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Presents Previously Promised Produced Presently Happy New Year to all... Once again, I point out the obvious: that once again, it's been months since I've posted anything. I wonder sometimes why I don't just obliterate the whole thing, but I'm comforted, somehow, to know that this is all still here, that these thoughts, these memories, are preserved, regardless of whether anyone ever reads them. The last several months have not been uneventful, but I do not wish, at this time, to focus on what has gone, but rather, on what abides. I am still in New Haven, hating the place, loving the weather (Winter!), enjoying my work, thankful for the people with and for whom I do it, and in love. It is not at all what I had expected. In fact, as I am wont to do, I fought against it until I nearly assured myself of losing something wonderful, and then, in a moment of realisation (Epiphany? No, it was before that...), determined I must reach out and grasp the hand of someone who was offering before he grew bored of waiting and gave up. I should have realised it when he handed me the birthday card which I subsequently carried around in my jacket for weeks, on, I believe, our second date. Do not waste your time and energy on people who only frustrate and make you miserable; you are not meant to be surrounded by them, but by others (and they ARE out there), who will have more constructive influence on your life. This IS, so far as we can tell, the only chance you get. On similar lines, I believe it is crucial that we prevent the current president of this nation, his advisors, and all other elected officials from destroying the world. It is not, at this time, necessary to invade Iraq. While Saddam Hussein is an evil madman and a megalomaniacal dictator, he is, at least for the moment, being kept busy by United Nations inspectors. In the meantime, it is far more important that we address the issue of nuclear arms proliferation in North Korea, and that we examine carefully our alliances with such nations as Saudi Arabia, whence came the majority of the 11 September 2001 hijackers, as well as the great unholy fool Bin Laden, and where women are continually oppressed in a fashion frightfully comparable to that of the Taliban regime. (There are also a number of American citizens' children who have been effectively kidnapped by their Saudi fathers and spirited off to that country, despite their mothers' having been awarded custody by American courts. The government of that country haughtily ignores orders from the United States to return these terrified miserable children to their distraught rightful custodians, and the government of this country, inexcusably, turns a blind eye. These people are NOT our friends!) It is also important that we recognise the aforementioned fool as a demon of our own creation; he was, after all, trained by our own people (a grave error which we seem all too ready to commit once again in our crusade against the current Iraqi government). We must wake up and behave more even-handedly and responsibly, not so short-sightedly, in our dealings with foreign entities, so as to prevent the proliferation of other such creatures. After ravaging countries with our war machines in the name of toppling unjust regimes, we must, in the fashion of the rebuilding of Japan after the Second World War, aid in the equitable establishment of modern civilisation, thereby assuring against sentiments of abandonment or being used among the rank and file of these societies (this is where revolution begins; consider those in America and France). Furthermore, we must remember, however we may believe in the right of Israel to exist as a sovereign nation, that a Palestinian state has equally much of a right to be. Everyone, in the end, needs a place to call home. (In a grand gesture of praeterition, I here pass over the fact that there is no sane reason whatsoever why Muslims and Jews, both claiming descendance from a single Ancestor, should be unable to coexist peaceably. I know this to be true, as I count among my friends a married couple, one of whom is a Muslim (French, even! though of African extraction) and one of whom is a Jew, to say nothing of those Jewish/Christian matrimonies which have occurred over the course of time and succeeded.) And speaking of home, we must take action to ensure the stability of our planet's environment (both in the preservation of our own natural forests, the enactment of legislation to further curb air and water pollution, and in the fight to maintain or renew forestation abroad and to safeguard crucial aquatic life against disasters such as the recent oil tanker crack-up off the coast of Spain) for the survival of future generations, as well as our own, and to eradicate violent crime and, to whatever extent may be possible, homelessness/unemployment/poverty within our own borders. (Part of the solution to these latter two problems lies in the standardisation not to the lowest common denominator, but rather to the highest standard of excellence, our educational system, ensuring employability and social usefulness for all. Among other basic critical skills, everyone must be able to competently read, write and speak the English language.) Government officials must be held to their campaign promises, as though they were made to the people who elected them under oath. Punishments should include removal from office, charges of perjury and heavy fines, should they fail to zealously represent the ideals to which they have claimed allegiance. Should not one's word be one's bond, one's very honour, and should not those whom we elect to represent us in the very way our lives are governed be the paragon of this principle? Additionally, the mass media must be held accountable for the effects of their reporting, such as the epidemic of school violence which followed the sensationalist coverage of the Columbine High School shootings, and the persistence of the perception that the nation's economy is in the worst condition ever, despite this being far from the truth. Even as I write, certain sectors of the financial world are reporting significantly greater fourth-quarter profit returns than last year. We must realise that there is a great deal of psychological influence on the economy. It is perhaps not so great as the influence of psychology on, for example, the performance of music, where it has been said that 90% of singing is psychological and 10% is physical, but nonetheless, if we wallow around feeling bad about the economy, it will continue to languish. (Psychology again: depression feeds upon itself. You wake up feeling kind-of blue, so you lie in bed and stare at the ceiling, all your energy consumed by your thoughts, or lack of them. Eventually, you become hungry, so you eat; it makes you feel bloated. You're bored, so you watch a movie, which makes you want a drink, which makes you want to smoke. The movie is sad, so you cry. It ends, and you realise you've accomplished nothing all day, which exacerbates your situation. You are a sad and useless creature, indeed. You go back to bed. You sleep. If tomorrow is another day, perhaps it will be better than this. Best give it a try, anyway.) You know, when I'm feeling particularly glum, I crank some aggressive music that makes me want to move, and I dance around in my living room like an idiot. Sometimes I even do it naked. Give it a try; you'll see what I mean. It only takes a couple of minutes, and I'm ready to grab life by the gonads and swing it around: my obscene dancing partner, screaming in ecstasy. Only by actively getting up, getting out and DOING something (Thank you, Macy Gray.) will we affect positive change, and this, I believe, is true across the board. "It's in our hands; it always was," yelps Bjork, and she's SO RIGHT! Thank you for the opportunity to get all this off of my chest. Bottom line: America...World...Get off your ass...And shake it! r
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