Creative Laze in February

That's what Kevin Smith calls it-- creative laze. . . .

And that's what I've been in for the latter half of cold, blues-triggering February. There's just something about this month. You feel it will never end. One of my favorite songs, ironically enough, is Dar Williams' "February". Is it legal for me to post her lyrics here? Well, I'm crediting her. It's a great tune:

I threw your keys in the water, I looked back,
They'd frozen halfway down in the ice.
They froze up so quickly, the keys and their owners,
Even after the anger, it all turned silent, and
The everyday turned solitary,
So we came to February.

First we forgot where we'd planted those bulbs last year,
Then we forgot that we'd planted at all,
Then we forgot what plants are altogether,
and I blamed you for my freezing and forgetting and
The nights were long and cold and scary,
Can we live through February?

You know I think Christmas was a long red glare,
Shot up like a warning, we gave presents without cards,
And then the snow,
And then the snow came, we were always out shoveling,
And we'd drop to sleep exhausted,
Then we'd wake up, and its snowing.

And February was so long that it lasted into March
And found us walking a path alone together.
You stopped and pointed and you said, "That's a crocus,"
And I said, "What's a crocus?" and you said, "It's a flower,"
I tried to remember, but I said, "What's a flower?"
You said, "I still love you."

The leaves were turning as we drove to the hardware store,
My new lover made me keys to the house,
And when we got home, well we just started chopping wood,
Because you never know how next year will be,
And we'll gather all our arms can carry,
I have lost to February.



I love the bit about "I tried to remember, but I said 'what's a flower'? I've added some of her albums to the Amazon store--she's woefully under-appreciated, and her music is a lot fun, often funny, sometimes "poignant" (that's an in-joke) and always inspiring. Highly recommended.

She's captured it, here, the feeling of February-- shortest month, but it can seem endless. I've often wondered if this is related to the beginning of Pisces, that formlessness, that dissolution. I often feel there's nothing to grab hold of by Feb 15 (and it ain't the Valentine Blues--I got my stuffed toy and my chocolates).

Here, in New Brunswick, the minus 30 cold snap just seemed to slog on and on. I found myself snapping at coworkers, complaining long and pointlessly to my significant other, and, in general, cursing much more than usual. Of course, this is the sort of frustration that fuels "plans for the future" (oooh, the portentive whisper). It is a dreaming time, I guess. That's what I keep reminding myself: "It's not quite time to wake up yet". Pisces is extremely connected to the "dream time"--- and I have had a thousand and one brilliant ideas this month. I just don't have the energy or the will to execute them quite yet. March 21st can't come fast enough, but then I'll be complaining there's no time available for daydreaming.

Can't win, can't win--a negative Piscean sentiment.

But it is now 11:14pm on February 28th. It's March in England!! It will be March here in 36 minutes. And the very word inspires energy and will: "March!" The weather has been warming up a little. . . it's almost time to think about seeds. Last October's gourds are now hardened and ready to glaze. . . . .a new cycle is just about to begin. But here in the Northern Climes, there is still a little time for dreaming yet. . . and I am indulging, even as the days lengthen, even as my energy returns. . .

For more on Pisces, here is the link to my entry on the Pisces Moon.

Happy March, everyone!! It's almost time.

Contemporary Heresy: Denying Mainstream Wisdom

Frank Furedi's excellent article on contemporary heresy, and the importance of being free to deny, or contest mainstream wisdom. He raises a very interesting point--whereas "denial" was once associated with critical thought, it is now associated with "refusal to acknowledge the truth"-- which is a very important distinction. Galileo denied that the Earth was the center of the universe and look what happened... If there is anything science has proven, it is that we never know as much as we think we do-- mainstream wisdom is a useful guide, but there will always be those visionaries who are able to see further, and deeper into certain issues than anybody else. These will invariably be those who think outside the box. Sure, sometimes denial is the result of quackery, but its important we keep our minds open and really listen for insights that go beyond mainstream, "common knowledge".

To read Furedi's article, click here.

Climate Change

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their latest report this week, to much media frenzy and a flurry of debate, panic, fear-mongering, finger-pointing and anger. David Suzuki is on a cross-country tour of Canada. Executives continue to fly all over hell and creation, promoting their cities, their towns, pandering, pandering, selling, presenting, trying to promote their businesses, cities and towns as examples of sustainable economic ventures, locations or entities.

In my home province, the oil dictatorship has announced that it plans to build a second oil refinery.... the announcement of which came via a big, loud, balls-on media announcement (well, they do own every newspaper in the province)-- meanwhile, quietly, certain government officials look into tidal and wind power. Not much happens. There's just no infrastructure, and everybody wants money.....why hitch your wagon to a not-for-immediate-profit star? Not when you have the requisite 2.5 kids to feed, kids that need to look really happy and well-fed and clothed for your campaign.

In neighbouring Nova Scotia, bigger steps toward developing wind and tidal power have been taken, but then, that particular province is sicker from coal than we are from our nuclear power plant. Prince Edward Island is doing quite a lot. . . I just hope they can stay above water.

It is almost tempting to say "So what?" The damage, apparently, if not completely irreversible, will take 1000 years to reverse. Will humanity survive that long? Can it? Maybe a few lucky ones will be able to hide out underground for 10 centuries, subsisting on astronaut packets, tang, and some miraculous underground reservoir of water. Magickally free of contaminants. But what's to save even them from the inevitable earthquakes and ensuing cave-ins?

Or perhaps we can live on great, big floating cities in the North and South Poles, in order to escape the devastating heat. Or maybe it really is about time we head off into deep-space in search of other life-sustaining planets.

That's how it feels. It feels impossible. Everyday in the news it is "environmental catastrophe" and "imminent pandemic". I don't know which to be more worried about, and regardless of what I do, oil magnates will continue to do what they're doing, and executives will continue to fly and fly and fly, their jet-fuel contrails slashing the already toxic sky like murderer's knives.

Winter came abnormally, disturbingly late this year in Atlantic Canada, and I keep thinking about the summer of 2005, when the heat waves made going outside near impossible. While winter has finally arrived this season, and it is typically cold outside, the mercury even dropping to -30 last week, evidence of climate change is deeply disconcerting, particularly for coastal dwellers such as myself. How much are the waters going to rise? Scientists have predicted my hometown will be underwater in 100 years.

How is a person to process all of this, emotionally and intellectually?

Canada is taking a beating for its failure to uphold Kyoto, and the issue of the environment is shaping up to be the number one issue in our next federal election. Our new Liberal Leader, Stephane Dion, a former Environment Minister, and the owner of a dog named Kyoto is heading the charge against Stephen Harper, and taking a lot of flack for his less than stellar environmental policies in the process.

I enjoy politics as much as the next person, the theatre of it, the cloak and dagger-ism, the legacies made and lost. . . but at some point, some issues have to transcend politics. That our leader should be making the best policy decisions possible on the environment should be as much a given as that he or she should be able to read at a Grade 6 level.

This means, of course, that we need leaders and policy-makers who are not subject to greed, and therefore not apt to fold to the interests of big business in the name of donations, sponsorships and kickbacks.

Industry is the primary cause of what's happening environmentally, and carbon-credits is the closest we've come to finding a way to control their emissions.

Where does the answer lie? Surely with all of us, but recycling our bottles is just one step in the process. The people have to strong-arm not only the government, but big business, and short of all quitting our jobs and opting out of the culture of convenience and status, how can we do that?
The debate is about to ramp up, but it doesn't seem we have a lot of time to talk, so we'd better think fast and we'd better be blunt and we'd better pour our precious, human intelligence and energy into looking for real solutions, whether or not things are as bad as the prognosticators say. Because even if the situation isn't quite so dire...it soon will be. If you don't change direction, you end up where you're headed, as the old dicton goes.

So, how does civilization change course without being forced to by unimaginable catastrophe?

Ideas? Anyone?