Sunday, 30 October 2011
Music
Music is a language. It crosses the voids between cultures, it fills the gaps between words, it melts the ice of stark civility. It does not define or explain emotion - it becomes emotion, expressing the sentiments of the soul.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Advice In Passing ~
To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea - "cruising," it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot or will not fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
"I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?
~Sterling Hayden
"I've always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?
~Sterling Hayden
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Issues Rising
Today was interesting.
The Liszt bicentennial concert happened. It was in honor of a man who donated a concert piano to the music department last month. He loved the piano. He died two weeks ago. He left two kids who are in high school.
This evening I watched a film called Patagonia Rising. It documents how a water corporation owned by foreign investors is trying to build hydroelectric dams across the two major rivers of Patagonia, Chile. It would displace thousands of farmers who have lived along the river banks for years, flood their farmlands and doubtless have a large impact on the local flora and fauna. The even bigger issue with it is that it wouldn't produce half as much energy as other sustainable options like solar panels or windmills.
The answers? I certainly don't know. Personally, I'd prioritize human injustices over environmental ones. Often they are interconnected, but honestly when it comes to keeping emaciated children from dying or saving a plot of rainforest trees there is absolutely no question in my mind. There is a balance of man and nature somewhere, but it hasn't been discovered yet. I think there are too many of our skewed desires on the planet for it to work, too many politics, nuts and bolts, too many people who don't give value to a soul... And really, if you don't have a soul, what do you have?
Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a word of truth
'Cause all that you have
Is your soul.
The Liszt bicentennial concert happened. It was in honor of a man who donated a concert piano to the music department last month. He loved the piano. He died two weeks ago. He left two kids who are in high school.
This evening I watched a film called Patagonia Rising. It documents how a water corporation owned by foreign investors is trying to build hydroelectric dams across the two major rivers of Patagonia, Chile. It would displace thousands of farmers who have lived along the river banks for years, flood their farmlands and doubtless have a large impact on the local flora and fauna. The even bigger issue with it is that it wouldn't produce half as much energy as other sustainable options like solar panels or windmills.
The answers? I certainly don't know. Personally, I'd prioritize human injustices over environmental ones. Often they are interconnected, but honestly when it comes to keeping emaciated children from dying or saving a plot of rainforest trees there is absolutely no question in my mind. There is a balance of man and nature somewhere, but it hasn't been discovered yet. I think there are too many of our skewed desires on the planet for it to work, too many politics, nuts and bolts, too many people who don't give value to a soul... And really, if you don't have a soul, what do you have?
Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a word of truth
'Cause all that you have
Is your soul.
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