Tyrell: I'm surprised you didn't come here sooner.
Batty: It's not an easy thing to meet your maker.
Tyrell: What could he do for you?
Batty: Can the maker repair what he makes? - from Blade Runner, 1982
There is no better time than now to contemplate the meaning of our existence. There is no better time than now to be depressed - depression is a message which means: I'm not living like I know I should. Of course, some people intuit a life that is based on fantasy, but really bad depression is when you know your existence is delusional, that the world doesn't make sense. This delusion is chronic, as we see in stock markets, in advertising, in the way people work (referring to themselves as 'consumers'), and what we aspire to culturally (looking good, being sexually alert 24/7).
I have recently become a member of ASPOSAS (The Association for Peak Oil Study South Africa). I was thinking that a job worth getting up for - for me - would be to do the school and university circuit, giving lectures. People need to be psychologically prepared for what's coming. A lot of people are suffering meltdowns as financial stress and reality advances. I see more and more people admitted to hospital, or simply becoming sick, as they fail to cope with the steady march of 'Bad News'. There's more to come, and we're not prepared for it. And there are things we can do, as communities, to mitigate what's coming.
We can start by laughing at Mahindra ads that have a 6 month 'free petrol' deal if you buy their cars. Think that's a solution? We can applaud the government's energy saving tip advertising - a couple reading their books in bed, using the revolving light of a lighthouse. A father practising karate like movements, then opening the fridge and quickly getting what he wants (followed by a son who has the door open, hands in hair, taking his time).
An astonishing 4000 calls a day are made to childline to report abuse in this country. Child pornography is exploding? Is that the solution to other problems? To sell your kids, to worship - sexually - the innocence of the young? Meanwhile police in Kwa-Zulu Natal have refused to act against a woman who ran over a baby with her car at a creche. They say there is not enough evidence. I'm not sure whether a dead baby's corpse is evidence, but here we see the disconnect in our authorities to make people accountable for their mistakes.
I've also seen two amazing spectacles on TV this weekend. One was a live heart by-pass. This is a risky procedure, and although the procedure itself is meant to extend the patient's life, don't be mistaken that any surgery in or around the heart (including cutting/sawing open the chest cavity) probably trims 10 years off a person's life. That said, failure to operate may trim 20-40 years off the same person's life. It is the equivalent of removing a car battery out of a car, and then putting it back - and you have one chance to get it right. Failure to get it spot on means you may have to jump start the car (or person), and as soon as you do that your chances of success start to slip.
Interestingly, during the procedure the patients heart, once back online, went over 220 beats per minute. This is a man in his 50's. My heartbeat at a high exertion rate on Saturday went to 173, and I'm 36 and healthy. It's likely that Wally is going to feel the exertions of his heart, the fact that his sternum was sawed in half (and stitched back with wire). When you have risk factors for heart disease, each additional risk factor doesn't double your chances, it is an increase at an exponential rate. Say genetics is 1, and obesity is another 1. 1 + 1 = 4. Add to that high cholestrol: 1 + 1 + 1 = 12. It was fascinating watching the surgery on Wally, and knowing it was live, in fact down the road in Millpark. And that right now, he is probably borderline on whether to take in solid food or not. The test is whether is body can successfully fight the infection of the procedure, and that bleeding was sufficiently stemmed. 76% of viewers polled said they had heart-related problems, which confirms South Africa as having the highest levels in the world.
Another documentary I watched is called Winged Migration. A french made film, with virtually no narration, and some of the best cinematography I've seen. Imagine being an Arctic Tern, who has to fly 12500 miles (that's halfway around the world) twice a year, from pole to pole. Imagine covering those sort of distances, as great risk and effort, to find your destination disappearing. Literally melting.
If I was an Arctic Tern flying over human accoutrements, I'd feel incredibly angry. I'd wonder whether my family, or even myself, would find something worthwhile to fly to once I'f gotten there. The ships and smoke and cities that I'd fly over, I'd resent, on my way to the other side of the world.
It is an incredibly vivid picture of the beauty and difficulty these creatures have to endure. One scene shows a tern with a broken wing being pursued by large crabs on the Namibian Coast. The bird is too exhausted and hurt to defend itself and finally succumbs. It comes through strikingly clear then the callousness of humans on the world's creatures... that some of these migrants - especially geese - having flown literally for hundreds and thousands of kilometres, are shot out of the sky for sport by hunters. Parrots in the Amazon are caged to be sold at international markets. Most birds will probably starve to death at customs depots.
The human culpability in this documentary is touched upon very lightly. What comes across far more strongly is the incredible beauty and resilience of this creatures, and the majestic environments they move through in pelotons high in the sky. A scene where a few geese landed on the decks of a military ship - for some rest - is also moving.
It made me think of my own website. My signal out to the world. There are some useful messages about our common situation, mixed up with half naked women. Life is all mixed up, some of it makes sense, most of it doesn't. But it is a beautiful thing. I would like this website to pay tribute to NATURE, the first and most important aspect of lives. Human nature to me is far less attractive than nature without the imprint of human beings.
In the end, despair and faith live side by side, all mixed up in the kaleidoscope of life. You cannot have one without the other, but it is in Nature, that we can find the inspiration, and the faith, to hope for better things.
Meet Wally's Heart
Winged Migration
No comments:
Post a Comment