are the heros redeemed. We are all haunted, afraid and damned - and the only thing that saves us is compassion. Like most of the audience - probably - i went away scratching my head...what was THAT about? And the images haunted me for a few days. It was Neil Gaiman at his best really.

After thoughts...
and just to show you that i'm not making it up about the connections with Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, here are the pictures and a description of the slaying of Tiamat...of course in the film this cannot occur, which actually makes Gaiman's version not only post patriarchal, but post feminist as well...

TIAMAT AND MARDUK

(From Enuma Elish, the Babylonian story of creation. Dated at around 1700 BCE, but aspects of the story could go back to about 2000 BCE.)

In this story it is said that before the time of the gods and the world there was nothing but a waste of chaotic waters ruled by Apsu and Tiamat, a dragon-like creature. As time passed gods were created in hopes of bringing order to this chaos. One of the gods, Ea, slay Apsu, thus making Tiamat and her brood of monsters mad at the gods. Tiamat waged war against Ea and the other gods and was successful in stifling their efforts until Marduk was born. Marduk was the strongest and the wisest of the gods and was elected to deal with Tiamat once and for all. Upon summoning the powers of all of the other gods, Marduk went to war with Tiamat. Tiamat was no match for Marduk and all of his powers. Marduk caught her in his net and when she opened her mouth to breath fire at him, he let loose the four winds which filled her up rendering her defenseless . Marduk then speared her with a lightning bolt, split her in two and raised half of her body to create the sky and with the other half created the earth.

This is a classic example of a male deity slaying a female dragon or serpent-like monster in an attempt to replace a cooperative, "chaotic" natural order with a hierarchical, paternal, and often monotheistic system.


Marduk slays Tiamat

Yesterday (Saturday) we did the St Georges Market and then went to Camphill for tea to see the Christmas lights switch on. On Friday evening, i dropped into Marie's to pick up some worms for the compost pile. It is such a beautiful life we lead here. Friends, family, and the school. I really couldn't have asked for more. Marie's friend Rita was there and we chatted about the school, which she had sent her daughters to as well. They were discussing the launch of a report that Marie had just done on lesbian health which was taking place - well is taking place, today. Outside three starlings are squabbling over a bird cake. Tell you i don't want to be at the receiving end of those beaks.They've also discovered the bread ends i left out. Two male blackbirds come to the garden for the apple everyday. and yesterday Oisin spent the afternoon doing the compost and chasing a robin. A perfectly formed life, non?

Of course i say this because i'm in a good mood...it might be a different story if i was writing when i was low...

26 11 07

And i was low today. I don't understand it, yesterday i was great, and then today, this morning i was foul. Thankfully i have recovered...Bhuddist advocate doing this thing called tonglen - which is breathing in all the shite - imagine that it's somekind of yucky mucky fog - and then breathing out pure clean air. In breath and out breath have to be equal and deep, true, pure. And you do thi for yourself, for the object of your annoyance, and then for anyone which suffers in the same way. In this way you connect to everyone and you are healing inside and out - and halfway across the world...talk about chaos theory. If only it was that simple. At times of challenge, i understand the theory, and then when i'm successful i can actually carry it out, but when i'm in a crap place, it's so fucking hard. Sorry mom, swearing sometimes is the only way to express it - i'm 37 years old and i'm apologising to my mom!!! - anyhow...it's hard. But that's when you bring the fortitude of a warrior to bear - it is when it is hard that your training comes to the fore. Oh god....sometimes i wonder, would it be easier to be a lazy shite and let it all hangout - and the problem is i know the answer. The answer is - because i HAVE been a lazy shite in the past and it hasn't just hung out, it has flapped all over the place - that it's a short term fix and the problem is only compounded when the fix disappears. And then you're left with a pile of crap to clean up. It is not unlike a hangover. MUCH EASIER to be a warrior for a short while and then have peace in the long run. Except that because you're human and everyone else is human you just have to keep practising in order to keep the peace... why is being human so fucking hard???