From Me to You

Can’t believe it has been almost two weeks since my last “personal” post. I’ve been sewing… working… took another trip to Christchurch for more fabric, and stuff… I haven’t sold any parachute pants, yet, but I’ve given away a couple of pairs that will attract attention… I will think about a version suitable for the more mature patrons of the Saturday morning Homecrafts Market held in the carpark in front of our knitwear factory shop. Lots of women I’ve spoken to lately say “Oh, I used to have a pair like that and they were the most comfortable pants I’ve ever worn”. So, hopefully there is a willing market for them -Trinny and Suzanna, butt out.
Another thing I have been spending time on is photographing “The Box” (see Post under Money -Self regulating systems). It fascinates me how the contours of the shingle banks on either side of the ingenious wooden box structure can change utterly from day to day. I love to stand and listen to the ssshishing of the pebbles as they are dragged back and forth by the relentless waves and the roar of the waves breaking in almost continuous formation to north and south along this straight expanse of coastline.
Friday morning (before work, can you believe) I chanced to come upon a phenomenon I had never witnessed before. Have you ever seen a white rainbow? It’s not really white, there is a hint of colour; cool though, eh.

Where I live there is a unique set of topographical characteristics that resulted in an example of “people’s capacity to work together effectively to promote their common and diverse interests”.

Much of the south Canterbury coastline consists of shingle, not sand, formed from river-smoothed stones of a mainly flattened-oval shape and varying in size from 10mm to 150mm across.

The braided rivers Rakaia, Rangitata and Waitaki, our rare beauties, reach the coast and work together with the tides to heap up the stones in massive, kilometres long banks.

The river which cuts through our district does not carry sufficient volumes of water to have cut a path through to the sea. Instead, bounded by the shingle bank on the coast, a long lagoon was formed terminating in a large wetland at the northern limit of the inflow from the river.

For most of the time the low rainfall in the district means that the volume of water down-river is contained by the low river banks, and some osmosis through the shingle bank at low tide.

When there is heavy rain for protracted periods (which the “locals” think is any more than 3 days) the shallow banks along the stretch of river closest to the coast can’t handle the increased volume, and the surrounding land floods.

Back in the late 1800’s a group of genius’s got together and built the perfect solution to their flooding troubles. “The Box” is a wooden structure which allows for the release of internal pressure within the river and lagoon in times of flood through the creation of an “opening”, made by water from inside pushing the shingle away from the side of “the box”, to the sea.

Depending on tidal flows and internal water levels “the box” may remain “open” for a number of days until the waves push the stones back into the opening in sufficient quantity that it again blocks the outflow from the river -which has by now returned to pre-flood levels.

When “the box is open” fish from the sea (like mullet and flounder) can, and do, swim in and adapt to life in the lagoon, and whitebait can make their way up-river. The self-regulating system that allows the release of excess water also maintains a sufficient level in the lagoon and surrounding wetlands to sustain the local fish and fowl populations.

Apart from maintenance of the structure (and there are no moving parts, to wear out or become stuck) there is no human involvement required. No need to struggle against the forces of nature, just patiently wait for things to work themselves out knowing that the situation is only temporary. “And this, too, shall pass…”

It’s a beautiful thing,

Don’t you agree?

I had a carefully crafted rebuttal all-typed out in the “reply box” and made a fatal “mouse click” not realising it had not been saved as a draft. Gone forever, all that stuff about evolution and consciousness -well, no, if I sat here all night I could probably put it all back together like a jig-saw puzzle -and I only have 30 minutes to finish this, so I will try a different approach…

To have you call me cynic, I must have implied that something virtuous with disinterested motives, like the “free market”, was in fact, not -in a sneering manner. (Oh dear, I will do my best to lose the sneer).

Humanity’s collective world views have changed more in the last few hundred years (I don’t want any arguments on that so I’ve been non-specific) than ever before in our history. And the speed of change aint showing any signs of slowing down.

We have changed the way that we operate as societies in many ways over that time -experimented with political ideologies and economic theories, even new sciences and religions. By now we really have a pretty good understanding about lots of things in our physical world, and, now perhaps, we can be as objective about our human condition and start to make some conscious collective decisions about how we want to operate our human society. (You may say, I’m a dreamer…)

If we are dissatisfied with the present way of doing things, (and perhaps most people are not and I am a lone voice crying in a wilderness that no-one else inhabits) we need to understand “things as they are” before we can change them and we have to have an idea of “things as they might be” to move towards. That creates a “motivating gap” or desire for change.

Evolution of society and individuals happens (often in response to crisis) when a solution, to a dissatisfying situation, is perceived as achievable. There need to be strategies devised for creating positive change -to get us from here to there -that don’t generate too much of a reality-gap in the public mind.

How do we decide what “things as they might be looks like?” We talk about it.

So, “tell me what you want, what you really, really, want…” And don’t say more money to buy more toys. Please.

As Zeddman pointed out (  ) money is used as a means of controlling trade. However, he states this as if it explains something that should be self-evident and unquestioned. I am always suspicious of anything that has implicit under-lying assumptions of objectivity and authority.

If trade is a natural expression of human activity, and I think we must all agree on that, then it will have a self-regulating nature in that when there is no demand for a product or service, provision of it will cease. (If no one likes to eat Jerusalem artichokes, you would be silly growing them for the market…) And, a space is created for a new product or service.

The advent of mass production methods meant that many more products were manufactured than ever before. The mass production system requires markets for it’s products, it requires raw materials for it’s production line, it requires “labour” (people) for it’s production line, it produces waste in varying degrees all the way from production through to, ever quicker, redundancy.

And it does all of this in service of the great gods “More” and “Money” and “Right Now”.

Meanwhile, the health of the planet we need for our very existence is being degraded, day by day, by our ignorant practises. This “disease” is being reflected in the increase in disease in all parts of the world, in all species. Our habits, of thought and action, are killing us and everything around us.

If money is a means of controlling trade then we must give more thought to how it is best used if we want to have any world-market left in which to spend it.

I feel like I’ve been sitting at the lights, seen the green, floored it, surged forward and… stalled it!

Thought “my blog”, started blog, with a hiss and a roar, then… what?

It reminds me of something I saw written on someone’s fridge: “Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans”.

I’d like to share some of the high-lights of my week.

After realising that in fact I didn’t have the beginnings of swine flu, but rather my sinuses were reacting to the flowering of the gorse on the hill-sides adjacent to our town, I left the quiet confines of “the web” and returned to real-life.

My daughter is recovering from a painful bone cyst in her upper arm and wanted to have a party to celebrate the end of 8 months of pain. So, she and a friend set about organising the party, which largely consisted of inviting people and sourcing music and a strobe light.

No party would be complete without her brother and a trip to Dunedin, after work on Friday, to get him, and pick up a table I liberated from a throw-out pile and couldn’t fit in the car on our last trip,  started the weekend on the right note.

We decided, upon our return, to make the short trip to the coast to the east of town, at 11pm, to look at the shingle banks and white-capped rollers by the light of the almost full moon. There had been light rain and the moon-light glistening on the round, smooth, wet faces of some of the stones caused the whole face of the shingle bank to twinkle. Marvellous!!

We have a garage that is not used for parking and has been renamed “the Peanut Box” by the kids that hang-out in there (the name was chosen by making up a set of random instructions to: look in  a particular book, on a particular page, and line, and what’s that word? nothing to do with the ETA peanut butter ad: “we’re all nuts in here”). Stripped of the ping-pong table, and with strobe and stereo installed, it made a great party space.

I’m fortunate to have tolerant (mostly) children and when I decided that the glow sticks adorning my wrists (and most of the party people -who were all under 20) were inspiring me to experiment with the “techtonic” style on the dance-floor, they let me go for it. I had a blast!

I thought, after I had burned up the floor for what seemed like forever, “it must be getting late” -but no, it was only 10.30. When you reach a certain level of maturity, quality is more important than quantity; that was enough dancing for the night. Time to feed the kids and warm-up around the brazier and talk.

I’m in a “creative phase” at the moment, surprise. On the trip to Dunedin, when I “found” the table, I found the perfect fabric to recreate a pair of pants I made over 25 years ago. As soon as I saw a variation on the style in a magazine I knew I could get away with wearing them again.

Anyway, the kids loved them and I’d agreed to make a few pairs so I had to go to Christchurch to source fabric. I decided on the spur of the moment to go on Tuesday morning after checking that I wouldn’t be missed at work.

I don’t often travel long-distance alone, so I took advantage of the unexpected freedom to play a comedy CD of The Best of Bill Hicks. So, when I stopped, just out of town, to pick-up the hitch-hiker he had to listen, too. We barely said a word during the 45 minute trip; we laughed a lot and he left with Bill’s name on a piece of paper and a good idea, I wished him luck.

I found fabric at cut-rate prices on my first stop and had a fruitful expedition through the enormous recycled clothing warehouse -where everything is $2. Deciding to call in at New Brighton to use the loos and have a smoke on the beach, I parked up, rolled up and walked over to the toilets -noticing, on my way, a “homeless” man sitting on a bench out front.

For no reason, when I came out, I went over to talk to him. There followed one of the most intense 30 minutes of conversation that I have ever spent with another person. I don’t understand entirely what happened, but we were both enriched by the exchange and I am grateful that I followed the impulse to stop and speak.

Parachute pants, what fun. I’ve got a feeling I will be sewing a lot of them… I will get some photos and post them, soon.

Thanks for visiting,

Synergy

Funny, how religion and money always gravitate towards each other… Don’t you think?

In the beginning, there was no money. People shared what they caught or gathered. As we progressed to symbolic thinking and began to create artifacts and tools, people with skills began to find there was a demand for their products and they could trade their wares for something they wanted but had no time or skill to produce.

Later, to facilitate a wider range of trading relationships, tokens (as currency) became common-place: shells, beads, gold. Still, the value-relationship between token and commodity (goods and services) was close.

Then, some enterprising man came up with this idea: “I know all that gold you are carrying is heavy and you don’t want to take the chance some thief will notice your bulging money-belt and rob you of it and possibly your life; so, I will look after it for you and provide you with a promisory note which you can exchange for what you wish and I will guarantee the payment. Of course, there will be a small charge for my services…”

What a great idea! It really took off; no need to guard your gold, somebody else would do it for you. And, as is the way with hoarded wealth, once it was in the bank it was not very often withdrawn. “Why”, thought the enterprising banker “I could lend my promisory notes to people (for a small fee) and as long as I am repaid before this gold is called upon, I will be sweet”.

We’ve all seen where this leads.

Unfortunately, we are trapped inside a system that nobody knows how to get out of, even if they want to do so. Opting out and relying on the generosity of strangers isn’t possible for most people.

Getting back to religion… If you substitute, the loaded word, “God” with “Life” in the saying: “you can’t obey two masters; God and money” -and, if, you acknowledge the unity underlying all things, then, you begin to get the guts of what I am saying.

The question is: What is Life all about?

I can’t promise you any answers, but here’s some food for thought.

Money is a symbol of worth that facilitates trade between people. It allows us to buy the food we eat (or the means to grow our own food), the clothes we wear (or the cloth to make our own), and all of the other things we require. BUT, in, and of, itself has no value -it is merely a symbol -a means to an end. You can’t eat currency.

We have got into a huge mess, and we are all paying for it whether we acknowledge our part in it or not, by thinking that “money can make money”. Money can’t make anything, it isn’t real. People make things. And things (goods) and services are the only things with the intrinsic worth to command a “cash price”.

And, because we think that money is a “good” we save it up and expect it to grow or at least still be there when we need it. Except that, now, money is not coins of gold which can be stored and expected to last; now, it is binary numbers stored in the computer networks of the world. As if it needed to be made any clearer that of itself it is nothing…

And, because we think that making more money is going to solve all our problems and make us happy we have bought into the continual growth model of economics -which if pursued to it’s logical conclusion must end in the annihilation of all life on this planet.

Don’t get me wrong here -I don’t think we are responsible for climate change. (Though I have a sneaking suspicion we can affect local weather with our concentrated emotional energy –call me crazy). That’s just another means to keep the economic ball rolling, as it were. Universal energies have more impact on our planet’s climate than we ever could; the best we can do is try to mitigate the consequences for ourselves and our fellow creatures.

Our unrelenting pursuit of economic growth leads to exhaustion of natural resources, pollution of the air, land, and water, chronic fatigue syndrome of planet-wide proportions. So, while on the one hand we are being told “Be Green” to save the planet, on the other we are urged to pursue the “more is better” path to material success. How can we not be insane?

Can’t we, with our “big brains”, think of another way to operate our trading system so that everyone has enough? The fact that some people are rich and some people are poor says nothing, intrinsically, about their value as people. Every life situation is different (for the lessons that it brings); but, we could all have enough if we were better “sharers” and didn’t keep our riches stockpiled beyond what any short-term future need could warrant. Less to worry about -isn’t that what “universal superannuation” was all about?

Our lives are full of worries, aren’t they? Does it make us more “productive” worrying about feeding our children, paying the mortgage, not-getting-sick, whether our jobs are secure? No. Creativity, in work and play, comes from a peaceful place inside you -after you have given up worrying the problem to death.

Accepting that we have got beyond the need to “peg” our symbolic money to a tangible commodity and moving beyond a greed-driven, excess-extolling economic mind-set, there is the possibility of visualizing a “universal benefit” given to every child born, so that they may not worry about today’s needs. The incentive to produce is not taken away, for there is joy in seeing the product of your work, your creations, being used and appreciated.

In order for this “universal benefit” to come about we would need to create a “new world order” but of a different order to the one that has been ruling us for hundreds of years. Unity of purpose, in this world, has never before been so possible. It is up to us to envision the future we want and to daily do what small thing we can to make this future real for us.

Cheers for stopping by,

All the best

Synergy

I am not a technophobe, but, I confess to having spent the last 11 years reading novels in preference to surfing the net, and, I have thus denied myself the dubious pleasures of chat-rooms, and blogging.

Recently, I met someone who said “This is a project I am working on at the moment -check it out…” and, lo, I encountered blogging for real (I had taken an obligatory look at my brother’s blog a couple of years ago and couldn’t see anything to interest me).

But, the imminence of “the big 5-Oh” makes one think of the dreams and tasks that are still to be crossed off the list while one is still willing, able and, above all, hopeful enough to do it.

In the past, I have been accused of “thinking too much”; but that generally means that I am just not thinking about the same thing the other person is, like… getting drunk, having sex, watching the rugby, the TV, that sort of thing. It has tended to make me keep quiet about what exactly I am thinking about and learn the art of small-talk.

Lately, though, I’ve found a desire to express the things that I have been thinking about, but of which I have seldom spoken. Blogging suddenly became more interesting to me.

So, if you will bear with me while I find “my voice”, I will do my best to stop this being a humourless activity. Much of what happens in life is funny -even if only in retrospect -and I hope my sense of the absurd will tickle your funny-bone or even, occasionally, piss you off.

As long as you keep reading, right?

I’m nearly freakin’ fifty!

For some reason other birthdays have just slid past with no real impact; fifty seems to have a gravity that is drawing objects, from past and future,  into it’s orbit.

I found this photo when moving house, recently, and hearing about Chris Knox’s stroke brought back memories of this day.

My friend, Tall Tony, and I had a faux-wedding in the Franklin Rd, Ponsonby, house we shared with a bunch of other misfits.

It was a gay wedding:  frivolous and light-hearted;  and the dress code commanded cross-dressing, which my mother took to with aplomb becoming a “boot-boy” for the day.

The Enemy had recently landed in Auckland, and become Toy Love. We were lucky enough to have them play in our basement for the wedding guests, and I was lucky enough to borrow Jane’s mother’s dress for the occasion -dressed up with safety-pins and a feather boa.

Toy Love wowed us and we took every chance thereafter to see Chris “strut his stuff”.  Thanks, Chris.

Thirty years on, memories of  good times shared retain the power to transport you into realising that the younger, freer version of yourself is still there inside you. Yeehaaaa!