It shocked me today to hear out of an eight year olds mouth that he didn’t believe in charity. At first I thought he was joking and made the comment that it couldn’t be true only to hear him confirm that he doesn’t believe in charity. He went on to say that he has never seen it, the only charity he has ever seen is one beggar with his mother and they didn’t give anything to him.
I was in a state of shock and then intense sadness at the truth of this world we live in. On one side there is money, more than needed fully stocked cupboards and food a plentiful. On the other side are millions of children who don’t even have safe water to drink, a slice of bread a day without butter and jam if they’re lucky. They don’t know about each other either and if the richer kids find out about the poorer ones they don’t believe it until they see it… in person.
If we were in Africa I’d take this unaware kid that has a big heart to an Orphanage, allow him to hold a baby that is so marked by the ravishes of living that it’s bones stick out. I’d get him to help dish up soup for the lunch lines at the shelter, let him watch the peoples faces change at the prospect of having a full belly. This kid’s had a good life compared to millions of other kids but he can’t comprehend it, he’s never seen it or felt it in his life.
Polar bear differences in one world, the indifference by those that have towards those that have never had a chance is ridiculous, beyond ridiculous. I don’t fault that little boy I fault society, I fault society for not creating awareness or caring. With this recession progressing as it is I don’t think it will be long before “one” beggar becomes thousands worldwide like it is everyday in Africa.
Soon the world won’t be able to ignore Africa because Africa will be the world. The world will not be able to run anymore from the truths and the harsh reality.
Those that had will find themselves without and standing right next to the man they spat at on the side of the road last week when he asked for a few coins to by some bread for his 3 barely clothed children standing on the other side waiting for him.
Those that laughed at the images of family upon family living in shacks in Africa will find themselves encased in a tent on the side of the road in a run down once upon a time happy suburbia.
For many newly homeless, those that used to make statements that the drunk lying in the street should sober up and just get a job will find themselves sharing more than one bottle with the same guy just to drown away his sorrows.
It doesn’t make me happy at all to make these statements but it is the truth and reality of the present day in this world.
It’s happening as we speak.
Sometimes this world makes me sick to my stomach.
Sometimes it makes me sit on the floor in a ball and just cry.
Compassion is free.
Caring is free.
Someone that stands up and says let me help priceless.
Let me just state that this Swine Flu is a valid and so far more than 1516 people have been confirmed to have the virus worldwide. Nope not pretty, I have been really impressed with the speed the world has taken up cautions, how easy it is now to buy Swine Flu masks on sale and all the notices to the public.
Just last week I got a notice from the school the kids go to warning all parents to take precautions and to inform authorities if we have returned from a vacation to Mexico. It went on to explain that they have emergency plans in place and according to the NHS guidelines they are doing everything they can to prevent the pandemic from reaching them.
I was impressed…
Impressed by the sense of panic they were instilling in everyone. Faster than anything else the panic virus has spread through the world. News is full of the washed hog bug and new victims are shown on TV walking into hospitals, smiling at cameras and getting shots.
Just yesterday an email was received sent by the children’s mother in an absolute state of panic, while sipping her chocolate laced latte in the States. It stated that at the first sign of flu we must take the children to the doctor and if we (the children’s father or I) get the flu we MUST wear masks at ALL times so as not to infect the kids..
Mexico has reported 822 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 29 deaths. The United States has reported 403 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases of Swine Flu with no deaths – Austria (1), Canada (165), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Colombia (1), Costa Rica (1), Denmark (1), El Salvador (2), France (4), Germany (9), Guatemala (1), Ireland (1), Israel (4), Italy (5), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (6), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (2), Spain (57), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (27).
Paranoia is spreading and I find myself contemplating stocking up my cupboards like Vicola (Swine Flu – Preparedness – Are YOU Ready?), one just never knows but sadly it seems Swine Flu masks are sold out. The good news though is that normal regular masks are in stock. Thank goodness because I’d hate to infect anyone with the flu or any other kind of passer-on-bug.
Now my biggest worry about all of this is, if this is how the public and governments react to the Swine Flu how will everyone act when they hear about HIV/AIDS? I don’t know about you but I’m really worried about what will happen if this is the panic for Swine Flu, can you just imagine the panic with HIV/AIDS?
The river of life is the journey that we take from birth to death, forever evolving, forever meandering with seasons and droughts. At birth we are put on the path with no road map or guides, we are told no warnings of what to expect or of the dangers that lie in wait for us.
As we travel along that river of life we will often find ourselves covering all sorts of terrain, we go over hills of all sizes, sometimes we find ourselves climbing over big rocks and at other times walking over pebbles.
Sometimes we pause to take in the beauty and at others we run from wasps and creatures that smell a delicious dinner. We pick up flowers and bring them to our noses inhaling their sweet scent, we get sad seeing a creature fallen before us or skeletons of past travellers along the road.
If we’re lucky we will bump into fellow travellers along the way and they guide us over the really difficult parts while at other’s there’s not another soul in sight.
Through it all though there are those precipices, the times when we pause and take a look at both sides of the river and notice that the one we are walking on is not as colourful as the one on the other side, the river is mostly dry where as towards the other side it flows with a steady pace.
The precipice is what separates you from the other side of the river. There is no bridge to quickly cross to the other side so you find yourself sitting with a decision that could change your whole journey.
Option one is that you continue walking on the same path with no guarantees that you will find that desired bridge. The word “Maybe” keeps one foot in front of the other as you walk along the barren land.
Option two is that you cross the rocky danger infested river bed that has demonic creatures and monsters from the past, obstacles and challenges that you must face in order to get to the other brighter side. The river could claim your life, you could break a few bones, old wounds will scratch open and bleed.
We all swing between these two options in all instances we come across in life. The decision to cross the river might be sometimes easier than others, sometimes it can be so scary that we opt to walk a little longer on the drought barren path building up courage to take the first step over the edge.
Ultimately we have to cross to the other side or we allow our souls to become barren and dry, colourless and dead. All change is necessary, no matter how long we take, no matter how far we try to run from it.
Cross the river and face the demons that lurk, bleed through old wounds and keep going over the obstacles, slay the monsters and get to the other side… For once on the other side you emerge stronger, your spirit is lifted and you once again can smell the true sweet scent from the flowers, the scent of life you had forgotten existed.
Filling out a application for an expo in LA (long story that I shan’t bore you with) I had to select my age range. Normally its an automatic process where by I just blindly select 25-29 and move on to the next question. WHOA… a pause… and the realisation dawns… I aint 25-29 anymore, I’m an official big 30 and was forced to select 29-35.
Thing is I don’t feel all that old and I know a lot of people when they look at my life they will say well what have I gained for all of my 30 years. The standard socialistic protocol is that you have at least got a family, married, a secure cash cow in the form of a job and settled. Hah!
So I sat here for many a moments quickly reviewing my life and I had to laugh, convention’s peanuts can go fry, convention seems to be the one thing I avoid like the royal plague!
In all of my 30 years I have never owned a home and I’m not sad about that either, it’s kept me flexible and movable, had less trauma leaving a few people because of it as well.
I started out in the IT industry as a Technician, newly qualified and raring to go in a male orientated world. Within two months I got bumped up to Quality Control over all digital CCTV systems leaving the building (think the virgo in me was more evident) as well as Support, Orders, etc.
I left 18 months later to venture overseas and landed up in Direct Marketing and Public Relations. I worked on some big accounts for a government department here in Britain, dealt with graphic design and marketing agencies who were working for us and learnt all I could. In the end because of the visa I was on I moved on to another company and found myself in their Public Relations department working on the media and news front. It was fun and I found that I liked the energy more than the machinery in the workshops of IT.
Moved back home because of that all important visa thing. Please remind me to speak to God when next I visit with regards to the wrong country of birth placement. Anyways moving along, I started at an automotive engineering company in their human resource department. After the first month the HR Manager told me that she wants to keep me and made me permanent, I learnt the trade once more and soon I got the hang of it – Recruitment and contracting.
Learnt the trade over five years to the point that I became a specialist with Engineering recruitment and placement, I knew the ins and outs, dealt with clients, huge cash cow projects, you get the point.
I got head hunted towards the end of my 5 years by a company in England, really amazing one who had set up clients for me in the line of McLaren F1 and MG… I was stoked. Fell through and then got a job as the co-manager of a big financial recruitment agency in Luxembourg. The company died a financial death at the start of the recession.
The rest is history. My last working day in an office was 16 October 2007, since then my life has not been my own and I have gone with the flow because there was no other choice in the matter. No matter how hard I tried, destiny and that Puppet Master had other plans for me.
I have worked in about 5 industries, had more than 20 job titles most of which were 5 at a time for each company. If you had asked me a year ago I would never have dreamt that I would be doing what I am doing now, I would’ve told you that I would be in an office somewhere working my arse off, earning a really good salary and possibly heading towards the board room, which was my goal.
Now, although my future is uncertain as always, I am happier than happy. I am a co-owner of a up and coming company, looking after two incredible kids whom I love to bits and free. I don’t sit in an office every day dealing with politics or corporate red tape, I can take my lunch break at 10am if I so choose and work through the night if that is what is required. I am doing what I love, design and kids, but I would never have known had I not risked everything, seriously everything including my retirement.
So I sat here and reviewed, looking over it all and seeing the big picture. Some people have told me that I am mad, some have told me that I have gained nothing from all my hard work and that I have lowered myself, there is a long list of all the onions that I have received. I don’t care a dang (that conventional thing again).
So many people go to work each day and slave away to take home bread and butter for themselves and their families, they work so hard to get to the top, own the fancy car and the big house, to wear Prada and Calven Klein, put their kids in the good schools and have spoilings… but what have they really gained apart from materialistic wealth? Have they gained true happiness and contentment through all of it? Or do they go home so exhausted and grumpy that they can’t bear to have true fun both in their own skins and with others?
They will wake up when they hit retirement and sit and review their lives with a smile on their face but sadness in their hearts for the lost moments of being who they truly are, the loss of time with their families, with themselves, their dreams and their passions.
The money and security you get from it is great but what I have gained is my sanity, my sanity is indeed found and after all that I have gone through I have realised that is one of the most valuable possessions known to mankind.
I aint selling it neither!
While writing this post the song, Angel by Sarah McLachlan, came on and my soul sang and I smiled for it kept on replacing the word “angel” with “destiny”
Spend all your time waiting
for that second chance
for a break that would make it okay
there’s always some reason
to feel not good enough
and it’s hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
oh a beautiful release
memory seeps from my veins
let me be empty
oh and weightless and maybe
I’ll find some peace tonight
In the arms of destiny
fly away from here
from this dark cold hotel room
and the endlessness that you fear
you are pulled from the wreckage
of your silent reverie
you’re in the arms of destiny
may you find some comfort here
So tired of the straight line
and everywhere you turn
there’s vultures and thieves at your back
the storm keeps on twisting
you keep on building the lies
that you make up for all that you lack
it don’t make no difference
escaping one last time
it’s easier to believe
in this sweet madness oh
this glorious sadness that brings me to my knees
In the arms of destiny
fly away from here
from this dark cold hotel room
and the endlessness that you fear
you are pulled from the wreckage
of your silent reverie
you’re in the arms of destiny
may you find some comfort here
you’re in the arms of destiny
may you find some comfort here
Oh the rhymes you can get just from that word alone… admit it and say it out loud… go on dare ya!
Life suckers that gain glee from finding a fresh piece of juicy meat to gnaw their mangy blunt teeth on. You know the type, the ones that latch on and suck you dry of all you have replacing your positivity with negativity, inch by inch you become a prune of what you used to be.
Wrinkles covering our faces are nothing like the ones inside, being sucked dry from inside out leaves deeper grooves than could ever be seen upon your external skin and the damage far deeper. Depending on how long the sucker has been leeached onto you, your body will start immitating the state of your soul. Your walk will change and become sluggish, your feet not quite lifting off the street as you walk, your head is heavier and leans more forward than straight upwards, instead of facing the world your eyes fall to the fall.
Life suckers are killers, there is no pretty way of putting it and point blank they don’t deserve the meat they are sucking on, you.
Symptoms of the Life Sucker virus:
Guilt trips for simple things, this may include things such as not wanting to do something that the other wants to do in the form of “Fine, sure, I’ll go alone” or “Well I won’t eat alone so I’ll just skip”. The list for this one is long and varied, take your pick and add it to the list.
You discuss something exciting, either an idea or something you want to do, with them and they turn around and give you a negative either about why you can’t do it or point blank why it won’t work without stopping to hear you out.
They criticize you in anything you do, nothing that you do seems to meet the grade even though they miss the boat more often than not
You greet them with happiness and they respond with negatives either about you or themselves
They expect you to fix their lives instantly and when you do something to help them they turn round and spit in your face
You listen to them for hours and they ask your advice only to turn round and do the opposite or better yet ignore everything only to come back to you soon after to talk about it all over again.
They treat you well to your face and then when you turn your back you find that others come to you telling you things about yourself you didn’t even know
Place more here…
The list is long, perhaps you recognise a life sucker in your life and can think of more examples. If you’re willing to share lets hear them, the more comprehensive list of symptoms we can get the better equipped we will all be in extracting this killer virus, sometimes hidden by smiles, from our lives once and for all.
The thing is, once you realise you have a life sucker in your life extracting those mangy blunt teeth is not as easy as appearances belie. Sometimes those teeth belong to family members, life long friends or even people we can’t easily remove from our lives such
as work colleagues and the likes there of.
The only cure is the realisation of what they are, once you’ve come to this realisation that they are Life Suckers you will start noticing all the things that they do to you, the things that drain you of your spirit, your energy, positivity and happiness. Once you start noticing all the little things they slowly start building up to the point that you have enough resistance to their venom and become strong enough to say “Enough is enough” or better yet “I am worth more than this, I want my energy and life force back, fuck off”
Yeah I swore, no pretty way of saying it like I said. Ok so perhaps not in those exact words but you get the point, perhaps you can soften it up by telling them to go find someone else to suck dry because you’re done or tell them that they need to find happiness within themselves because living and laughing for two doesn’t quite work.
Killers these Life Suckers are, don’t let them suck you dry because one day you’ll wake up and you will be the very thing that sucked you dry.
Scary shit
Swore again but how else do you say it with the same emphasis?
It shocked me today to hear out of an eight year olds mouth that he didn’t believe in charity. At first I thought he was joking and made the comment that it couldn’t be true only to hear him confirm that he doesn’t believe in charity. He went on to say that he has never seen it, the only charity he has ever seen is one beggar with his mother and they didn’t give anything to him.
I was in a state of shock and then intense sadness at the truth of this world we live in. On one side there is money, more than needed fully stocked cupboards and food a plentiful. On the other side are millions of children who don’t even have safe water to drink, a slice of bread a day without butter and jam if they’re lucky. They don’t know about each other either and if the richer kids find out about the poorer ones they don’t believe it until they see it… in person.
