Do what you love-Not on your Nelly

Do what you love if you're rich. I did have the thought that the "do what you love" mantra is coming out of the Wealthy West. Do we want the people making our stuff for very little to do what they love? Not on your Nelly. Is this just another choice for the elite? Like diet fads.You only have diets where you have choice.The more choice, the more diet fads.
 A fairer world (which we all say we want) would necessarily involve a substantial decrease in our circumstances. Oh shit,.maybe we need to rethink that....... Now at the other end, I believe in doing what you love.it is intrinsic to being human, as I've said in an earlier blog.Its really really important. You feel better, that's why it's important.

DO THEY KNOW IT'S XMAS TIME AT ALL.-a poem on the big day

I'm in the house of my sister- in -law
Van Gogh is fading on- the- toilet- door
Tears of colour drip from my eyes
The glare of paper bled from Chinese palettes
Crumpled like its author before its time
Joy arises in me like death
White in the face
Christ is not at the front door
His fading plastic bones
The sucked chicken thigh
A world religion based on guys
Mark on barby on unhunted meat
Silence in the lounge from the over-eat
Catches us for a moment
Whose mouth will be the first to blink?
Auntie Christine is sleeping satisfied upright, hands clasped

We have decided to admire the trifle and pretend presents mean nothing

The endless coming of Christ

Hope without end amen

My consumer confidence returns with each thought of the poor;
"DO THEY KNOW IT'S XMAS TIME AT ALL????!!!!" for the poor blacks
"DO WE KNOW ITS RAMADAM TIME AT ALL????!!!!" for the poor whites
"WHEN THE BARON CRIED OUT " MERRY XMAS MY FRIEND!!!"
You can have fun during war
Let us pray for the Buddhists and Muslims
Lord hear us

Love yourself or else!

I'm once again pondering the way we have been taught to ignore ourselves. Many people I know are looking for a sense of belonging, of participation, of meaningful use of their particular talents.They want to offer these to the their communities.The payment is obvious-no less than satisfaction, joy peace excitement, fulfillment,not to mention exchange in terms of services, money or 
in kind.this isn't peculiar to "religious people", it is what you and I want. It's what leads you into a gang, a church, a club, a community,and sometimes a job.we probably had the least expectation of the last one; a job that would do all these things.
Many of us were taught that work was going to be onerous; that you had to 'knuckle down' (shut down?) and suck it it in.That you had no right to demand satisfaction or the use of your talents.There were things that had to be done; the requirements of the Industrial Empire. So therefore you had to ignore yourself (ie your feelings, desires, values and so forth) if those things were contrary to the goals of the empire. And this in turn requires you to deal or not with the internal conflict. In his ground breaking work developing a new more compassionate 'language', psychologist Marshall Rosenberg observed that wherever needs weren't met, feelings like depression, anger, resentment, indifference, apathy, fear were present. These and many other so called negative feelings, are prevalent in modern Industrial Age humans.

Oh shit I may have fucking offended someone

This cartoon was refused publication- not because of the obvious association with Roundup- but because it may offend people with disabilities. Ummmmm......

Toothbrushes and evolution

I bought a bamboo toothbrush. I remember buying one before and being disappointed with its brushing power, but I can't bring myself to use a plastic one-I keep having flashbacks to the Himalayas where I saw them embedded in the ground, a revolting talisman of my Oil Dynasty. Anyway I had the thing in my back pocket as I got into the car.When I felt a crack! 

Boo hoo for bamboo but the birth of a new and improved toothbrush!

I love the waves of fashion that toothbrush makers create. Remember the bent handle? The one that somehow allowed you to brush in places and ways you never thought possible. The computer graphics which showed close up versions of Dante's hell in your mouth. The myriad of bristle shapes which all superseded one another. The nonslip handles. Imagine if you slipped while brushing your teeth! OMG! Surgery to remove the toothbrush from where it is embedded in your brain. Then the bend in the brush (which I just created in the Peugeot) got out of hand- it started to get a sort of shock absorber to no doubt reduce the impact of hard brushing. Pan to computer generated animation of seismic activity of the earths crust. I'm eagerly awaiting nanotechnology to enter the toothbrush wars. "Nano-particles to make a protective shield around your teeth" - switch to CGI animation of an army of soldiers holding shields and spears and swords and warding off glancing blows(representing bacteria) The same goes for razors. Looking at the packaging in Foxton New World last week, I saw "titanium technology" on one and all sorts of bullshit written over others.
Do we really need toothbrushes? Can we survive or evolve without them?Did humans evolve without toothbrushes?Where are all my used ones? I reckon, if we use one every 6 months,that makes around several million toothbrushes from New Zealand per year going somewhere, probably into a hole in the ground.I walked on several in the Khumbu Valley, Nepal, last year.
Apparently our dietary reliance on grains rots our teeth. Phytic acid. Raised blood sugar levels. I always thought that grains were once a survival food for the cold winter months in the colder regions now turned into a staple thanks be to barrels of cheap oil. My theory is that brushing introduces as much bacteria as it purports to wipe out. What with your scabby brush (zoom to CGI microscope view of festering battalions of bacteria) sitting out in the air all day........It's probably wrong but it pales in comparison to the bollocks and pseudo science that's on TV commercials.
We'll, I'm off to bed. After I brush my teeth of course.