[Scene - Guest Quarters, Wild Woods, Totnes, Devon - 1.32am]
John Lennon, Imagine, is playing from itunes. It is playing as a way to settle my nerves from having woken with a start just moments ago.
I went to bed around 2 hours ago and was sleeping soundly when all of a sudden I heard a voice calling, so I lifted my head from my pillow and uttered, "yes?". It was a dream. My heart pounding, I lay in this dark unfamiliar room and felt a grip of fear as my mind searched for meaning.
Laying still I attempted to put myself back to sleep, but the longer I lay there the more my mind took me on a ride that only further heightened my nerves.
So I sat up, turned on my phone and started looking for ways to distract myself by reading some emails, some tweets and a new article posted on Ooooby by James. I was still feeling insecure, so I started listening to a new audio book I had downloaded the day before. Still no relief.
So here I am writing on my laptop, and we're up to the 3rd song on the Imagine album, Jealous Guy.
So what is going on for me? So much. Life seems so delicate. So fragile. Why do we continue to live in ways that are certain to be our demise, when we know that we can live in better ways?
It's time to wake up. For the love of life, it's time to wake up. We must begin now to take responsibility for how we live. We have been like spoilt teenagers living recklessly and without concern or consideration for the mess and damage we are leaving in our wake. And it is our wake that our children are now being forced to live in.
Is it now time for humanity to start to become aware of it's destruction and to mend its ways? I am humanity aren't I? You are humanity... aren't you? What am I doing, what are you doing, what are we doing that we don't look at the consequences of?
Buying and discarding plastic packaging with little or no remorse? Feeding the blind beast of the centralised food system with our dollars without looking behind the curtain to see what incredible destruction it is causing? How long will we continue to do this? Surely we can't keep it up for much longer. Either this ridiculous behaviour will see the end of us or we will be fortunate enough to see the end of it.
But we depend on this system right? If we don't buy food from it, there is little or nowhere else to get our food from anymore. What are we to do?
I am feeling weary again. Time to go back to sleep.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Why isn't public signage seen as SPAM?
[Scene - World Cafe, Crouch End, London]
I am sitting enjoying a coffee looking across the road at a beautiful old Gothic style church and the street scape stretching out beyond it.
I imagine the scene 100 years before and it occurs to me that the main difference would be the relative silence in terms of visual noise.
Signs, signs, signs, everywhere shouting at me. Demanding attention for messages that have zero relevance to me. Like spam in real life. My senses are bombarded and disturbed.
Could my sense of peace increase if the amount of signage in the streets were to decrease? I want a spam filter for public spaces.
It makes me wonder what the future might look like. More visual noise? Like the scenes portrayed in the Minority Report? Or is it possible that we can look forward to more peaceful public spaces?
Based on the success of googles advertising model, could it be that we begin to see a majority of advertising and information delivered with pinpoint accuracy through mobile devices? Reaching only the people it matters to when it matters to them?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if loud public signage were to be treated with the same disdain as spam?
I am sitting enjoying a coffee looking across the road at a beautiful old Gothic style church and the street scape stretching out beyond it.
I imagine the scene 100 years before and it occurs to me that the main difference would be the relative silence in terms of visual noise.
Signs, signs, signs, everywhere shouting at me. Demanding attention for messages that have zero relevance to me. Like spam in real life. My senses are bombarded and disturbed.
Could my sense of peace increase if the amount of signage in the streets were to decrease? I want a spam filter for public spaces.
It makes me wonder what the future might look like. More visual noise? Like the scenes portrayed in the Minority Report? Or is it possible that we can look forward to more peaceful public spaces?
Based on the success of googles advertising model, could it be that we begin to see a majority of advertising and information delivered with pinpoint accuracy through mobile devices? Reaching only the people it matters to when it matters to them?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if loud public signage were to be treated with the same disdain as spam?
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Is connection the first fundamental requirement for social change?
[Scene - Footpath, Crouch End, London. ]
I am waiting to meet a friend. I stand on the curb and look down the road.
From behind I hear the sound of skateboard wheels clacking on the footpath. The rider, a young lad, is cautious as he approaches a driveway. He slows and clumsily steps off his board, not confident enough to manouver over the rough terrain. He turns around to catch the gaze of someone following him on foot. The lad has a look on his face of wanting approval. As I glance over my shoulder I see a man who seems to be his father. He is smiling. The boy smiles, hops back on his board and sets off again encouraged.
I think about my own son Elliott and I miss him dearly. He is a beautiful young man. We don't talk often enough and I would love to spend more time with him. I begin to stroll and as I ponder my feeling of disconnection I notice that my energy has dropped.
Looking up I see my friend approaching with a smile on his face. I smile and as we greet each other I can feel my energy lifting.
--
It occurs to me that connection with others is a primary source of happiness and positive energy, and that low energy can be largely the result of feeling disconnected from others.
So when it comes to developing models for social change, it seems that connectivity between each other is a critical element for creating the energy that is required to break out of the inertia of status quo.
I am waiting to meet a friend. I stand on the curb and look down the road.
From behind I hear the sound of skateboard wheels clacking on the footpath. The rider, a young lad, is cautious as he approaches a driveway. He slows and clumsily steps off his board, not confident enough to manouver over the rough terrain. He turns around to catch the gaze of someone following him on foot. The lad has a look on his face of wanting approval. As I glance over my shoulder I see a man who seems to be his father. He is smiling. The boy smiles, hops back on his board and sets off again encouraged.
I think about my own son Elliott and I miss him dearly. He is a beautiful young man. We don't talk often enough and I would love to spend more time with him. I begin to stroll and as I ponder my feeling of disconnection I notice that my energy has dropped.
Looking up I see my friend approaching with a smile on his face. I smile and as we greet each other I can feel my energy lifting.
--
It occurs to me that connection with others is a primary source of happiness and positive energy, and that low energy can be largely the result of feeling disconnected from others.
So when it comes to developing models for social change, it seems that connectivity between each other is a critical element for creating the energy that is required to break out of the inertia of status quo.
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