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 |  This is my blog & my hope, writing daily will help me see my progress and log supporters. |
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| Unfortunately, standing out creatively is far too often seen as more of a negative than a positive (although one hundred people who look at our work will have one hundred different opinions) Whilst I get that we all follow in the footsteps of those we admire, going too far off the well-worn path may get you noticed, but for all the wrong reasons. Then your work may be seen as bizarre or going too far in one direction or another. People are fickle, but the spirit to express ourselves is not...and compromise serves neither party well The English language is evolving/devolving fast, and it's not for anyone to say that is a good or bad thing...a 'judge not or thou will be', kinda thing. One of my favourite websites is called Rhymzone. I used it when I wrote poetry, but even though I have stopped writing poems, it's still useful for finding synonyms. It never ceases to amaze me how many different words there are for the same or similar concepts. At times, I will spend an hour or more (depending on how important it is to me) looking for that exact word to express what I am trying to convey, which, if I find it, is a gift/blessing, but if not, can be a curse, especially when a compromise is the only way forward. The world is changing dramatically, and I think there would be few who would say it is for the better. The rapid loss of species should sound a clear message to us all (considering one of the most endangered species on Earth is the human being). I am not alone when I say I believe we are heading for a mass extinction event. And it's not a matter of if, but when this event will come. Pessimistic I know but it has always been this way. Whenever a species climbs to the top of the evolutionary pile and dominates the planet, sooner or later, a disastrous event changes the status quo and in my opinion, it would be hard to argue that these events, whilst not good for the dominant species, are for the most part, beneficial to the planet. I have a confession...I hate (perhaps hate is too strong a word and should be replaced by despise) our species. Individually, human beings are nice enough critters. Please, don't get me wrong, I don't despise you as an individual but there is good and bad in every one of us at some level or another (that is to be expected as a human). We know driving vehicles that burn fossil fuels is bad for the planet. We know that plastics are clogging our oceans and even our own bodies. Industrial waste. Coal-fired power stations that we think nothing of when we get home from our jobs and turn on our lights. And we are the only species that is capable of enacting the concept of evil. In the animal kingdom, life ends in the most violent and gruesome way every day, but this is survival, not a conscious decision to forgo the future generation's ability to survive. Science has been saying it for years, and we do nothing different except perhaps recycle a few plastic bottles (as long as there's some financial advantage in it for us) or catch the bus instead of taking the car to work. A documentary was made a few years ago about a large group of Chimps in the wild, and they reminded me very much of how we came to be the way we are. But even those Chimps are not doing it because they are evil, given their tendency towards violent overthrows and conspiring with other lower-ranking males to elevate their position within their clans. They are simply following along the evolutionary path of trying to ensure that their DNA is passed down to the next generation. However, at some point in time, when we branched off, we changed the way we saw our rivals: not so much as a threat to our ability to procreate, but as a threat to our species. To flourish, expand, dominate and exploit every species we came across. And now we are at the apex of the evolutionary pile...eight billion humans the planet cannot sustain. The universe has a way of dealing with its problems, and unless there is a catastrophic event that reduces our numbers to a level where the planet can recover...I mean, call me a pessimist all you like, but it's a no-brainer. The planet that we are lucky enough to have evolved on and has provided us with the opportunity of life, is billions of years old. Homo-Erectus began to communicate, do cave paintings and organise ourselves into larger and larger groups, around fifty thousand years ago...a mere speck of time when compared to how long the dinosaurs roamed the Earth...and even their reign was nothing compared to how long this planet has been able to support life. We BELIEVE we are better and more important than the issues we create. More important than the species we wipe out every single day (not you, of course, you and I did nothing to contribute to the issues that our children and perhaps, if they can survive, their children will need to face)...that we will find a solution. "Just not today because we have careers and families who need money to survive." I am not judging you per se, I am judging us. Me, you and most of the human race who live on this planet right now. It won't matter what you recycled or how good your intentions were. And I am just as much to blame as you are. Did I do everything in my power to help prevent this catastrophe we are headed for? No, I didn't. Did I place the importance of future generations ahead of my own, self-importance during my life? No, I did not. And what about the future of the planet they will need to survive on...did I think about that as I drove my car and consumed everything I thought was mine to have...that I still do today? No, I did not and have not...even now as I write this condemnation of our species. If I were watching us from another planet, like some interstellar reality TV show, I wouldn't be betting on us surviving more than a few generations...before the network that is life, cancels the series. And at least then, we can start afresh. There was a band from the 90s called, Deep Forest, and the intro to one of their biggest hits, Deep Forest, goes... "Somewhere deep in the jungle, are living some little men and women. They are our past, and maybe...maybe they are our future." https://youtu.be/ovwGCpx8ecY?si=HGAa-KsFbiJl--VG If you like world music and have never heard this track and watched the video, please, do yourself a favour and click the YouTube link... https://youtu.be/ovwGCpx8ecY?si=HGAa-KsFbiJl--VG and enjoy. Because every day that you do what needs to be done, get home and do more...then go to bed exhausted and wondering what the hell this life is all about, this video encapsulates that deep-down feeling that there IS more...you just have to want it enough to chase it down and make it your own. And for those who believe it is too hard or impossible, well, I can tell you without a word of a lie, that it is possible. I was, and still am a methamphetamine addict who was very close to killing myself with a poison that I could not escape from...a demon that tried its hardest to convince me that I was worthless and there was no hope for me...that soon, I would be hers to do whatever she wanted to...and there was nothing I could do to escape. Well, you may say I got lucky...or that I am still an addict and am not out of the clutches of that demon yet. And, I cannot argue with you on that...mainly because I don't have time right now. A herd of cattle just passed my front door being driven (driven is not the right word...more guided because those bovines know exactly where they're going) by two Thais, who look for all the world like they are from the past. And as I stood watching, coffee in hand and listening to Sweet Lullaby, I cried. I don't know if it was the beauty of what I was witnessing, the peace I now feel, the music or knowing how long and hard this path I have been on has been and that has finally come to an end. The good thing about endings is that right behind them is a new beginning. I KNOW how lucky I am to be taking this, my next breath and I have no shame about the tears...they are tears of joy, not of loss and hopelessness. If you feel trapped, I am living proof that dreams can come true...you just NEED to want it enough. If you don't need it, then for sure, you will never see your dreams come to fruition...and at the end, you will have no one else to blame but yourself. If/when the satellites go down. Or a nuclear winter stops the sun from shining on the ground that has for millennia, provided the plants that sustain us. Or an algorithm makes the decision that we are the problem...that we are no longer relevant. Or a far more deadly virus rises up from our own doing. Or our very best friends on this Earth, the humble bees, no longer do the work they have done for us, for free and for so long. Or any one of a hundred other ways we can and will find to destroy ourselves. Then, who can we blame? The government? Industry? The devil? Or will we be honest enough to accept that we did this to ourselves? And it won't be toilet paper people will be fighting over in stores with empty shelves because dehydration and hunger cause constipation, and it won't take long before eight billion becomes just enough to begin again. I laugh when governments now look at UAPs as a threat to national security when we are on the brink of annihilation by way of our own stupidity, greed and ignorance. I have a theory...well, I have many actually, on what may be going on. Perhaps these unidentified objects flying around in our skies, displaying physics that are beyond our capabilities, are not aliens from outer space at all but live right here on Earth (be it, out of sight most of the time), and have done so for longer than we have. There are infinite possibilities, theoretically. They may be from a higher dimension, and if we destroy the planet, we destroy them along with it. They may reside under the oceans, or deep within the earth itself. Or...this could be the beginning of the war between good and evil...Armageddon. If you had told me that theory a year ago, I would have scoffed at you, or at least thought you to be a religious lunatic. After all, "The end is nigh!" has been bandied around since Jesus was crucified. All I know is if I am wrong I will be happy...and if I am right and this happens in my lifetime, I will die happy...will you? |
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