I remember quite a few years ago sitting in a park with someone I hadn't seen for thirty odd years and telling her I felt that in any meetings of people there was a shared responsibility between them to have come to whatever space they shared. The illustration I used was a traffic accident and in that there supposedly was the active and the passive, or conventionally, the wrong doer and the victim, but my contention was that both shared equal responsibility in having that meeting exist.
Quite contentious really given our morality is such that the passive participant somehow has no active choice in being there, that chance or circumstance not of their choosing has brought them to be in a place where they have interacted with an active choice made by someone else.
Ah, that's right, now I remember what led me to this idea. It was that within meditation, or doing lots of meditation, my subconscious activity was becoming more pronounced in daily life. I became able to see these motivations just under the surface, I think, because my mind was much quieter and that emptiness, or emptierness anyways, left room for the subconscious to rise up into a more obvious place of motivation which was throwing me around and into circumstances where those subconscious needs could be met.
So from there it wasn't too much of a leap to realise a responsibility, an ownership as it were, for the need of the subconscious to be heard but also, in bringing up my own subconscious, to see how much others were driven by their own but without being aware of how much precedence over their lives the subconscious had.
This is where it gets weird though because with alot of people you aren't just speaking to one person but anywhere from two to a cavalcade and which might take precedence? That's because even whilst the conscious is there so is the subconscious and the subconscious can be a whole world unto itself, and then above even the conscious is the superconscious too, and if you try to speak to them all using your own intellect... well, there lies madness.
Then the role of intuitiveness becomes apparent, a parent of sorts, but it's not something one can control or sieve through ones own ideas of what is right and wrong. Stuff just has to fall out... as if the part of you that is the intellect, that which actively determines through thinking what is and what isn't right, has gone on holiday.
There's just this use by date notification when it becomes somewhat obvious you've reached the limits of the intelligence you've always relied on... it just doesn't work anymore, it's too slow and the two dimensional way it works through cause and effect just isn't up to the task. But, of course, one couldn't have even reached this point of seeing how dull the tool really is unless one had been playing with, in what was previously in the background, a much sharper and keener tool.
And play may very well be the optimum word.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Yet more rambling inconsequence.
I don't even go to Spiritual Forums much anymore but I did the other day and two posts have stuck with me. The first was about Jesus and Buddha and their state of enlightenment and especially a part about St John the Baptist being able to recognise such within Jesus. The next post was one by a fellow who'd lost his ability to be imaginative... and that's where I'll start because I have too.
It's not so much that it's gone so much as it's somehow surplus to requirements and if anything gets in the way. Over the years I've come to accept what might be called a visionary way in that eventually what needs doing would arrive as a vision that would just pop fully formed into my head and if and when I started on a path to bring such into reality whatever was needed would arrive, and not only that, but the cues to go certain ways, within that making, would arrive when they were needed.
This was interesting in many ways but the most interesting was that I was just there to do the cutting and putting together and even that the things themselves which were produced were almost completely unimportant next to the actual ability to channel... as it were. It was like I could look at the artworks or constructions with fresh eyes and ears just like anyone else because my part involved almost negligible violition on my part other than being there and listening then doing and following the prompts and that what actually came into being was always so beyond what I could have imagined myself.
And that the only way to achieve and stand beside such wonders was the ability to not personalise the achievement... that it wasn't me at all but something much greater and far more extensive in it's understanding, which came through too because there was a far greater understanding in what 'I' might achieve and what my actual skills were than 'I' could actually understand.
So the ability to imagine, to visualise, became almost an affront to the ability to just listen. But it became problematic, and still is to a certain extent, because as well there came a knowledge that these stories in the form of things somehow had their own life and volition to go into other peoples lives and do and be what they might need. There were even instances, and still are, where possibilities would be laid out and have others grab hold of them as if they were their own and then pulled back and denied... which I still had to stand beside and take the blame for having brought forth. This was very humbling indeed as the supposed recipients would vent all their frustration at me and I'm standing there within a much bigger story than I might have thought I signed on for and being almost completely defenceless. And it was good!
And this then makes the post about St John being able to recognise Jesus as very interesting... because in all truth he might have been one of the very few who could have but I don't want to really go into that except to say that the only thing we can ever see in another is ourselves... a little forward in a future, a possibility of ourselves a little more open or a little more closed off, as if the ultimate truth of life is that binary... selfishness or selflessness.
It's not so much that it's gone so much as it's somehow surplus to requirements and if anything gets in the way. Over the years I've come to accept what might be called a visionary way in that eventually what needs doing would arrive as a vision that would just pop fully formed into my head and if and when I started on a path to bring such into reality whatever was needed would arrive, and not only that, but the cues to go certain ways, within that making, would arrive when they were needed.
This was interesting in many ways but the most interesting was that I was just there to do the cutting and putting together and even that the things themselves which were produced were almost completely unimportant next to the actual ability to channel... as it were. It was like I could look at the artworks or constructions with fresh eyes and ears just like anyone else because my part involved almost negligible violition on my part other than being there and listening then doing and following the prompts and that what actually came into being was always so beyond what I could have imagined myself.
And that the only way to achieve and stand beside such wonders was the ability to not personalise the achievement... that it wasn't me at all but something much greater and far more extensive in it's understanding, which came through too because there was a far greater understanding in what 'I' might achieve and what my actual skills were than 'I' could actually understand.
So the ability to imagine, to visualise, became almost an affront to the ability to just listen. But it became problematic, and still is to a certain extent, because as well there came a knowledge that these stories in the form of things somehow had their own life and volition to go into other peoples lives and do and be what they might need. There were even instances, and still are, where possibilities would be laid out and have others grab hold of them as if they were their own and then pulled back and denied... which I still had to stand beside and take the blame for having brought forth. This was very humbling indeed as the supposed recipients would vent all their frustration at me and I'm standing there within a much bigger story than I might have thought I signed on for and being almost completely defenceless. And it was good!
And this then makes the post about St John being able to recognise Jesus as very interesting... because in all truth he might have been one of the very few who could have but I don't want to really go into that except to say that the only thing we can ever see in another is ourselves... a little forward in a future, a possibility of ourselves a little more open or a little more closed off, as if the ultimate truth of life is that binary... selfishness or selflessness.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
The tales of Twin Flames.
There is quite a bit on the net about this relatively modern phenomenon and it seems to be quite fashionable within spiritual circles but alike most things spiritual what it means at a lower level of implementation is really quite different than a higher implementation... not that I want to go all this is high and this is low but it serves the purpose of highlighting, in a sense, the reality of ego based yearning and soul based acceptance and possibly that the whole reason for the Twin flame phenomenon is to highlight the gulf worth traversing between the two poles.
The basic premise of Twin flames is that two individuals share the same soul and journey through lives helping each other to their eventual joining again in enlightenment with a side order that such is required within our own times to create a gestalt of sorts whereby the twins as individual bodies share the soul within life and are then doing work within life to advance the awakening of all individuals still within an ego based life.
There is also some argument out there about the true nature of Twin flames/Twin souls (which is another name for them) and the Soulmate, which may or may not be the same thing, but is basically in the same ballpark and that ballpark is definitely pre-enlightenment.
I read one thing a while back and it resonated deeply within me as I was almost on the verge of voicing such, or had even done so, but without the clarity of the statement I read. Basically the fellow said that just as we achieve enlightenment our soul does a little trick where a small part goes back into time and space to aid it's own coming to that point and that, in essence, this is our higher self.
This then made total sense because it was what I had seemed to experience within meditation, helped along by prodigious readings of Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now". It felt and seemed that within meditation the ego fell away and as ones consciousness passed through silence and into stillness that the consciousness became the higher self, and going even further and becoming everything at once within all time and space how could it be otherwise?
So between the paragraph above and now, on this fine Autumnal Sunday morning, I've been out chopping down the Privet trees along one side of the property as the fine roots of these trees have been encroaching on the drains, it's happened twice in about two years and it's gotta stop. And there's a wonderful metaphor going on as the weedy trees of our existence both reach into the sky and dig deep into the soil in search of nourishment’s. The root's would, of course, find the sewers, the deep sub-conscious parts of us tunnelling under the ground unseen carrying our wastes away and a blockage may very well be something we seek to let go of but the trees, growing to the sun, see another use for them.
In this respect the nature of Twin Flames must include past lives, in itself a metaphor chosen by our higher selves to illustrate the edges of our existence and it matter's not that past lives are real or not only that they are the canvas upon which is painted the knowledge we might benefit from unearthing.
So it's seems to me that while the person I might regard as a Twin for myself it is that she too is more metaphorical, maybe the prime metaphor, for the unearthing and bringing to light the unseen and yet to be understood aspects of self which need cleansing, purifying... a good scrub basically, in the journey to source.
And this is what gets me with the concept of the Twin flame. That the person who may or may not be ones Twin flame is still a complete and whole person seeking their own salvation or not and that we, or oneself, cannot see their physicality and corporeality as the source of our salvation... that being with them will not make us whole.
For if one has ever experienced source, or God, or enlightenment or whatever, even for the briefest of moments it is obvious there are no divisions at all between anything, everything and all time and this is, or hints at, the essential paradox within the Twin flame concept.
Myself, I learn by experience. I experience then if I need to seek some knowledge about what may have happened. I find it silly to try and learn something and then experience it as it just feels backwards to me so the Twin Flame thing arrived as a source of knowledge after a whole bunch of previously un-experienced stuff happened and slowly but surely I was led to the ideas of Twin flames and while the Ego driven and earthly delighted parts of me still much alive on the earth embraced such as the fulfilment of all my heart has yearned for I've had enough experience within meditative states and the unfolding of higher self led motivations to understand that the physicality of the thing is as fleeting as all other physicalities.
That as real and existence as all existence is it's still just fun in the little house and sensible detachment is a pre-requisite to overall health; spiritual, mental, physical and all else that might have a bearing, and balance.
The reason I even write this is some vague hope that her which may or may not be might read this and that if she too has had some of that weird and intangible stuff happening to her... that I'm doing all I can to minimise such from my end and that I hope it doesn't hurt.
And that I better get back to chopping down trees and making firewood as what's the old saying... before enlightenment chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
Heres a little more reading if you're not already exhausted.
The basic premise of Twin flames is that two individuals share the same soul and journey through lives helping each other to their eventual joining again in enlightenment with a side order that such is required within our own times to create a gestalt of sorts whereby the twins as individual bodies share the soul within life and are then doing work within life to advance the awakening of all individuals still within an ego based life.
There is also some argument out there about the true nature of Twin flames/Twin souls (which is another name for them) and the Soulmate, which may or may not be the same thing, but is basically in the same ballpark and that ballpark is definitely pre-enlightenment.
I read one thing a while back and it resonated deeply within me as I was almost on the verge of voicing such, or had even done so, but without the clarity of the statement I read. Basically the fellow said that just as we achieve enlightenment our soul does a little trick where a small part goes back into time and space to aid it's own coming to that point and that, in essence, this is our higher self.
This then made total sense because it was what I had seemed to experience within meditation, helped along by prodigious readings of Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now". It felt and seemed that within meditation the ego fell away and as ones consciousness passed through silence and into stillness that the consciousness became the higher self, and going even further and becoming everything at once within all time and space how could it be otherwise?
So between the paragraph above and now, on this fine Autumnal Sunday morning, I've been out chopping down the Privet trees along one side of the property as the fine roots of these trees have been encroaching on the drains, it's happened twice in about two years and it's gotta stop. And there's a wonderful metaphor going on as the weedy trees of our existence both reach into the sky and dig deep into the soil in search of nourishment’s. The root's would, of course, find the sewers, the deep sub-conscious parts of us tunnelling under the ground unseen carrying our wastes away and a blockage may very well be something we seek to let go of but the trees, growing to the sun, see another use for them.
In this respect the nature of Twin Flames must include past lives, in itself a metaphor chosen by our higher selves to illustrate the edges of our existence and it matter's not that past lives are real or not only that they are the canvas upon which is painted the knowledge we might benefit from unearthing.
So it's seems to me that while the person I might regard as a Twin for myself it is that she too is more metaphorical, maybe the prime metaphor, for the unearthing and bringing to light the unseen and yet to be understood aspects of self which need cleansing, purifying... a good scrub basically, in the journey to source.
And this is what gets me with the concept of the Twin flame. That the person who may or may not be ones Twin flame is still a complete and whole person seeking their own salvation or not and that we, or oneself, cannot see their physicality and corporeality as the source of our salvation... that being with them will not make us whole.
For if one has ever experienced source, or God, or enlightenment or whatever, even for the briefest of moments it is obvious there are no divisions at all between anything, everything and all time and this is, or hints at, the essential paradox within the Twin flame concept.
Myself, I learn by experience. I experience then if I need to seek some knowledge about what may have happened. I find it silly to try and learn something and then experience it as it just feels backwards to me so the Twin Flame thing arrived as a source of knowledge after a whole bunch of previously un-experienced stuff happened and slowly but surely I was led to the ideas of Twin flames and while the Ego driven and earthly delighted parts of me still much alive on the earth embraced such as the fulfilment of all my heart has yearned for I've had enough experience within meditative states and the unfolding of higher self led motivations to understand that the physicality of the thing is as fleeting as all other physicalities.
That as real and existence as all existence is it's still just fun in the little house and sensible detachment is a pre-requisite to overall health; spiritual, mental, physical and all else that might have a bearing, and balance.
The reason I even write this is some vague hope that her which may or may not be might read this and that if she too has had some of that weird and intangible stuff happening to her... that I'm doing all I can to minimise such from my end and that I hope it doesn't hurt.
And that I better get back to chopping down trees and making firewood as what's the old saying... before enlightenment chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
Heres a little more reading if you're not already exhausted.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
For Sarah...
That first chance I was rising early, earlier than the sleep deprived might want me so as coffee rich and strident raced through me beckoning me into a day I asked what I might do if I arrived whilst the sun hit the trees side on.
'Take a spade' was the answer, simple and to the point. 'To dig a hole?' was my reply but being so close to the quietness it rolled into this mind and found purchases eloquent and expansive of which I have learned to ride without questioning beyond a vantage of my own simple mindedness, my dumb naivety and a love of tools.
And with that I seek only to find the core, the source where fingers and thumbs learn to feel and my eyes watch with a sense of wonder that my mind can know so little.
So while the others sought to impress the experts with their knowledge of the current currencies I just wondered why must we have coins and what are these notes that allow our conversation.
So that's the first term over and I've found some minor celebrity which somehow allows me to be more obtuse, be seen pointing to dense thickets like brer rabbit knowing he can outwill the fox but the fox unheeding. I can play an even more irrelevant hand because people are curious.
But the march of the making of plans and being careful is full and strong and maybe even see's me as an enemy. Why? I know why because even though we might choose to start from stupid it doesn't mean we aren't allowed to see the map from higher elevations and if you drop that dull little pebbl;e into the wide stagnant waters you are allowed to stay and watch the ripples.
I see the place you choose to put me and I can be my own spy and secretly shine up the dull trinkets we all carry... and move them slightly so notice is thrown into corners.
Second term and madness is a conviction, though free, I am reminded of but threats are always a shining light for me... the jitters are appearing. But I'm enjoying my holiday, the world is a wide wide place and these freedoms given by a government have me playing in parks and discovering alcoves and I'm forgetful of serious intents.
Last minute I'm called to the stage, still in residence of privilege, so I find tools and just paint pretty pictures, old scores not even settled but dug up, possibly tired, for new action. And they yawn and stretch never realising that spinning new lies of consequence again wakes the sleeping giant.
Not even a photo hidden of the plank of wood and the spinny thing never mind the dull lump of mud but the encircling watchers have watched... the giant is waking.
What is the Giant? It's a giant.
It is the bored world with niches carved out and no interest in widening. Dull savant's only interested in their own glory asking for excitement for plunder for their own hordes. Pirates with big treasure laden but grounded ships expecting my little racy yacht to smash into the fatness of their relevance and renew the tired vigilance.
But I have no interest in this, I'm already gone and can see your broken hearts and my choice is even less for I must break them even more. I've tried to show you the tools I use and that's as far as I can go because I think I understand the questions you're unwilling to be seen asking.
So I'm gone but not easily forgotten. Maybe I'll go back... maybe I won't. I have a stash of good mud but it's quiet, it's resting. I'm uncovering the foundations of precious moments which will be the building of walls, not to hide a horde but to glorify and uphold, trinkets glued in and almost hoping the crowning ramparts will see me allowed to be mud frozen by fire... but that's still a future far off.
(That's my story, Sarah, of a year at the ASP, where I found technical stuff so utterly univigorating while I just wanted to play. Matt McLean was a hero, he's cool and Peter Lange had the blarney goin' on but seemed a little tired.)
'Take a spade' was the answer, simple and to the point. 'To dig a hole?' was my reply but being so close to the quietness it rolled into this mind and found purchases eloquent and expansive of which I have learned to ride without questioning beyond a vantage of my own simple mindedness, my dumb naivety and a love of tools.
And with that I seek only to find the core, the source where fingers and thumbs learn to feel and my eyes watch with a sense of wonder that my mind can know so little.
So while the others sought to impress the experts with their knowledge of the current currencies I just wondered why must we have coins and what are these notes that allow our conversation.
But the march of the making of plans and being careful is full and strong and maybe even see's me as an enemy. Why? I know why because even though we might choose to start from stupid it doesn't mean we aren't allowed to see the map from higher elevations and if you drop that dull little pebbl;e into the wide stagnant waters you are allowed to stay and watch the ripples.
I see the place you choose to put me and I can be my own spy and secretly shine up the dull trinkets we all carry... and move them slightly so notice is thrown into corners.
Second term and madness is a conviction, though free, I am reminded of but threats are always a shining light for me... the jitters are appearing. But I'm enjoying my holiday, the world is a wide wide place and these freedoms given by a government have me playing in parks and discovering alcoves and I'm forgetful of serious intents.
Last minute I'm called to the stage, still in residence of privilege, so I find tools and just paint pretty pictures, old scores not even settled but dug up, possibly tired, for new action. And they yawn and stretch never realising that spinning new lies of consequence again wakes the sleeping giant.
Not even a photo hidden of the plank of wood and the spinny thing never mind the dull lump of mud but the encircling watchers have watched... the giant is waking.
What is the Giant? It's a giant.
It is the bored world with niches carved out and no interest in widening. Dull savant's only interested in their own glory asking for excitement for plunder for their own hordes. Pirates with big treasure laden but grounded ships expecting my little racy yacht to smash into the fatness of their relevance and renew the tired vigilance.
But I have no interest in this, I'm already gone and can see your broken hearts and my choice is even less for I must break them even more. I've tried to show you the tools I use and that's as far as I can go because I think I understand the questions you're unwilling to be seen asking.
So I'm gone but not easily forgotten. Maybe I'll go back... maybe I won't. I have a stash of good mud but it's quiet, it's resting. I'm uncovering the foundations of precious moments which will be the building of walls, not to hide a horde but to glorify and uphold, trinkets glued in and almost hoping the crowning ramparts will see me allowed to be mud frozen by fire... but that's still a future far off.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
300 words for an exhibition next July at Fresh.
I have what might be called a Love/ Hate relationship with Art though it's never really veers into hate, well, it never does, but it does go well into not caring much.
What that means is that I never stop being artistic, as such, I do very much stop caring about having a career in Art especially when I go into territories which could only be called craft and even into what might be called restoration.
I think what it is is that first and foremost I love stuff and how it relates to us as humans in the world we are constantly recreating around ourselves and Art, as a career, can be a part of that for me but it's merely a tool and not a product or end in and of itself. And that stuff, whatever it may be, always has a story. It either came to me with a story already told that I might frame and re-appraise in some way or it is in need of a story and, for me, that seems to be the all-encompassing life that is an Artful life. It's not the end product being sold in a gallery that be added to a CV, even though that's part of it, it's me on this planet, in this body, living in this country and finding ways to be best at what I do and passing those insights and discoveries around for discussion and review so that we all might find better ways of making this life, we all share, enjoyable and interesting.
So fads in the Art world have no real consequence to me. Yes they can be invigorating and inspiring and I'm more than willing to steal what I need but in the day to day experience of my life they're just like anything else on the periphery, mildly entertaining but essentially reasonably remote to what I see and feel everyday.
Maybe then it's that my whole life is my own fad. I am my own fashion which is the sum total of the places I've been, the people who are there and what they do within there own lives. So I guess that's what I want this exhibition to be about. That I am a man brought up and living in South Auckland who has decided to do it my way and at this time in my life, and always recurring, is a love of furniture. My pallet to tell stories of the past finding its future, through the now that is always of the greatest importance, is that of the things we use to sit on, store things in and place possibly more important things on. It's like making art of the frame, being a bit hidy hidy about what I'm actually saying, hiding in plain site.
And what will I be saying with a few scratch built pieces of furniture, a bunch of experimental works made up from discarded chairs and tabled pieced together with extras and some high end stuff redone from 60's and 70's South Auckland sitting room classics... and a few paintings done with spiritual discovery in mind?
I'll be saying thankyou to South Auckland for constantly inspiring me to live here and, guess what, we have a totally unique view of life and we need to remember that, not only is it more than enough to be proud of, but it's also more than enough for more conservative and richer places to start seeing us as the rich and diverse culture that we have.
What that means is that I never stop being artistic, as such, I do very much stop caring about having a career in Art especially when I go into territories which could only be called craft and even into what might be called restoration.
I think what it is is that first and foremost I love stuff and how it relates to us as humans in the world we are constantly recreating around ourselves and Art, as a career, can be a part of that for me but it's merely a tool and not a product or end in and of itself. And that stuff, whatever it may be, always has a story. It either came to me with a story already told that I might frame and re-appraise in some way or it is in need of a story and, for me, that seems to be the all-encompassing life that is an Artful life. It's not the end product being sold in a gallery that be added to a CV, even though that's part of it, it's me on this planet, in this body, living in this country and finding ways to be best at what I do and passing those insights and discoveries around for discussion and review so that we all might find better ways of making this life, we all share, enjoyable and interesting.
So fads in the Art world have no real consequence to me. Yes they can be invigorating and inspiring and I'm more than willing to steal what I need but in the day to day experience of my life they're just like anything else on the periphery, mildly entertaining but essentially reasonably remote to what I see and feel everyday.
Maybe then it's that my whole life is my own fad. I am my own fashion which is the sum total of the places I've been, the people who are there and what they do within there own lives. So I guess that's what I want this exhibition to be about. That I am a man brought up and living in South Auckland who has decided to do it my way and at this time in my life, and always recurring, is a love of furniture. My pallet to tell stories of the past finding its future, through the now that is always of the greatest importance, is that of the things we use to sit on, store things in and place possibly more important things on. It's like making art of the frame, being a bit hidy hidy about what I'm actually saying, hiding in plain site.
And what will I be saying with a few scratch built pieces of furniture, a bunch of experimental works made up from discarded chairs and tabled pieced together with extras and some high end stuff redone from 60's and 70's South Auckland sitting room classics... and a few paintings done with spiritual discovery in mind?
I'll be saying thankyou to South Auckland for constantly inspiring me to live here and, guess what, we have a totally unique view of life and we need to remember that, not only is it more than enough to be proud of, but it's also more than enough for more conservative and richer places to start seeing us as the rich and diverse culture that we have.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Ideas having their time part2.
I think what's more important than ideas being found and brought more into reality is how they are fitted into society especially ideas where we might need the help of others. If an idea is couched in the wrong way and meets the wrong person for approval then it's not that it's time is wrong but it's placement and as time goes on and the ideas I'm given seem to be much more in this territory then it behoves me to think more about this idea of placing ideas where theres more chance of them being accepted.
And I kinda realise too that the idea itself doesn't matter so much as the underlying understanding that'll come from being more realistic about applying ideas in a way that makes their approval content greater and more likely to see fruition. It's like the flow of water and paths of least resistance so the idea is just the little boat and the placement is putting it on the water to see how the stream flows.
Getting the buildings behind the ASB in Grey Lynn using the Mens shed prototype combined with a art gallery of sorts then is the little boat and the stream of water is the ASB management hierachy and the challenge then isn't so much just about the boat but placing the boat within the watercourse where it'll have the longest journey.
Now the selling point to get the ASB on board is somewhat convoluted and would require quite a bit of foresight on the part of the reviewer to even see the relevance of such a step and what I have found over the years is that foresight is not something in common usage at least not in the lower echelons of commercial life. People are just trying to get on with the work they're given within a structured and understood model of how it all works and no matter how efficient a suggestion of change is it'll rock that boat so any rocking of boats has to be in a place where the boat has a chance to rock, can be viewed rocking, and any ripples created allowed time to wash on shores that won't destroy the marine life living on those shores.
This is why ideas need to find the right bay to be tested in. The idea doesn't really matter even if it's brilliant and required and all that other stuff... that's completely beside the point and the point is that structures in needing stability will resist instability even if it offers a greater stability in the long run.
This is the thing with structures. Our most efficient structures aren't actually structurally strong until the very last piece goes in and makes them stable and this requires, this type of building, a soft touch and alot of effort put into stabilising networks to get this unstable, until finished, structure working as a whole.
Mostly, what we do as humans, is overbuild from the foundation up where each successive layer is a structure in itself that allows each individual part to stand alone whilst other parts are added. Immensely inefficient really but it's a way of building that while limiting height and adding inertia it's something we all feel is safe because we add layers of rigidity, rigid upon rigid, and so safe footings upon safe footings.
The trouble with this though is that it becomes very difficult to change the structure. It can only really be changed from the top down simply because the top is resting on all that below it and if you take out parts of the middle or the bottom so much above it is reliant on that foundation of overbuilding then the whole becomes unstable.
Whereas efficient design of structures where all the parts are equally stressed to hold up the structure any attempt to enact change or modify the structure is felt by the whole thing and to remove one part is quite simple as it's job is determined by it's use and so all one has to do is remodel the use and add the required support to undergo change.
This is somewhat the same as the overbuilt structure except the quality of perception of change is modified by the rigidity of the layers of structure which inhibit the feedback through the structure and so change acts in convoluted pathways and is more easily misunderstood.
So while I can stand off to the side of the ASB as a structure and see that the idea I'm carrying is valid, that the banking giant would be in the advantage by being associated with changes in the economic environment which are yet to be easily seen and the simple fact of them being in possible association to such ideas is an advantage they would reap the rewards of without actually doing much... it is an altogether different proposition to see the benefits from within the structure of the ASB itself with all it's overbuilt preponderance.
And I kinda realise too that the idea itself doesn't matter so much as the underlying understanding that'll come from being more realistic about applying ideas in a way that makes their approval content greater and more likely to see fruition. It's like the flow of water and paths of least resistance so the idea is just the little boat and the placement is putting it on the water to see how the stream flows.
Getting the buildings behind the ASB in Grey Lynn using the Mens shed prototype combined with a art gallery of sorts then is the little boat and the stream of water is the ASB management hierachy and the challenge then isn't so much just about the boat but placing the boat within the watercourse where it'll have the longest journey.
Now the selling point to get the ASB on board is somewhat convoluted and would require quite a bit of foresight on the part of the reviewer to even see the relevance of such a step and what I have found over the years is that foresight is not something in common usage at least not in the lower echelons of commercial life. People are just trying to get on with the work they're given within a structured and understood model of how it all works and no matter how efficient a suggestion of change is it'll rock that boat so any rocking of boats has to be in a place where the boat has a chance to rock, can be viewed rocking, and any ripples created allowed time to wash on shores that won't destroy the marine life living on those shores.
This is why ideas need to find the right bay to be tested in. The idea doesn't really matter even if it's brilliant and required and all that other stuff... that's completely beside the point and the point is that structures in needing stability will resist instability even if it offers a greater stability in the long run.
This is the thing with structures. Our most efficient structures aren't actually structurally strong until the very last piece goes in and makes them stable and this requires, this type of building, a soft touch and alot of effort put into stabilising networks to get this unstable, until finished, structure working as a whole.
Mostly, what we do as humans, is overbuild from the foundation up where each successive layer is a structure in itself that allows each individual part to stand alone whilst other parts are added. Immensely inefficient really but it's a way of building that while limiting height and adding inertia it's something we all feel is safe because we add layers of rigidity, rigid upon rigid, and so safe footings upon safe footings.
The trouble with this though is that it becomes very difficult to change the structure. It can only really be changed from the top down simply because the top is resting on all that below it and if you take out parts of the middle or the bottom so much above it is reliant on that foundation of overbuilding then the whole becomes unstable.
Whereas efficient design of structures where all the parts are equally stressed to hold up the structure any attempt to enact change or modify the structure is felt by the whole thing and to remove one part is quite simple as it's job is determined by it's use and so all one has to do is remodel the use and add the required support to undergo change.
This is somewhat the same as the overbuilt structure except the quality of perception of change is modified by the rigidity of the layers of structure which inhibit the feedback through the structure and so change acts in convoluted pathways and is more easily misunderstood.
So while I can stand off to the side of the ASB as a structure and see that the idea I'm carrying is valid, that the banking giant would be in the advantage by being associated with changes in the economic environment which are yet to be easily seen and the simple fact of them being in possible association to such ideas is an advantage they would reap the rewards of without actually doing much... it is an altogether different proposition to see the benefits from within the structure of the ASB itself with all it's overbuilt preponderance.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Ideas having their time.
I went for my big drive out to the Northwest the other day and two ideas found me whilst doing so. Ideas, though, are something I've never been short of and even get to throwing lots away but this isn't about that.
The first idea was pretty straightforward and might have been a logical extension of dropping in to Adventure cycles to get some ball bearings for a particularly nice rolling pin. After leaving and being well impressed by Bruce's place and all the youngsters he has working with him and seeing his particular form of education which always involves people learning to teach themselves by always going beyond themselves and having to figure things out, as in risk, it may have been reasonably obvious to see the next stage of a transport revolution combined with a education revolution which is what the idea I got seems to be about.
Simple really, just have buses that go up and down the motorway and have stations along the way where the buses can stop. But the important part is taking out 1/2 of the buses sides and installing bike racks. I then discussed this with my brother yesterday and the logical conclusion he had was to supply bicycles on a mass scale so then we don't even have to carry them. Oh, and have fleets of little buses, and slightly bigger buses doing small circuitous routes that feed into the big buses on the motorway. Okay well and good... sorted but it ain't going to happen and heres why.
It couldn't be privatised and if it was it wouldn't work and that's our main problem these days. The divide between corporate and social welfare is a divide that doesn't need to be there but is ingrained in our society especially with the decision makers that seem only able to function from one side of that particular fence.
Because the next idea which came to me was in the form of a response to the ASB bank after having asked if I could possibly rent the space behind the Grey Lynn branch which has three garages and a courtyard. They said, the property manager, that they might need it so, basically, no one else can then.
My idea for the space was to have a workshop and gallery space set up which would revolve around doing up old things that are broken and in doing so get into that whole thing about taking care of what we already have but the trouble with such a setup is that it would have to be non-profit profit making or profiteering non-profit.
Basically what that means is that as a maker of money you do that to be able to get what you need but at the same time you are there to help others as well as enable them to save money. Its seems reasonable doesn't it and many people are already out there doing it but it's yet, as a business practice, to be accepted as a way of doing things in the charitable sphere... and it needs to be.
At the moment you either set up something that's for profit and be charitable where you can or you set up a charity but it's not allowed to make money in the sense of individuals being allowed to do so within the framework... except they do and this is where we end up seeing large charitable organisations taking on business models and employing managers and marketers to expand the donations and therefore expand the 'company'.
So underneath all this we actually have people realising that profit making and being charitable can work together and theres absolutely no reason why they shouldn't but we have yet to legitimise the practise which might even be as simple as naming it.
Crossover economics just came to me... purple money! Where the red of socialism meets the blue of capitalism.
Mens sheds are a good start
But, dare I say it, it's a bit silly ruling out half the population but in today's economic climate could they have called it 'the peoples sheds' or is that just a little too communistic? Either way the naming of it doesn't really matter unless the slogan still reads as more important than the content and if we keep moving in these types of directions then wahtever it's called doesn't matter and the sloganeers who've managed to divide and conquer the free expression of individuals regardless of their race, gender or creed will have had their days in the sun and be consigned, by their own obvious ineptitude, to the scrap heap of been there, done that, and it's fuckin' useless! Why did we ever buy into it!
The first idea was pretty straightforward and might have been a logical extension of dropping in to Adventure cycles to get some ball bearings for a particularly nice rolling pin. After leaving and being well impressed by Bruce's place and all the youngsters he has working with him and seeing his particular form of education which always involves people learning to teach themselves by always going beyond themselves and having to figure things out, as in risk, it may have been reasonably obvious to see the next stage of a transport revolution combined with a education revolution which is what the idea I got seems to be about.
Simple really, just have buses that go up and down the motorway and have stations along the way where the buses can stop. But the important part is taking out 1/2 of the buses sides and installing bike racks. I then discussed this with my brother yesterday and the logical conclusion he had was to supply bicycles on a mass scale so then we don't even have to carry them. Oh, and have fleets of little buses, and slightly bigger buses doing small circuitous routes that feed into the big buses on the motorway. Okay well and good... sorted but it ain't going to happen and heres why.
It couldn't be privatised and if it was it wouldn't work and that's our main problem these days. The divide between corporate and social welfare is a divide that doesn't need to be there but is ingrained in our society especially with the decision makers that seem only able to function from one side of that particular fence.
Because the next idea which came to me was in the form of a response to the ASB bank after having asked if I could possibly rent the space behind the Grey Lynn branch which has three garages and a courtyard. They said, the property manager, that they might need it so, basically, no one else can then.
My idea for the space was to have a workshop and gallery space set up which would revolve around doing up old things that are broken and in doing so get into that whole thing about taking care of what we already have but the trouble with such a setup is that it would have to be non-profit profit making or profiteering non-profit.
Basically what that means is that as a maker of money you do that to be able to get what you need but at the same time you are there to help others as well as enable them to save money. Its seems reasonable doesn't it and many people are already out there doing it but it's yet, as a business practice, to be accepted as a way of doing things in the charitable sphere... and it needs to be.
At the moment you either set up something that's for profit and be charitable where you can or you set up a charity but it's not allowed to make money in the sense of individuals being allowed to do so within the framework... except they do and this is where we end up seeing large charitable organisations taking on business models and employing managers and marketers to expand the donations and therefore expand the 'company'.
So underneath all this we actually have people realising that profit making and being charitable can work together and theres absolutely no reason why they shouldn't but we have yet to legitimise the practise which might even be as simple as naming it.
Crossover economics just came to me... purple money! Where the red of socialism meets the blue of capitalism.
Mens sheds are a good start
But, dare I say it, it's a bit silly ruling out half the population but in today's economic climate could they have called it 'the peoples sheds' or is that just a little too communistic? Either way the naming of it doesn't really matter unless the slogan still reads as more important than the content and if we keep moving in these types of directions then wahtever it's called doesn't matter and the sloganeers who've managed to divide and conquer the free expression of individuals regardless of their race, gender or creed will have had their days in the sun and be consigned, by their own obvious ineptitude, to the scrap heap of been there, done that, and it's fuckin' useless! Why did we ever buy into it!
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