Street - One

Street - One

She is in the market, two spread out blankets in front of her, books, and carvings. Corner spot, ideal. Room for people to stand or kneel down, look at things, pick up books. One fold out chair, come and sit. Emily. Her name, is Emily. Clear day, afternoon in December. Teenager runs up. She doesn't know him. Drops to his knees right in front of her.

"Your son went down. On the corner. Howe. Paramedics with him now. They don't think he's doing so well."

She gets up, hustles the two blocks to the corner where flashing lights and paramedics are feeding her boy oxygen through a mask.

Six days in a hospital she holds his hands.

Cold hands.

As his organs fail.

On the sixth day. They take him off the machines. He never wakes. They shake their heads. He never woke up. She never got to look him in the eye again.

Carfentanil. A new street opioid, fifteen times more potent than fentanyl which is the buzz word on every media person's lips.

You want to talk about how do we make lives better?

Here.

There are six overdoses a day.

Fifty deaths a week.

They're dying there on the streets.

Dying invisibly while you fight your war. While you talk about money. While you talk about power. While you talk about equality.

Her son's name was Sean. He sold cigarettes on a street corner and he slipped through the cracks invisible.

He was aboriginal. He left behind a wife and a child.

He wasn't anyone. And he isn't anyone anymore.

It's not safe.

Fuck you.

Help, Me.

Quotes - Gus Speth

Quotes - Gus Speth

I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change.  I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems, but I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and Apathy...and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation - and we scientists don't know how to do that.
-Gus Speth

Humans of New York - Obama

Humans of New York - Obama

“I first ran for Congress in 1999, and I got beat. I just got whooped. I had been in the state legislature for a long time, I was in the minority party, I wasn’t getting a lot done, and I was away from my family and putting a lot of strain on Michelle. Then for me to run and lose that bad, I was thinking maybe this isn’t what I was cut out to do. I was forty years old, and I’d invested a lot of time and effort into something that didn’t seem to be working. But the thing that got me through that moment, and any other time that I’ve felt stuck, is to remind myself that it’s about the work. Because if you’re worrying about yourself—if you’re thinking: ‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’ – then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done.

Life - Wytai

Life - Wytai

n. a feature of modern society that suddenly strikes you as absurd and grotesque—from zoos and milk-drinking to organ transplants, life insurance, and fiction—part of the faint background noise of absurdity that reverberates from the moment our ancestors first crawled out of the slime but could not for the life of them remember what they got up to do.

#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows

Musings - Art and Love

Musings - Art and Love

The nature of the artwork you do changes a lot when you're in love. I also find myself working more often in both darker and lighter headspaces at the same time.

It's very confusing.

Sometimes I still want to tear myself apart, working on subjects that make me look critically at the very worst of the world.

Then I don't.

I suppose I don't really understand.

Charity - Desert Bus 10

Charity - Desert Bus 10

Desert Bus 10 just ended. This year, we raised some 690 thousand dollars for children's hospitals, domestic violence shelters, and charity. The donations continue to trickle in, but for a week, it is important to think about making a concerted effort at bringing more light into the world. It's a dark time everywhere right now. We are plagued by an uncertain future, and concerns that what we understand to be ethically, morally forward thinking are perhaps not shared with our fellow denizens of the planet. But instead of hiding, instead of running away, it is important to stand up and do action to push further and higher.

Voting is one step to an engaged populace. Volunteering, which you can do any day, volunteering and donating money are conscious decisions you can make every day to ensure the world for tomorrow is a better place.

Alex gave a speech about doing more, about making choices and about being better human beings.

I'm linking it in below here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq1qB5QkOmk&feature=youtu.be


I'm also linking in the Desert Bus Documentary. I hope it resonates with you the way it does me. Desert bus represents 8 years now of commitment I've had. For 8 years, about proving that humans can, should, and will do good things. I've never been really rich, this is the first year I've been able to donate three figures worth of money, but whatever the amount, giving anything is a demonstration. In a modern world that belabours the ideas of nihilism, a demonstration of charity is a striking action of ethical protest.

DB10 - Desert Bus Documentary Trailer

Ethics - Safety Pins

Ethics - Safety Pins

I've been reading about safety pins. And I get it. I understand why.

And I disagree.

I don't disagree with the spirit of what is happening by wearing a safety pin. But I do disagree with the practicality of it. I also disagree with the shifting onus that it represents.

For those that are interested, there's a "safety pin campaign" that has been going on over the last week since the lamentable results in America. I'm not going to comment on that yet, I'm still digesting, and likely might be for the next 4 years. But that safety pin campaign says wear a visible safety pin to demonstrate to marginalized groups, (LGBTQ, Minorities, Immigrants), that you are an "Ally."

The safety pin is supposed to symbolize that you are "safe", that you are an "ally". People of those marginalized groups can come to you for safety.

Fuck off.