Scribbles: What a Dasterd!

None of these images hang on my walls.

Self portrait via computer this year. Was going to use one as my email signature. Nah!

Self-portrait circa ≈ school. 

When I hung paintings and prints I'd done at school and since 
on walls painted the colours I like ... it all matched? Perfectly.
That's why this painting has never hung on my wall.
But my point is that you'd better love yourself, just the way you are.

You are what you are.
And if you're a Dasterd ... you can't change. 
You can pretend - all your life, to all the world.
But the facts - they're lying in wait 'ou Dasterd!

Rehabilitation? Self-improvement?
Take a look at Gregory House! - Yes House has a friendly first name too ...

Go figure! But he's never, never, never friendly! He's a Dasterd!
He's proud of it. And we love it too! 
(Note "TOO" - not TWO or TO!)
You people who don't know the difference really peeve me.

If you're dasterdly - really, really dasterdly. You are going to Hell!
I know. It's spelt dastardly but I'm putting on an accent! So THhHrthrrr!
:P 
So this guy's on the radio going on about *delayed gratification*.
It's Radio National - honest, worthy, earnest ... G-F-C not S-E-X.
He said people have forgotten how to delay gratification.
Replace the word people with "consumers".
"Everything, all the time" - that's our motto.
Want a five-metre widescreen and an i-Phone? 
Whack it on plastic. What Global Financial Crisis? :D

We've not forgotten about delayed gratifcation. We refuse!
Just like our everyman Homer J. Simpson. 
Yep, Homer's to blame for the GFC.

This guy on the radio had another theory too. 
It's the media's fault.
Advertisers, marketeers, TV, journalists they make us unhappy with who we
are and so they force us to spend beyond our means... Love that line...
So I'm the dasterd! :?  (If you don't already know, I'm a journo)

The guy talking on Life Matters was Arun Abey: Co-founder now Executive Chairman
of international planning firm IPAC, head of Strategy at AXA
and a director at the Smith Family AND author of:
How Much is Enough? Money, time and happiness: a practical guide 

Scribbles: Paranoia by the seaside - now things have gone too far.

Laugh too loud in public and you see people flinch - even at the beach!
 
Honestly, I sat on a bench looking out over Moreton Bay - a place which is like home for me -
and I could feel social tension that I've never felt before in this place.
 
People were on edge. Cautious, regarding each other suspiciously.
Look at this Sunday morning:

The beach is not even crowded. See the black spot on the leaf?
Well, there's a black spot on our society.
 
If it came down to fight or flight most of the people on the beach would choose flight because they've got young ones to protect.
And they're not looking for a fight. They seem afraid to even relax and let their guard down.
A sullen family lay a picnic blanket in the shade beside us. It seemed like a typical lazy Sunday morning.
It was later than 9am. Parents anxiously controlled the level of noise they allowed their children to make - at the beach!
Even baby ducks have more freedom under the strict control of a patrolling mother duck.
 
As a kid, I spent several blissful years roaming this beach.
We'd take off from home for hours, hike up to island here with our friends - no adult supervision.
We'd squelch our way over mudflats to dinghies laying on their sides a kilometre out.
We'd cut our feet on shells under the mud and limp home bleeding but contented.
Time flew without us noticing.
 
It's not just about having freedom to roam your world - it was like blue sky thinking, independence and trust.
Yes being caught on an incoming tide is pretty frightening but sharing adventures and pushing your boundaries seems pretty important too.
We once carried our baby sisters (who insisted they must come with us) on our backs with the incoming tide lapping at our chests.
Now their children marvel at these stories.
Given such freedom we thrived in ways that children today can't fathom.
Their adventures are either on screen or carefully monitored.
They are bred to be cautious.
And who can blame parents for being paranoid I suppose.
 
But what happens when cautious, sensible kids are put into a schoolyard with children who do not have boundaries (for whatever reason)?
Kids who are so scary that teachers are not willing to call them on their behaviour.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,26016574-5003402,00.htm
These kids are pushing boundaries in much more dangerous ways than pitting themselves against nature by climbing trees and racing tides.
These kids have failed to develop compassion for the rights and worth of others - I'd call it impaired judgement. To be polite.
 
To be cool you either need money to burn on all the cool things, or you have to be a spoiler, a tough guy - even better be both privileged and tough!
That's a delightful combination.
Way too many people get hurt at teenage parties: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,26008747-3102,00.html
 
Anyone - not just teenagers - who accepts the solutions offered by video games, and movies, and shock jocks, and magazines, and reality TV needs to be set straight - and if it's not happening in the home - it needs to happen in the classroom. The system's screwed if kids learn what WTF means but they don't know what WWI means or WWF or "A stitch in time saves nine".
 
We're beyond the time of needing "nine stitches" - we need a major operation when children are dying in schoolyard brawls and people are tense on our beaches.
If teachers are afraid to call these kids on their behaviour (and they are, if you talk to teachers they are) what is society doing wrong?
Because something is dreadfully wrong!
Why aren't young people at peace?
Why?

Scribbles: Insomnia sometimes throws up some interesting ideas on graveyard radio repeats.

This lecture by Macquarie Uni Vice Chancellor Steven Schwartz is REALLY good!
Should universities have ethical goals and strive to build character not just knowledge?
He says universities have lost their moral compasses.
How society has changed .... really, really interesting.
 
Here's the Big Ideas page: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/
Steven Schwartz's webpage: http://www.vc.mq.edu.au/

Scriffles: If Humanity's a computer game then it's the same on all levels - just the environment changes.

Dust off
On the one hand, I've been itching to hose down the dust on the walls outside for a long, long, long, long drought.  On the other hand, I feel that
perhaps the dust is still blinding us if we think it's ok to hose down the car - a major reason for climate change - while we cannot water the garden 
to grow trees to curb global warming. Der! Hello? Consider the ripples....

I was on the treadmill tonight at gym chatting about music divas and music clips.
Mentioned this concern of mine about car washing and his response was that climate change is a natural event and nothing to be concerned about.
He has a 2m TV screen to play video games too. It's convenient I think to deny climate change when it would deny you the things you love.
Well I love my garden and I'm being denied. But these people aren't denying themselves. Sigh. *Sigh*.
And the advertisement on TV just says "best you start acclimatizing". Hmm. *SIGN*
Now the tune is: "From little things big things grow..."
Let's stop the GFC by buying 2-metre TVs.... I've heard of homes where the kids have no wardrobes and the family throw their clothes on the floor
but there's a wide-screen TV with surround sound in the lounge room. It's like when I worked in my dad's snack bar and parents who obviously 
didn't have a lot of money would tell their begging children that they had no money for chips but they'd drop $10 on a packet of cigarettes.
If Humanity is a computer game then it's the same on all levels - just the environment changes.

Scriffles: Imagine if you had dog sight.

Dogs, they just trot past a leaf without even noticing it - unless another dog has peed on it.
More important priorities than colour they have - as Yoda might put it.
Whereas people? This leaf caught my eye as I walked to the car. I was struck by the colours.

Yesterday, my niece was talking about dogs that watch TV and that they see very little colour.
So she was trying to imagine what it was like for dogs - seeing the world in black and white.
Now that's a strange concept for a 10-year-old (black & white).
Dogs, I said, make up for it with great smell and hearing.
My parents had a miniature sausage dog who was more useful than her younger
counterparts even when she was old and blind.
She picked up a car driving into the gravel driveway of the farm at the gate - about a km away.

And for the first time my niece asked if I was a painter. I said yes.
"Where are your paintings?" she asks.
I told her tucked away - thinking of the grand-scale polemics.
And later when we're watching TV she looks at an ink painting on the wall.
"Did you paint that?" she asks.
It was something done with ink and styrofoam cups.
"Yes," I reply, as she asks about every painting on the walls.
It hadn't even clicked in my mind to point these out to her earlier.
I barely register them any more - but it's the first thing people notice when they come in.

I hope that she comes to recognise that it's not about noticing and judging difference.
I think it's more about how the whole thing comes together that counts.
Being conscious.

All song comes from silence
All action from stillness...
Potential unfolds as opportunity arises.
Herein lies the seed of greatness.
Without action, only potential,
Without a core, incoherence ...

It's paraphrased but this is one of the contemplations I like.
It hangs in the toilet at Yoga in Daily Life.

Scriffles: A Whack on the Side of the Head. PO!

Be Foolish. Break the rules. Be impractical. Get out of your box. Look for "wrong" answers. Seek ambiguity. Make mistakes ... and set your creative self free.

These are the first words on the blurb on the back of A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech.
The book comes with a deck of cards with inspirational wisdoms to answer the question: What should I do? How do I solve this? What are my options?
This is a book I've returned to time and again when turmoil and disquiet takes over me - my mind, my life, me and I feel alone and no one can advise me.

Sure it's nice to seek out ritual and familiarity in such circumstances.
My life - like most people's existence - is dominated by ritual as rigid as a Japanese tea ceremony.
But one of the mainstays is to seek out a "Whack in the Head" inspiration when I feel like a sea snail in a desert.

When life is staid - or stayed - there's an inkling that starts whispering and ends up screaming "GET OUT of the BOX!"
It only seems sudden, when I stop - maybe in a fit of anger, maybe in a torrent of tears, maybe just numb and exhausted or depressed.
So then I ask ME - "What do you want me to do differently? This is what is. What more do you need?"
And me tells ME get me: new pair of sneakers, a new TV, an overseas trip, a new program, a new swimsuit...bla-bla-bla-bla-bla...

"NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...
Try "Po".  I learned today about Edward de Bono's idea of Po.
Po glistens in the sunlight like the sun on water where a silver fish jumps. 
It's cheeky. It's dangerous. It's so full of potential.
It's an alternative answer.  Instead of "no" and instead of "yes" - choose "Po", create a new idea.
It's the same reason, I think, that I'm now hooked on Julien Smith's blog http://inoveryourhead.net/ (In Over Your Head)

In today's blog ( http://inoveryourhead.net/becoming-child-like/ ) he writes about creativity training and developing a management concept of rewarding adaptability in employees.
He sees merit in having childlike thinking... and he thinks it's something important enough to debate. 
He thinks it would help society in so many ways if companies rewarded adaptability and creativity in employees.

I don't know much about management theory and practice but I do believe that there's a galaxy separating it from creativity and adaptability - and that is why whole industries and dare I say civilizations are struggling today. 

Was there ever a time in history when conformity was not the "normal", "expected", "rewarded" behaviour of our race?

As my father drummed into my head from birth: "Some people are followers and some people are leaders - you can't change that, it's human nature."

Take that a step further.  Leadership is about "power". 
"POWER" requires structure, structure requires conformity: hence religion, sports leagues, governments, families, gangs and companies.
This is the way I understand how society is managed - our civilization is being challenged today. And I don't think people recognise it.

Our education systems aren't adapting, families aren't adapting, companies aren't adapting... 
It's been a while since I read Bertrand Russell's "Education and the Social Order" but what I remember goes like this:

"Education" is about making good citizens: kind of like training good soldiers, follow orders, be efficient, get the job done, don't stir the pot...
The other side of "Education" pitches a flipside: reach your full potential, explore ideas and be creative... 

PO! 

Doesn't that actually require people to think for themselves, be creative and adapt?
I think we need a social compact - for everyone from the retirement home to the cradle.
For the elderly: "My Life's a 21st Century Adaptation".
For the middle aged: "Work in Progress".
For youngsters: "Evolve with me" - or something.

I firmly believe that you can not change people - people are whatever they are - you can only try to win them over or retreat.
Only they can decide to change.
So ... "Po" people ... are we Po people? I think we just dream about being Po People.
We make movies about this all the time: A Bug's Life, It's a Wonderful Life... didn't Charles Darwin base his whole thesis of evolution on it?

I love nonsensical thinking -There's improvising, there's creativity - and then there's ethics ... What's fair? It's a leadership issue.

If we're all out of our depth here then who's the Atticus? He's the wise man in the Pulitzer Prize winning book To Kill A Mockingbird.

When Scout (a little girl of 10) stands on Boo Radley's porch and sees things for the first time the way he sees things in the street where they live, tears spring to my eyes every time:

"I had never seen our neighbourhood from this angle. There was Miss Maudie's, Miss Stephanie's - there was our house...
"Daylight...in my mind, the night faded...A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging a fishing pole behind him. A man  stood waiting with his hands on his hips. 
"Summertime, and his children played in the front yard with their friend ... 
"It was Fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk, Fall and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day's woes and triumphs on their faces. 
"Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate silhouetted against a blazing house. . . Summer, and he watched his children's hearts break. 
"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.
"Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. """

Everyone MUST have an Atticus in their life - every life depends upon just one person like Atticus being there for us.
If there's a community - how wonderful?
And sometimes, even a book will do.
I always feel like Scout standing on that porch seeing it for the first time... 

Scriffles: The Great Betrayal.

On the weekend I was catching up with a friend who has children. She laughed when she told a story about how one of them had told her that they were trying to be really good in the run-up to Christmas so as to get as many presents as possible. I said if they get any more than they already do they'll need a mini-skip for wrapping paper.
While we laughed I pointed out that this whole idea of being rewarded for being good when we're children is quite a serious issue because when we grow up and leave school we discover that being good is not really what it's all about. We learn this concept the hard way - but I think some are born street smart, or maybe they just has street smart parents.

I won't call it wise because being street smart is one thing but many people I think carry such bitter resentment after discovering that there's no Santa Claus that it rankles and they become masters of schadenfreude - they are cruel to others and delight in others pain because its like payback for this "great betrayal".
This is not smart it's shallow. My friend and I pulled the concept of "being good" apart - can you tell? - and we agreed that you can't tell a seven-year-old being good is probably not going to lead to success in the long run because then how do you then control the child?
There's another catch here. Children watch what their parents do and then do the same.
Is there a cycle here?
We wonder what's wrong with young people perhaps we should look to our own behaviour - if their parents are cruel to people and gossip behind their friend's backs what do you think a child learns? Certainly not good values.
This is an even worse betrayal I think.
Being a parent is a serious business - I'm just an aunt.
But when I look into the eyes of these children who are seeking understanding I feel so strongly that I can not betray them.
If they give me their trust and their attention and they want me to read with them or teach them printing or carve a pumpkin for Halloween and just sit down around a campfire and talk - I want to give them my time. Their parents spend time with them, they love spending time with them - most of the time.
If I only had $10 for every time someone told me that it's easy for me because I can give them back.
But you see the kids know that I don't have to spend time with them. I'm just their aunt. I want to spend time with them.
I'm assuming that's why they like me. I can't think of any other reason.
Half the time it feels like the rest of the world really doesn't have time for anybody - doesn't it?

Scriffles: Ahn Do's baby bro wins DigiSPAA with Missing Water. Here's excerpts from Ahn's opening address to SPAA. video

Ahn Do's baby brother Khoa won the DigiSPAA contest with a true refugee story. His film is called Missing Water.

Ahn Do told the Screen Producers of Australia Association conference about the Do Family's story of how they were attacked by pirates on a horrific trip out of Vietnam on a boat.
Khoa is a former young Australian of the Year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoa_Do  //  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1072796/
Ahn Do got a job as a lawyer in some big shot firm and then decided he'd rather do comedy and film.