Life as Art

lying in my bed

watching the sea crash the shore

a Tamil sunrise.

when a flash appeared

two trails of exploding light

meteoric dawn.

Life as Art:

Life as a Work in Progress

...a sort of synaesthesia,

polymorphous perversity.

I think it would be a step forward for the human race if they were able to individually conceive

of their daily life in it's minuteness and in it's total breadth as a work of art. Not to take ourselves too seriously but always mindful of the gift that is our place upon this little planet with all it's trials and sorrow. We should be able to include all the elements of the artistic view such as symmetry, balance, harmony and rythm into that creation which is our daily life. Not just to create a work of art but to live it. Art is a way to experience ourselves in relation to the universe and our particular chance to express what we are to the world as a whole. We should be able to step through life with a lightness and studied movement that evokes our deepest sense of living and contributes to a better relationship with our fellow man that can influence without manipulation, that encourages sensitivity, deep awareness and perspicacity in those we touch in our lives. To use perspective to create a balance in our actions as we unfold the mystery that is our sojourn through life. To be able at the end of the day to say this is what I achieved and added to the sum total of human existence. And sleep well at night.

The Future of Education

What is missing from the education system? Heart, soul, breadth, passion, rigorous allegiance to facts, openness to a new spectrum of ideas, debate and wonder. Education has become a deadened teach-to-the-syllabus process of mind-numbing conformity overburdened with government interference and control; too afraid to challenge it's parents to allow it to achieve what they never experienced: a pursuit of excellence and rigour at all cost allowing the free expression of thought which can allow a society to be the frontline on the frontier of the future where our children will be living and creating a new world. There is a tragic loss of potentiality with each generation that fails to resolve this deficiency. Education has the power to help us all to realize the weak fallacies that underpin our cultural framework, sweep away the deadwood and allow the next generation to have the grounding and scope to develop the fresh perspectives that can lead us to a better outcome and give us the integrity to influence a sceptical world to move in a more progressive and unified trajectory. Until we reward excellence and the pursuit of the truth with an objective analysis of all our shortcomings as a people we will never allow the individual to unleash the powers of their minds and talents to build toward a better world. Teachers need to be the facilitators that fire the innate energy and wonder of children to open their minds and give them the world so they can put a constructive and reverential stamp upon it.

The Lighthouse Keeper

a lighthouse keeper

alone above the dark seas

sighs, guards the beacon.

The lighthouse is an excellent metaphor for how we should approach the issue of influencing the world around us toward a better end. The lighthouse is our self. It needs to be well maintained and properly constituted so that the light that shines from it is strong, pure and coherent. But what is most important is the fact that we project to the world what is best of ourselves and in such a way that it is seen and received in a manner the watcher can accept as his own. Like a boat at sea upon a dark night, the observer needs to use that light as they see fit, or not at all. Influence is a very dangerous thing. To maniputate and bully is to emasculate those being influenced rather than giving them the inspiration to make the journey for themselves. We all have to step softly in the public arena. To be a catalyst that signals and nurtures another beacon in another lighthouse is the best we can do. Then they have to tend to their own fire and light their own way in the world.

Keep the fuel stoked and the flame clean. Wipe the windows clear, maintain a silence in the tower. For the epiphany will come unannounced and unbidden, an ineffable moment. And come it will, to those prepared.

Tower of Babel

What a great noise we are making!

An overwhelming tsunami of sound and fury. A great flood has inundated the world and Noah in nowhere to be found. From the empty bellowing of the radio waves, to the puzzled phrases of the written word, to the blurred visual imagination of television, to the inane drone of the ubiquitous cell phone, to the anger and bombast of internet postings, to a twittering in the distance. This cloud computing leviathan has put a dank fog upon human discourse. We can access the world but cannot discern a single voice. We have a million thoughts at our fingertips but we can't wade throught the clotted digital arteries full of bile and mediocrity that blinds us to a commonality of purpose. From duelling mystics to craven mammon: a virtual Tower of Babel.

And here I am in the middle of it waving my flag. Maybe I'm making the same mistake we all are and should just keep my mouth shut.

I think we have gone through the looking glass and we have no idea whose running the asylum.

It's all White Noise. Is this the best we can do?

Maybe it will eventually cancel itself out and we will be left with ineffable silence.

GADFLY

Aristotle's defence at his trail:

"If you kill me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me."

"To sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of the truth"

The gadfly needs to be the postmodern man. The pinprick, the balloon deflator, the applier of cold water, the translator of signs, the voice that cries in the wilderness and the hand that stays the onslaught.

...I talk to the wind.

And the gadfly needs to start, by healing thyself. It is no good pontificating to an uncaring world with vacuous words. There is enough of that already. You begin by cleansing the dross of a lifetime that is your identity and place in this world. The unexamined life is not worth living as Aristotle also wisely added. Almost all that we are and believe has never been questioned or examined. We are a collection of disparate influences: family, community, peers, school and media. We have swallowed the menu whole in unquestioning obedience as good members of our society and culture. Now it is about time we look at ourselves and what we represent with an unjaundiced eye and a reasoned temperament. Undauntingly we must challenge our deepest core beliefs and values to find out if they pass the true test in the clear light of day. Then and only then can we proceed to view the wide expanse or our community, culture, nation and planet with open eyes and begin to effect a change which could transform our lives.

We must rub our eyes and throw off the sleepiness so as to begin to walk in the daylight of a mature human life. The childish things need to go. We are not playing with toys anymore.