Don't wait for a divine bitch slapping

"Anything you're good at contributes to your happiness." -Bertrand Russell

Normally I would dismiss such a remark with a cynical "yeah, yeah whatever" given my utter lack of inspiration these days. BUT, this idea appeared to me twice in one week. First during a heated discussion with a friend who insisted my artsy fartsy stuff actually had merit -though I disagree- then I read it in Brezsny's real astrology . Crap.

When you hear something pithy once, well it's nice, twice is a head's up and three times is a divine smack down- I'm not waiting for that. I jumped out of the way of that train when I was inspired to "do something creative every day for a month" like blogger/writer/actor Will Wheton  (curse you, overachieving bearded boy).

Theodore Roosevelt- who had his dark moods, once said "Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough."  A lot of this is about out racing my own dark demon or die of boredom.

Quote for the Day

“You must write every single day of your life. You must lurk in libraries to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. May you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days and out of that love, remake a world.” -Ray Bradbury

1-1-2011

One is the number of all beginnings. It is the number of the Magician in tarot, he has all the tools before him to create. Ki is like the number one because just as something can not be made from nothing, one can never be reduced to zero.

One is the loneliest number you'll ever know.

Eleven like the number one can not be reduced in numerology( it's considered a master number). The most intuitive of all numbers, it represents the start of a new cycle.

May this year be the start of a new phase in one's life.

Being creative is hard work- but worth it

It's the dawn of another year. Another year to be creative. Whether it's writing, painting, whatever. I need to kick the creative muse off my couch and go her going. As Jack London noted "You can not wait for inspiration, you must go after it with a club."

So I am attempting to do some thing creative every day of January and duly note it here. I got to make this blogging thing work for me or get rid of it and my sorry ass delusions of being a writer. A real writer, writes. A real artist does art and makes it worth doing.

Pandora's Box

We live in interesting times as the Chinese curse goes. Orwell was all too prophetic. “We have met the enemy and it is us.” Pogo declared. The newest twister of fate is a slight, white haired, deep voiced Australian. Julian Assange has shown us the emperor has no clothes.

He has -with the assistance of fellow rebels, opened pandora’s box to uncover the world’s love affair with secrecy. He has incurred the wrath of our government by undoing the carefully crafted image of the USA as a champion of free speech and democracy. He has done it without having an affair with a head of state, firing a shot or taking control of a third world country.

There are claims about Wikileaks being dangerous, treasonous, endangering lives and undermining politics. So far they haven’t exposed anything that hasn’t been revealed before but what’s difference this time is that it’s not a respected insider or nervy investigative reporter who has uncovered the misdeeds. No, it’s a self styled whistle blower and eccentric hacker dumping the information in the middle of the street for all to see.

It’s not the information Wikileaks has leaked that’s a danger to the status quo but how the powers that be have reacted to the threat of disclosure that will bring about their downfall. That may have been Assange’s intention all along; to reveal the monster behind the diplomatic facade.

“If their behavior is revealed to the public, [governments] have one of two choices: one is to reform in such a way that they can be proud of their endeavors, and proud to display them to the public. Or the other is to lock down internally and to balkanize, and as a result, of course, cease to be as efficient as they were. To me, that is a very good outcome, because organizations can either be efficient, open and honest, or they can be closed, conspiratorial and inefficient." Julian Assange noted in Time Magazine.

The angry response of government officials crying foul even as they try to dismiss the dirty underwear as nothing note worthy grabs ones attention. As the old cliché goes “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much”.

We are see governments that claim to protect free speech censoring it. We see the US which protested China blocking the internet doing the same thing. We see the Saudis, British, and Israelis- among others, playing both ends of the field in an attempt to sow discord and cover their ass at the same time.

Julian Assange is not a terrorist, he is a holy fool holding up a mirror to our dark side and like the kings of the past it would be wise to listen to his warning of power’s corrupting influence instead of trying to silence him.