#184
Yesterday's Nice Thing - Hanging out with Kelly and Cormac - after spending time with Ghin
Today we leave for Singapore. It seems like such a long time coming especially since Pa has been ill - or not very well. It has been a waiting game to finally get on the flight and see him again. I think I am prepared for any eventuality and then someone gets very ill and I realise I am prepared for nothing. Understanding that life is a simple, short thing. Pa is well really... so I'm just spinning. But just saying...
Just thinking about it, that's all.
Yesterday, as I said earlier I met an ex-colleague because I thought it was Sunday and really it was Monday. It sounded like the RSPB has been undergoing some major restructuring - it would seem that everything is undergoing major restructuring. The policy side of things has been taken over by RSPB in England and delivery and species thing has become something else - seriously - I can't be bothered. All of that, ALL OF THAT, I left far far behind. FFS I am trying to start up a co-op right? It makes sense you know. Laying the foundations for a better future.
Then after that I came home - Ghin was upset, to say the least, so I comforted him then we went to get food for Gary and a present for Cormac. We came home, I fell asleep and we watched some TV. Then after that we headed to Kelly's new house which was a huge improvement on her old one which was very large, very cold and very in the middle nowhere. I said to her, good god, look at how much nicer this place is! And the community is so diverse. It is on the loyalist end of the Ormeau Road, this is true, but you know, the Ormeau is no longer the crazy place it used to be... things are changing - of course it only took twenty years to move about two inches, but you know, movements in the right direction right?
Also I had the usual row with the usual person, but it made me decide something important - and I am drawing up a timeline when I get to Singapore. In fact, I'm going to do that now - timelines for EVERYTHING. I recently read that women and killer whales experience menopause and when female killer whales do this, they become leaders of the pod. I would like to take a leaf from their book and do the same.
I was recently watching a rally about something and seeing all the people shouting and giving speeches and it made me remember the good old days when that kind of giving speeches and attending people giving speeches was something which I thought protesting was about. But the truth is that the giving speeches part of the protesting was the most annoying thing about it. To listen to someone go on and on about a topic everyone knows everything about is just so boring. And playing music as well. I don't know what the focus of a rally should be, but not long tedious speeches. Also long tedious speeches do not work. This is more the point. Nor do panel discussions in dark rooms with people huddled around a microphone. I dunno what works... but not that. Very boring. And self important. The world just aint like that anymore. Ask Oisin or Ghin to attend one of these things and they'd look at you as if you had two heads... also of course having attended these things all their lives... I was particularly struck by what a friend once said - that twenty people were discussing how to get rid of some invasive plant and by the third meeting he was losing the will to live. He said, if each of us had a pair of secateurs we'd have gotten rid of the weed by the time all the meetings we had to have about it were over...
I think that is what I think should happen. REAL workshops - people exchanging skills, learning new things, digging guerrilla gardens, tidying up places, making a REAL difference, instead of just marching or listening to speeches. Doing a litter pick or creating a work of art which then disappears without leaving a trace - beautifying the place rather than driving people demented with all the shouting and insisting. It is little better than a wank fest really.
And then if you REALLY want to make a difference, change your life - be good to someone or yourself so that the wound doesn't feel the need to inflict a further wound or consume to salve it.
Have a party. Laugh. Celebrate. Integrate instead of creating boundaries, be inclusive. Include. Defy expectations.
Yep.
Right... it is good waking up at 4 to write again. I feel really excellent. Really good. I hope to write a collection of short stories these holidays. And maybe illustrate them. And they maybe about birds... just sayin'.
Today we leave for Singapore. It seems like such a long time coming especially since Pa has been ill - or not very well. It has been a waiting game to finally get on the flight and see him again. I think I am prepared for any eventuality and then someone gets very ill and I realise I am prepared for nothing. Understanding that life is a simple, short thing. Pa is well really... so I'm just spinning. But just saying...
Just thinking about it, that's all.
Yesterday, as I said earlier I met an ex-colleague because I thought it was Sunday and really it was Monday. It sounded like the RSPB has been undergoing some major restructuring - it would seem that everything is undergoing major restructuring. The policy side of things has been taken over by RSPB in England and delivery and species thing has become something else - seriously - I can't be bothered. All of that, ALL OF THAT, I left far far behind. FFS I am trying to start up a co-op right? It makes sense you know. Laying the foundations for a better future.
Then after that I came home - Ghin was upset, to say the least, so I comforted him then we went to get food for Gary and a present for Cormac. We came home, I fell asleep and we watched some TV. Then after that we headed to Kelly's new house which was a huge improvement on her old one which was very large, very cold and very in the middle nowhere. I said to her, good god, look at how much nicer this place is! And the community is so diverse. It is on the loyalist end of the Ormeau Road, this is true, but you know, the Ormeau is no longer the crazy place it used to be... things are changing - of course it only took twenty years to move about two inches, but you know, movements in the right direction right?
Also I had the usual row with the usual person, but it made me decide something important - and I am drawing up a timeline when I get to Singapore. In fact, I'm going to do that now - timelines for EVERYTHING. I recently read that women and killer whales experience menopause and when female killer whales do this, they become leaders of the pod. I would like to take a leaf from their book and do the same.
I was recently watching a rally about something and seeing all the people shouting and giving speeches and it made me remember the good old days when that kind of giving speeches and attending people giving speeches was something which I thought protesting was about. But the truth is that the giving speeches part of the protesting was the most annoying thing about it. To listen to someone go on and on about a topic everyone knows everything about is just so boring. And playing music as well. I don't know what the focus of a rally should be, but not long tedious speeches. Also long tedious speeches do not work. This is more the point. Nor do panel discussions in dark rooms with people huddled around a microphone. I dunno what works... but not that. Very boring. And self important. The world just aint like that anymore. Ask Oisin or Ghin to attend one of these things and they'd look at you as if you had two heads... also of course having attended these things all their lives... I was particularly struck by what a friend once said - that twenty people were discussing how to get rid of some invasive plant and by the third meeting he was losing the will to live. He said, if each of us had a pair of secateurs we'd have gotten rid of the weed by the time all the meetings we had to have about it were over...
I think that is what I think should happen. REAL workshops - people exchanging skills, learning new things, digging guerrilla gardens, tidying up places, making a REAL difference, instead of just marching or listening to speeches. Doing a litter pick or creating a work of art which then disappears without leaving a trace - beautifying the place rather than driving people demented with all the shouting and insisting. It is little better than a wank fest really.
And then if you REALLY want to make a difference, change your life - be good to someone or yourself so that the wound doesn't feel the need to inflict a further wound or consume to salve it.
Have a party. Laugh. Celebrate. Integrate instead of creating boundaries, be inclusive. Include. Defy expectations.
Yep.
Right... it is good waking up at 4 to write again. I feel really excellent. Really good. I hope to write a collection of short stories these holidays. And maybe illustrate them. And they maybe about birds... just sayin'.
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