giovedì, agosto 31, 2006

Complicity Redux

I avoid the personal, but here’s something personal in the extreme.

Last night I was biking home from Luke Duke's after we dined with his family and Magnum and my mum, and I was thinking how it would just be ludicrous if there was a better family than them, and thinking how nice it is to be enjoying my man and all, and then the moon rode low and curvy in the cityscape viewed over Riverdale Park. I bellowed at Figaro, “look at the moon!” Pointing. Not slowing down. Just going. Thinking, should I slow down and catch this with my crap little camera phone? And then thinking, as Fig ooed and ahhhed – no – it’s enough that we both saw it.

In Singing Neanderthals, Steven Mithen wrote wonderfully of the physical and chemical power of harmony and rhythm – singing and dancing – to create a real bond between people. I’ll extend it totally unscientifically here and say sharing beautiful things has the power to create, not only a bond between people, but a bond between each person and the world.

Motherfuckers, I’ve never been paying so much attention.

Not much else to say today. Off to the North tonight and hoping for the continuation of the pleasant weather. Mostly finished Kinzer book. Brief, dismissive review to come.

9 commenti:

Sugarplum ha detto...

You're right and that's the problem with the world today. We are too busy to notice the beauty around us that would have been so impossible to avoid only 100 years ago. We have built glass cages around ourselves and we live inside without even looking outside. I think that is why we all have such profound personal transformations when we go to the countryside and sleep under the stars.

When we were camping last weekend, my fiance looked up and said to me, "I didn't know there were so many stars." He grew up between the light pollution of Columbus and Cleveland and had never truly seen the starry sky. He is not alone. We need to experience the world around us in order to understand our responsibility to it.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Yeah, it's true. I think the most disturbing evidence of that is the huge disconnect most people have between what's in their fridge and where it comes from. I'm not saying that in a go-go-organic-arms kinda way, but in a where-the-fuck-do-they-think-it-comes-from sort of way that I think makes people squeamish, annoying, and stupid. I believe people are urban, herding animals, but that doesn't mean we have to be retards about our place in the world.

Melbine ha detto...

Well, you all know how I feel about the urban world so I won't rant on about it. But it's offically less than 2 years now until urban exodus takes place!

I can hardly wait to hear news about the new wee one to join your family!

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

The urban world is what we make it.

I can't either. Luke Duke's woman's belly was riding as low as the moon last night.

Sugarplum ha detto...

I wrote my MA thesis on an aspect of that: the processes that we go through as Canadians to make our food edible. You are what you eat and it all has to go through an intensive civilizing process to make it good enough for our consumption. We think raw beef is gross so we cook it until there is no more juice that can be squeezed out of the animal. It is no longer recognizable as an animal at this point (and it is tasteless). We call it a roast, steak, filet mignon, anything to mask it from what it once was. We think above others who eat meat raw such as our Inuit but we are the ignorant culture because we have lost that connection.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

I'd like to read your thesis . . . you know French, right? We can do swapsies.

Sugarplum ha detto...

Well, it's about a novel (obviously since my MA is in English) that involves a woman from a Japanese family so she is second generation Canadian and all she eats is junk food. So in effect, to her, Canadian food is devoid of nutrients, both literal and figurative, and she slowly begins to consume Japanese food which reconnects her to her familial roots and her culture. The whole time she is pregnant with a Kappa who is a mythical Japanese trickster character. So the only thing about Canadian food are the bits about her consuming mainstream culture in order to rid herself of her Japaneseness. Instead of reading my boring thesis, you should read the book, The Kappa Child, by Hiromi Goto. It is whimsical and funny and talks about dildos which is always fun and worth a chuckle.

Melbine ha detto...

Hey, why don't I remember the dildo part of The Kappy Child??

I know the urban world is what we make it, that is an excellent point. But for every person that would like to make it a wonderful, clean place there's someone who doesn't. I hate relying on the few who actually care..I know, if I want change I should actually do something about it!

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

Thanks, Sugar, I'll find it. And you're right, Mel. But just getting frustrated and storming off from where all the asshole live just means the assholes win. Your case is a little different because I figure you love the country more than you 'hate' the city.