WHAT ABOUT ME? Yeah, right.

Life investments are interesting. Sometimes they go on and on. Mostly though, they tend to fizzle out when they have served whatever purpose we've burdened them with.
I saw a five year investment come to a rather wimpy end on September 10th when the Indiana Film Society screened WHAT ABOUT ME. It isn't like people didn't show up; they did. It wasn't that they expressed displeasure - they did not. It just seemed so anti-climatic.
Well, yes; compared to the other screenings which were fresh on the heels of the European release of the film, I did get a late date for the film. But a screening is a screening and I have yet to see that WAM has ever shown in the midwest anywhere other than Indianapolis.
We tend to think of our friends as investments. Those are the people whom we invest our time in, our resources, and our emotions. What we don't realize, is that as a mobile society, friends are not as long lasting as many of our other life investments. We may think we know our friends, but the truth is that we do not - at least not until it is time for them to make investments in us.
For a time, it appeared that every friend I had was going to descend upon our home for the screening. But as the time grew near, the guest list began to diminish. It isn't like people made up piss poor excuses for not coming. Most people had perfectly good excuses for not making the screening. Health was a big issue for some. Legal issues were another thing that kept some people from coming. And then there is just those who said they would make it but never intended to. We knew who they were before they made their excuses.
But there are those whom it is a disappointment to have tell us that they could not come because their new partner wouldn't approve. Or that they were simply too busy with their own baggage to support something that they seemed to care about once upon a time.

The truth of all of this is that I am coming to the point where I know that all of the stuff I spent the past 10 years working at is mostly superficial. The people I invested in are superficial, the things I thought were valuable were not the things I should have treasured. A young friend, someone who reads this blog now and then is perhaps the biggest disappointment as he is just beginning his life with a new woman and does not realize that if he allows her to control him, his life is essentially not his any longer. Not that his surrender will guarantee that this new woman will be with him in a few years.... nope, no guarantees.

Well, in essence, I am coming to a place where all this seems so unimportant now. The internet and its promise of friendship and creativity, the art 'scene' and its ageism. I guess its just time for me to re-evaluate what I will do with the next 20 years of my life. I believe it will be something different than what the past 5 years has been.

Old Dogs Learning New Tricks

I wasn't much interested in setting up a Twitter account prior to the June elections in Iran. Like much of the International community, I found the news coverage of the rallies in Iran, before the elections, to be a sign of movement from Nationalism towards International citizenship.
Much of the West ignores the reality of Muslim divisions, sect differences, and, most importantly, of political moderation, or lack thereof. For those of us who make a point of exercising our planetary citizen status, all of the elections, from Lebanon to Honduras have been interesting to watch, as well as thought provoking.
In America, the election of Barack Obama as president signaled a shift of power from European ancestry based control, to immigrant and youth control. For me, as well as so many others, this was refreshing as well as invigorating.
The potential for similar shifts of voting blocks in other nations is great. For instance, in Israel, Arabic Israelis and Palestinians in Israel will soon out number Hebrews. The significance of that is enormous as Israel's leaders may have figured out with their willingness to now discuss the "two state solution". In many ways, like other pundits, I see it as too late for Israel to offer the two state solution to Palestine. Palestine, if current population growth trends continue, will undermine its position by accepting toe "too little, too late" two state solution. If Israeli Jews wish to remain the majority party in Israel, they will have to enforce draconian voting laws, keeping Palestinian and Arabic Israelis from the polls.
The educated populations of our world are settling more comfortably into the role of international citizen. They realize that without moderate and tolerant views, Humanity may not be able to survive on our planet. That without compromise and clear goals from all nations, we probably can not solve our biggest problems such as climate change, poverty, water and energy demands.
What happened in Iran was not in vain. Another mindset has emerged in the Muslim nations that is not about condemnation or control of or through, religion; it is about proper stewardship of resources so we can continue to work toward alleviating poverty, ignorance, disease and intolerance. Sooner or later, the will of the majority will be impossible to ignore and the people who feel disenfranchised by election results, will be moved again to shift the balance of their power.
What happened in Iran caused me to Twitter. What happened in Iran made me think about what happened in America in 2000 when Bush, Rove and Cheney stole the election for president and were successful at their bloodless coup. Instead of taking our passions and protests to the street when we were told that the recounts were illegal and the will of the people was invalidated, we retreated to our living rooms and to the safety of the media propaganda dream machines. Considering the Iranian people who left their homes and possessions to voice their outrage at their government and were dealth with extremem violence, while Americans were threatened with labels such as "Traitor", or "Terrorist"; and decided not to risk their material comfort to accuse the Bush regime, I have once again been humbled by the resilience of the human spirit.
No, Iran, your protests were not in vain. Next time, you will need a leader, a true Leader who will take you all the way to the seat of your new democracy (if that, indeed, is what you choose). In the meantime, gather your wits, re-examine your purpose, and prepare for the next opening - for surely it will come.

Bird-ness

I don't write about my "kids", Sunkist and Mojo because, well, I would rather play with them than spend time writing about them. Looking at that last sentence, I realize that I am playing 'chicken' - I don't write about the parrots because I don't want to seem mushy and silly and 'bird-brained'. I also think that committing things to words diminishes some of the magic of what goes on.
I just spent 24 hours reading "Wesley the Owl" by Stacey O'Brien, and I've come to realize that perhaps I should write about my relationships with the birds - anyone who spends so much time with their companions, has insights that can be useful, and endearing, to others.
Sunkist is my love. He came from a big box pet store and the decision to allow myself to fall in love with him (thus buying him) was made unconsciously. I had been haunting pet stores and taking sketch pad and pencil with me to draw parrots. I was always interested in their anatomy - and once I began to learn about wild birds, parrots seemed a natural progression. What I never counted on was how much I could love such a tiny bundle of feathers. Sunkist is now 9 years old and it is human nature to think of the future. To think that he will not be with me forever is a dark spot I'd rather not explore.
Mojo is the baby. She is difficult to deal with sometimes as she is now coming into sexual maturity. She is a different kind of conure than Sunkist is; smaller and even anatomically different. Mojo has a kind of smell about her that has gotten better since she first came into our lives. She is nippier than SUnkist ever was - she did not love me like Sunkist did (before I ever brought him home). But I love Mojo almost as much as I love Sunkist - she is sweet in her own way, and she is very responsive to affection and patience.
Sunkist, fell in love first with my hair. As a 'bappy' he would nestle into my hair and poop down my back. I loved the nestling and would put up with the poop for that sweet snuggling. Sunkist began talking quite soon after coming home.
It's said that parrots mimic rather than reason - those platitudes are obviously uttered by people who don't have parrots living in their home.
Parrots reason, logic and then express themselves in a manner which a human companion can not explain away as mimicry.
Parrots wind themselves in a tight loop around your heart and not even the most passionate human lover could be as intuitive about emotion as my Sunkist.