HOW TO FANTASIZE

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HOW TO FANTASIZE

Fantasy is an unusual word. It suggests the fictitious. After all, the most crazy stories are known as fantasy – and I’m not just speaking of ‘swords and sorcery’. Many people seem to live in a fantasy world.
We’re deeply suspicious of them. They are not quite ‘all there’ – or they are habitual liars. Yet all culture is actually geared to fantasy. After all, isn’t art a representation of how an artist’s mind sees something, rather than actual reality itself?

Some would say religions are based on fantasy.

I think this may be true, but this is not a slur on the religionist. Rather, it is honest, accepting that everything in life has a touch of fantasy to it.
The sociologist, Baudrillard, understood this when he devised his concept of ‘infotainment’. Based on modern media, images are so mixed up that we cannot know what is fact and what is fiction.

In one sense, this is the ultimate postmodern nightmare.

But I think ‘reality’ has always been like this. We can understand it through semiotics, or the science of ‘signs’.
A typical sign is a cloud. Depending on its consistency, colour, etc, it convinces us of what the coming weather will be like. In other words, we are convinced of a reality before it actually becomes reality.
Unfortunately, though, signs can lie. Take a can of soup. If hungry, the picture itself can make us salivate. Yet, it could be a lie. It could be a can of worms. The ‘sign’ produced a fantasy so strong that it affected us physiologically as well as psychologically.
Beware of the word, ‘fantasy’. It cons you into thinking it doesn’t apply to you.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TELEPHONE

The telephone rings, it’s always there,
Don’t answer! If you dare;
When just on a desk, or maybe a table,
life wasn’t so bad, ‘cos we were able,
to live a life relatively free,
of constant messages from all to thee;
But come the cell phone, it’s all change,
always with us, as if a chain;
On the train, in the theatre, or even the park,
that damned ring tone, it does hark,
of contact to others all the time,
and if not ours, then other ring tones rhyme,
constantly around us, forever a hell,
giving us no time on which to dwell,
on life without that damned satanic phone,
yet if never a call to us does hone,
we wish someone would ring, ‘cos
we’re all alone

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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FRIDAY’S FEAST – These are the questions

Appetizer: When someone smiles at you, do you smile back?

Now be careful. This is a dangerous question. There is an automatic suspicion that people who smile at strangers are somehow – well, you know. And even if they’re not, what motive do they have?
Do they want something? What type of smile is it? Have they noticed something about your dress? Have you forgotten to zip up your trousers? Has a bird pooped on your shoulder?
So many possibilities. But yes, usually when someone smiles at me, I smile back. And they wonder, am I all there? Has a bird …

Soup: Describe the flooring in your home. Do you have carpet, hardwood, vinyl, a mix?

Carpets mainly. Which reminds me, we need new. This meme is costing me!

Salad: Write a sentence with only 5 words, but all of the words have to start with the first letter of your first name.

All appliances are always available. (Hey, Zelda, you’ve got no chance!)

Main Course: Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by adoption?

This seems a simple yes/no answer, but it isn’t. If we do know someone, then the answer is yes. But if we don’t, can we answer no? I don’t think we can. And I think this because we cannot be sure.
Maybe we do, but the subject has never come up. Maybe we do, but they don’t know it themselves. Maybe we do, but they hide the fact.
We often adopt an attitude that we know the world, and our friends within it. But a question such as this should make us think. Maybe we should adopt a different attitude to what we think we know, and what we don’t.

Dessert: Name 2 blue things.

Well, I was going to say sea and sky. But they’re not. If we take the sky, it is actually colourless. What we see as ‘blue’ is the effect of light upon the sky. Infact, when you think about it, what is blue?
As a colour it’s no more than a frequency of light. Hence, it doesn’t really exist at all. Infact, many things we attribute blue to are not colours either. Think ‘cold’ or ‘sadness’.
So blue may not be a colour, but an attitude. So can I name two things that are REALLY blue? I can definitely name one.
Movies.

© Anthony North, May 2008

A FANTASTIC DREAM

Dreams are crazy, all full of fantasy,
yet they’re symbols of real life, as you’ll see;
My dream last night was just such a one,
there, in my mind, and as quickly gone;
A plastic bottle from which to drink,
a symbol of mind, full of things to think;
A hockey puck made a quick appearance,
reminders of sport, and my adherence;
wrapped in a dirty handkerchief? This I knew,
recalling that I’d recently had flu;
A crumpled note left me puzzled for a while,
but it was my last poem, not in my style;
The unhinged door was easiest to explain,
’twas my life, all open, ‘cos I’m not vain;
So dreams may be full of much fantasy,
but it’s still related to my life, you see;
A dream can be explained; is not full of malice,
You just fall down the rabbit hole
and meet Alice

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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TO BE FAITHFUL - Fiction

I never really understood what faithful meant until I wasn’t. All those years of marriage, and never once did I think of being unfaithful. We were as one, and that was that. Until the loneliness crept in – a deep, melancholy loneliness ….
I put up with it for a couple of years, but I suppose the time comes when you can take it no more – when you just need something else in your life.
I met her at one of the functions I have to attend as part of my job. I wouldn’t say I ‘went’ to them, as such. More I just ‘existed’ in them, as if I wasn’t really a part of it, enjoying myself, or anything like that.
Life becomes this way, with such loneliness. But then I saw her, and something just clicked between us, as if it was meant to be.
We dated.

Good grief! We dated. As if I was a teenager!

The meals were enjoyable. And it was inevitable that one thing would lead to another, and eventually I found myself in her home, kissing, making love, discovering a life without loneliness once more.
It was during this first love making that I suddenly looked up to see my wife stood by us.
I jumped, shocked! And as my lover turned to look at her, the full reality of what I’d done struck home.
My wife seemed incensed. It was almost in slow motion as she bent down, her hands encompassing my lover’s neck, and squeezing the life out of her …
I find it hard to recall the event, and even harder to explain it. Indeed, that’s why I’m here, in prison, facing a life sentence for murder.
Well, it was either that or the psychiatric hospital. You see, my wife died two years ago.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TT #10 - HOW TO BE GROSS

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my Thursday Thirteen #10. Today I’ve decided to go with the suggested theme of ‘gross’. Now, that’s a word that can have many connotations, so I hope I offer a little fun, and some things to think about.
I think the idea of a theme is a good addition to Thursday Thirteen – not that I’ll always use it. But sometimes it just fires the imagination in the right way. But certainly it works best when it’s just a word, like this week – I mean, gross.

COUNTDOWN

13. Picking your nose, flatulence, scratching bits you shouldn’t be able to reach. There are so many possibilities here. But get the above over with, please, and then concentrate.

12. If you do so, then you are engrossed. This can be a good way to be. This means you are fully occupied, and I’ve been a success as a writer/blogger. So come on, don’t fail me!

11. You can become too engrossed – not here, you understand – and if you do, you become obsessed, and obsessions can take over your life. This is bad. It leads to fanaticism, and in my book, all fanatics are wrong. They take ideas with a touch of commonsense, and make them ridiculous – and often dangerous.
I have a mantra which says: ‘I’m fanatical about moderation.’ Yes, I know, it’s a contradiction, but the subject engrosses me.

10. A Gross is, of course, a dozen dozen. Yet, this is Thursday THIRTEEN, and thirteen is a Baker’s Dozen. This is supposed to come from Medieval English bakers who often gave one extra. Generous people, the English. I’m one. Except Yorkshiremen. They’re said to be stingy. Oh dear! I’m one of those, too.
Better, though, not to have a Baker’s Dozen dozen. That would be a gross gross.

9. Gross can mean overfed. This is often a touchy subject. Yes, I know some people do it for comfort, others because of genetic disposition. But I’m not talking about you. I’ll concentrate on the greedy. And I won’t dwell on it.
But often, being overfed comes from indulgence. To indulge yourself you have to have a certain amount of wealth. This leads to excess in all things, many of them harmful. Have you ever noticed how increased wealth leads to increased masochism? Aren’t we happy with wealth?

8. Gross can mean coarse. This is language or actions that people can find vulgar. This seems to be growing, today. It is particularly prevalent amongst celebrities. Why do they do it?
Well, we live in a media age, where image is all-important. But what happens when ‘image’ becomes a science, and all celebrities jump on the bandwagon? Easy. They make their image more and more extreme – and more and more coarse.
Which tells us what ‘coarse’ is. Attention seeking.

7. Gross can mean indecent. This often has a sexual connotation. And it is increasingly obvious that sex is on the rise today. Sex is everywhere, indecency all around us. Now, I’m not a killjoy. I like sex. But it has a place.
Sex is best behind closed doors. Sexy is clothing and action that ‘suggests’ what’s beneath, letting the imagination reign free. Full frontals take that away, and reduce sex to an animal state. And not only this, it makes it ‘available’ on demand.
Sex has become a commodity. Stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap!

6. Gross is what you have before overheads. This can be a metaphor for ‘you’. You are, as a person, your full self. This is the ‘gross’ of you. But life can be a bitch, and constantly it takes bits away.
What is left is the ‘net’ of you, depleted - a shadow of your former self. Yet maybe we should think of our life’s path as an account in itself. And in doing so, we can maybe work out how to balance the books.
We can do this because life’s experience not only depletes you, but teaches you important lessons about life. Hence, we can learn from these experiences, refreshing the account with growing wisdom, and balancing the books.

5. Gross can mean gross profit. Nothing explains the modern world more than this. Modern super capitalism is all about profit. I’m not anti-capitalist by any means, but remember what I said, above, about obsessions? Well super capitalism is an obsession.
When you have a society run by tycoons who’ve forgotten the importance of ‘service’, and search out profit alone, you end up with a cold, calculating society that simply does not know itself, other than its choice to buy. This is perhaps the most repugnant use of the word ‘gross’ we can have.

4. This post may be getting a bit gross in itself. Yet I’ll leave it up to you to decide what I mean by ‘gross’ here. For the last three in this week’s post I thought I’d be a little different. Throughout my blog you’ll find lots of poetry and flash fiction. So I thought I’d end with a bit of – you’ve guessed it – poetry and flash fiction.

© Anthony North, May 2008

ENGROSSED

What is this beauty I behold?
Within my mind it does enfold,
its grace and elegance for me to see,
as if an answer to a plea;
Such posture, grace, and charm are you,
your peers are so, so very few,
a delight, an absolutely perfect scene,
sometimes I think it even obscene,
as every morning,
in the mirror
I preen

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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WITNESS TO A GROSS EVENT - Fiction

Oh, how I wish I’d never taken the short cut home that night. If only I’d stayed with the road – not gone down the path in the dark. But wishes are no use after the event.
How do I describe what I saw? How CAN words be enough?
She was dead, that was plain to see. And how she must have suffered, as the monster attacked her, and then did that …
I don’t remember contacting the police, but they eventually arrived to find me almost comatose by the body. Of course, I was no good as a witness – I’d not really seen anything. At least, not then.

Later, it was a different matter.

How do you sleep once you’ve seen images like that? How can you stop the nightmares?
Many a night I woke up in a cold sweat, screaming, reliving how it must have been for her. And even when awake the images would not disappear.
I suppose, eventually, you get used to them, and they become part of you. But it was a changed me, that was for sure; no longer shrouded by innocence, but in a way, gross, as those images were gross.
They say such an experience affects you for life, and I think that is true, slowly turning your mind, your very being, until the night I deviated from the road. Walked down a path. Waited.
I can stop myself.
I CAN!!

© Anthony North, May 2008

TAKE AWAY TAKE OVER

The slugs they came, crawling along,
six foot tall and twenty feet long,
run, run, run, try to escape,
from their manic, gross, gross gape,
chomp, chomp, chomp, they eat all in sight,
giving us all a damned big fright;
This nightmare ain’t so far in the future,
born from us, and our modern culture,
they say you become just what you eat,
and you ate them,
didn’t you?
Your hamburger treat

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

FUTURE CO

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FUTURE CO

The chief executive sat at his desk. The window, to his side, was huge. It needed to be in order to see the whole panorama of his creation. It was one large corporation indeed.
They had advised him to be cautious before he began the project. After all, he was taking capitalism to a whole new dimension. Yet, if only he’d been more aware of the outcome, maybe he would have thought twice before proceeding. But when has such fear stopped the human need to advance?

To advance. Is that what had happened?

Efficiency was the key. A society is best if full efficiency is achieved. If everything runs like clockwork, and everyone operates to their maximum ability, and time is used to perfection, with just enough time to sleep, just enough time to eat, just enough time to work, and just enough time to buy.
Well, he’d achieved maximum efficiency, that was for sure.
And now, as the chief executive sat at his desk, looking down on Earth, he offered one last smile before raising the gun to his head and firing.
It was the last act of inefficiency before the zombies came in, and efficiently cleaned him away.

© Anthony North, May 2008

MAYBE MAN

The maybe man, he’s a scream,
going there, in his dream;
Cautious is, his way to be,
going nowhere, like a tree;
All through life, he thinks it out,
swimming nowhere, like a trout;
A human being, he certainly is,
but his existence, has no fizz;
sometimes you’ve just, got to say,
get on with life, its full array,
or in your head, or in your bed,
you’ll stay, until
you’re very dead

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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CAUTIOUSLY GOES

There are two ways to go through life – throw yourself into it, or be cautious. Yet to me, both stances are erroneous. To go ahead with something without thought usually ends in disaster.
We have a mind for a good reason. It is there to work out odds and consequences of our actions. And we are well aware of the thoughtless individual, the centre of a whirlpool of chaos and tragedy.
Alternatively, caution can be counter-productive, too. So often we say ‘maybe’ – should we do it this way, or that? What will be the outcome of this? And before you realize what’s happened, nothing has, and life has passed you by.
Problems no matter which way we go. So rather, to be fully human we should search out the happy medium. Think things through, but not too much. Jump into things, but giving a thought to others and yourself.
If anyone ever works out how to do it, please let me know.

© Anthony North, May 2008

COINCIDENCE AND THE THOUGHT PATH

We’ve all heard of fate, but what is it? To some it is a force in the universe that influences you, driving you towards a life preordained. Whilst to others, it is a superstition, a fallacy – something that doesn’t exist.
I don’t like the former – it suggests that you have no free will, and without this, what is the point of choice? But on saying this, I don’t like the latter either. It is too reductionist, ignoring the experiences of many of us.

Is there a coming together of the two extremes?

Some people believe that luck has a lot to do with it. Some people are just born lucky, and their life seems to be one success after another.
Research into luck has provided a clue. Those who are lucky tend to be good at calculating odds. In such a way, they can unconsciously assess a situation as it arises, and usually take the right decision.

This gives a clue to those who are unlucky.

In calculating odds correctly, the person learns optimism, and this seems to go into the world ahead of you – whilst the unlucky seem to project pessimism onto everything – a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Carl Jung would point out synchronicity. Here, coincidences seem to happen that seem to have meaning above the coincidence itself. It is almost as if the person has made the coincidence happen.

Is this possible?

Can the mind have a direct affect on the events of the world? Events that, for all intents and purposes, are out of your control? One possibility is to look at another attribute in the lucky.
They are not ‘lucky’ at all. Rather, they have a form of selective attention. They simply remember the good times more than the bad; whilst the unlucky tend to remember the bad times more than the good.

This is simple psychology.

But I don’t think psychology is ever simple. At present the mind is thought to be personal to the individual. I think it is much more interactive than that.
I work with what I call psycho-sociology. Basically, what happens in the personal mind is simply a reflection of a wider world, and vice versa. Hence, if selective attention affects the person, it also affects the world at large.

Let us change it to ‘selective observation’.

The lucky person only sees in the world those things that are useful to his success. Hence, he convinces himself that the world is acting in his interest.
This is, of course, a belief. But to what extent can a belief become a reality? If we take religion, a belief in a God-form leads to action that changes the world in such a way that the world is how it would be if the God-form was real.
And the same can happen with the person, I’m sure. An absolute belief in his destiny creates only those observations that confirm his reality. And as he goes through life, his actions make that ‘reality’ real.
The world has been ‘tuned’ to his mind. And this simple mind-state means coincidences will happen more and more, as it directs his life to the correct choices he needs to make. Mind and world have become one.

© Anthony North, May 2008

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HOW NOT TO WRITE #1

If you want MANIC MONDAY, scroll down

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YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

WOODEN

We live our lives, but is it true,
the way we behave, me and you?
Do we have the choices to make,
or is it just one big fake?
We live in a world of consumer choice,
but images of this and that, they foist
upon our minds to get us to buy,
this and that, you can’t deny;
Things are made for ever and ever,
risking nature’s splendid endeavour;
providing for our every need,
or is it just our insatiable greed?
But have you noticed we’ve become all the same,
society and people becoming lame,
with wooden lives and wooden hopes,
Oh, we really have become dopes,
with wooden needs that affect our health,
and wooden ambition grounded in wealth,
as we’re all left on, the wooden shelf

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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A TRANSFORMING PEN

Variations of just four letters make up the entire genetic code of DNA. Everything that can be in terms of biology – the total diversity of life – is captured in so few little letters. But life is more than DNA. It is also mind.
And mind is expressed best through variations of the letters in the alphabet. In the English alphabet, that is 26. So just imagine how much greater the variety there is at the writer’s fingertips?
From pen to keypad, writers transform what is in the mind, to paper or screen. A unique alchemy occurs, making thoughts real. But the writing process does not end there.

No, it is far more magnificent.

Looking at the history of the world, whenever a major transformation occurs, you can usually find a book. From the Bible, to Marx’s Das Kapital, to Newton’s Principia, transformation is the result of literary endeavour, whether good or bad.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Nothing is more true. And as writers, we belong to the most noble of crafts. So as we write, we should remember this, and be happy in our endeavour. For we deal with the true code of life.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TRANSFORMATION

You think it through, you write it out,
a majestic craft, there is no doubt;
a person will read, planting a seed
of change that will never recede;
His actions are imbued by your word,
coming first, and never second or third;
Your thoughts are out in society,
made real, made true, growing just like a tree;
the thought branches out, noble and great,
defining other people’s fate,
as through your mind, your pen, your quill,
you transmit, to all, your will,
as your noble craft,
you do fulfil

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS

To be happy is the goal of us all. But is this a viable state? Indeed, is it really what being human is about? Or does the state of happiness just allow us to be complacent about things?
Looking to human history it seems clear to me that things only change when people are frustrated. This is, of course, a state of unhappiness, and drives change. Hence, you could say that the process of social evolution requires us not to be happy.

This seems a depressing picture, indeed.

However, it need not be. Existence is not only about our advancement. It is also about our contentment. And whilst this is counter to things in terms of society and history, it is certainly achieveable in love.
Love seems to provide stability in happiness. It is nurturing, and as long as complacency doesn’t enter the picture, it is the engine of family life, a definite counter-balance to the ravages of society and history. So this thing called happiness seems to be a multi-faceted thing.
Indeed, I think we can even be happy with our frustrations. I’ve written before that it is often a journey in life that is more important than its conclusion. For once complete, what then?
We are, as a species, curious about everything. We have a desire to know, and in wanting to know, we are driven on, thus confirming social evolution, and being happy with our frustrations.

© Anthony North, May 2008

THE FAR SPACE EXPERIENCE

Blast off! Gravity building! Face contorting!

It felt like death,
as we broke out of the world and floated,
high above the planet.
I looked down, watching the world from up high,
as if disconnected, as if some other being,
as if I would never see this planet again.

Power on! Engines engaged!
5
4
3
2
1

The hyper drive rocketed us through …
… what?
Was it space? Not as we know it.
Was it existence? Am I here to tell?
They said it was a wormhole, the theorists,
but to me it was like a tunnel, pressing upon me,
dark as dark can be,
as if I was dead

And slowly, amazingly, omnipresently, the light.
Did it question why I was here?
Did it make me look back upon my life?
Did it decide if I could go on or not?
Or was it me?

Stillness! Brightness! Omniscience!

It was a sun, or it was a particle,
or maytbe a super-string;
or maybe it was nothing at all;
or maybe it was God Himself,
but I had had my far space experience,
and it beckoned me on, to existence anew,
safe in the knowledge that I’d exist forever,
but never, again, visit the ones I love,
lest they come this way, too

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

MM - HOW TO STAY FRESH

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HOW TO STAY FRESH

Wash, for starters.
After all, you’re not fresh if you’re smelly. And don’t forget all those private bits – protect against fungi – especially between the …
… and let’s have a bit of anti-perspirant here, please. You’re the only one who loves your body odour. And how about squeezing those zits. No! Don’t aim.
And could your clothes do with a …
… disinfection? And what do you mean you don’t iron?

Well, that’s one way to stay fresh.

But there’s also another. Life so easily becomes boring, routine. And whilst there’s a lot going for a bit of routine in our lives, it can go too far.
Routine is good to provide stability. It’s a form of magic, especially your routine in a morning. It places the mind in equilibrium with the world, and things fall into place, proved by the fact that, if your routine is disturbed, your day usually ends in disaster.
But keep routine where it belongs. As for the rest of your life, try something new every day. It only has to be a little thing – nothing special. Just something to provide a fresh experience.
This gives you a fresh start every day, and you feel fulfilled because of it. It makes you feel alive, and able to grab life by the horns. It says, above all else, I exist!
After you’ve washed, of course.

© Anthony North, May 2008

REFRESH

Pictures of life on my computer exist,
full of experience that does persist;
sometimes it’s good, sometimes bad,
yet living, it is certainly had;
But what, if like the computer screen,
we could alter what has been?
Click ‘refresh’ and change it all,
stopping those things that make us fall?
What kind of witchcraft this would be,
refreshing life for you and me,
existing as we want to be,
and I would then,
be a deity

Anthony North, May 2008

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FRESH IDENTITY - Fiction

If only I’d known. If only I’d realized the errors of my ways. But we rarely do so before taking the plunge.
I suppose you could call me a fraudster. Computer banking and electronic records were my thing. Ah, the delights it offered for identity fraud. And once you’ve got your mark, you can create a whole fresh identity for yourself. And if you’re really lucky, finding a no hoper, with a life that went almost unrecognized, and found him dead, apparently having committed suicide, and no one knows …
Well, I managed to step into his shadow perfectly – after burying his body, of course.

Such a non-entity he had been.

No one ever recognized him, he had never been in debt, he had no family to become suspicious, and soon my fresh identity was building a new life for itself.
So you can imagine the shock when, six months into my fresh identity, armed police burst into my house, spread-eagled me on the floor, and rushed me in for questioning.
A little extreme, you may think, for simple identity fraud. Well, let this be a warning to all who think they can get away with it in the end. There is always a catch.
And what was mine?
Well, I have a lifetime in prison to ponder it – how total and absolute my success that no one would believe I wasn’t who I had claimed to be. And why, oh why, did I have to pick a murderer on the run?

© Anthony North, May 2008

THE ALIEN IN THE BOOK

You’re driving along and suddenly you’re abducted by aliens. It goes like this. You are ‘captured’ by a bright light. Your car experiences technical problems. Suddenly you find yourself on a table in an alien spacecraft.
Small, blubbery, bug eyes Greys are staring at you. Soon, they begin experimenting on your body. Finally, Zap! – and you’re back in your car, driving. But you have lost time, and you are many miles from your last recollection.

You may not realize what’s happened at first.

You just have strange dreams over the coming weeks. Finally, the whole experience is recounted during hypnosis. But is the alien abduction scenario a real event, or something else? How do we begin to understand the phenomenon?
To some, it IS a real event, to the point that they claim to have been impregnated, and over the following months, further abductions will occur until the point arrives that a human hybrid is removed.

Is this a space age interpretation of the phantom pregnancy?

No doubt many will think not. It is all just too real. But the reality is, such pregnancies are quite common, usually formed from a specific psychological event.
So maybe if we can provide a possibility for the initial abduction, the psychodrama that can follow is explained. And whilst the actual prompter for such an event may be specific to the person or circumstance, elements of the alien abduction may be understandable.

The similarity of the event could well be cultural.

Put simply, the idea of the alien abduction is so ingrained in our psyche today that, should we find ourselves driving on a strange road and we are tired, we can become fantasy-prone and conducive to such cultural input.
This said, the fact that abductees lose time and end up having covered ground is intriguing. Is there a known phenomenon that could account for this? In a much more innocuous way, there is.

You’re reading a book.

Suddenly your mind wanders. Eventually, your attention returns to the words, but wait a minute! You’ve continued to read and have to go back to where your mind wandered – AND, time has passed.
Is this a mind mechanism whereby a person could succumb to cultural input, fantasise an abduction event, and simply continue driving whilst it’s going on? Colin Wilson often writes about the ‘robot’ who often takes over his standard tasks.

I’m doing it myself as I’m sat here typing.

My mind is fantasizing on what I’m going to write. The fingers are operating on remote control. Physiology even offers the possibility of the left and right brain.
The one is the rationalist, the other the fantasist. And it seems they can often function independently. Of course, I’m not automatically saying, here, that the alien abduction is a purely personal, psychological fantasy.
For instance, on what level could aliens exist? If we have, say, a universal consciousness, do we continue to live in the ‘real’ world as contact is made within the mind?
We are a long way from an understanding of the alien abduction. But the reality of the duality and independence of body and mind does, in my view, give us a strong indicator of the road to further understanding.

© Anthony North, May 2008

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HOW TO LOVE FAMILY

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HOW TO LOVE FAMILY

Family. What are we to make of it? It’s a concept that’s been around as long as history, but today it seems to be under threat like never before. And sometimes, the criticism is deserved.
There is much abuse within families. A family can be secretive, manipulative, monstrous. Once, an extended family could help here – a criticism or protection from on the fringe. But today, it is usually the State that steps in when required.

This has given family a bad image.

After all, we hear about the failures more than the successes. And even the nature of family has changed. No longer is it a standard unit of mother, father, children. The single family, and same sex parents, are on the rise.
Families interlink with other families today. This is due to the rise in divorce, with children often having multiple parents. But why has the family seemed to suffer and change so much in modern times?

One answer is technology.

The television killed off conversation, whilst the car allowed families to spread out. With immediacy gone, the importance was bound to decline.
Media has also played its part. By highlighting problems within family, cultural consciousness edged away from the concept. This allowed the rise of political correctness, knocking the family at every stage.

This is a worrying problem.

This is so because family always had a vital function in society. It provided a sense of allegiance to something other than the State. With that allegiance gone, the State encroaches into all our personal lives.
So, above nurture, love and togetherness, the family was essential to our freedoms, no matter what we thought of it. So maybe it is time to rebirth the importance of family. And a good way to do so is to remember this:
Family was always idealized as a perfect unit. This is nonsense. There is no such thing as perfection. Mothers, fathers, children – all are flawed, because we’re human. But we haven’t, yet, learnt to forgive the concept for not being what it never could have been.
The best we can hope of any family member is that they’ll try their best. And be honest: can you claim more than this?

© Anthony North, May 2008

A PECULIAR FAMILY INDEED

They sat on the bank, the river flowed by,
Their child by their side, having said: ‘Oh, my!’
He was called Toverich, an industrious chap,
she was Gravelines, pondering an embattled mishap;
They didn’t need an abacus to work out the odds,
of a child like this, come from the gods;
A pigeon it was, born from their habits,
and a miracle indeed,
‘cos they were two rabbits

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

FEROCIOUS

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FEROCIOUS

She walked up and down the room, treading the carpet. She walked fast, angrily, ferociously.
‘And you just couldn’t resist, could you?’ She never awaited an answer. ‘God, I knew you were unhappy, I knew we had problems, but this?’
Her face was contorted, her good looks turning to something macabre, insane and – yes – so very defiant. ‘I should have guessed.’ An admonishment. ‘All the signs were there.’ A sense of regret – or was it stupidity for not realizing?

Her husband just sat there, staring into space.

‘I gave you everything,’ she continued, her pace quickening, as if there was no time to get to where she wasn’t going.
Maybe that was why, she thought, suddenly. I’m pacing up and down, trying to work it out, but maybe we were just going nowhere.
Her thoughts turned to words: ‘But that doesn’t let you off, you bas …’
Was that the crescendo, cut off in its prime? Was the ferocity of her mood declining?
The time comes. We know it does – when the anger is spent, maybe through sheer tiredness. And this is the point of reunion, of forgiveness, of being carried away on a tide of ecstasy as they make up.
She turned to face him, knelt by him. And as she stared at the knife embedded in his heart, she knew that this time it was final.

© Anthony North, May 2008

HURRICANE

The weather comes, it blows, it roars,
it batters your home without a pause;
A wind that comes ferociously,
whirling round you and me;
It’s the third, this time around,
much more frequently, they come to pound,
and always that manic thought resounds,
forever there, it does rebound,
that this is pay back for our insanity,
battering nature so we can see,
a better life materially,
but ignoring nature’s beauty,
balance,
and harmony

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

******************************

FEROCIOUSLY SPEAKING

When someone appears ferocious we stand well back. Words such as ‘violent’, or ‘intense’, describe it. And when violence with intensity arises, it is brutal, immediate, without thought, beyond control.
There are various reasons for such ferocity. It is ingrained in a soldier that in the heat of battle, ferocity is the only way. Yes, professionalism usually controls it to a point, but we don’t speak of ‘the dogs of war’ for nothing.

Revenge is usually a motive.

When we are whipped up to the frenzy of revenge, nothing stands in our way. Yet in the modern world a new form of ferocity has come to our streets.
This is the violent delinquent, making life miserable for all. Of course, there’s always been crime, but now it seems to carry a new edge of violence. Why has such ferocity come to crime?

Well, it isn’t actually anything new.

In Britain, a similar ferocity arose alongside crime in the 18th century crimewave. Looking back, it parallels modern times in that it was a period where capitalism was advancing, and religion declining.
So it seems to be about an increase in our ability to ‘have’, coming alongside a decline in the notion that we ‘shouldn’t’. And when society tells us that we ‘cannot’, we get angry, and ferociously take.

We can also see ferocity in another way.

Nothing diminishes a person more than a lack of self-esteem. It seems to be in our very nature to feel that we are someone. And to be denied can cause anger, violence and more.
Hence, we can also see ferociousness as a lack of confidence. It is the result of our ‘smallness’, our inabilities, and our hang-ups. And as more and more face a crisis of confidence, ferocity is likely to increase.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TT #9 - HOW TO UNDERSTAND MEN

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my THursday THirteen #9. I’m still thouroughly enjoying my participation in this meme. It’s good fun. And I’d also like to thank THursday THirteen for featuring me last week as a newbie. It was much appreciated.
Over the last few weeks I’ve dealt with some weighty issues, so this week I decided on an occasional foray into the lighter post. I hope this one gives you a laugh or two. If not, it wasn’t my fault. Someone made me do it

COUNTDOWN

13. Men are not from Mars. They’re from their mothers. So whatever the opposite sex think of them, it’s their fault!

12. Men are far superior to women. This is an undeniable fact, proved by their physical make-up. Men, you see, can aim.

11. All men are super-heroes. This is defined by culture. After all, most fictional super-heroes are men. I guess women look sillier with their knickers on the outside.

10. For balance, a man should always retain an inner child. This makes us fun, and is what women like. I know women complain about this sometimes, but you can’t have it both ways.

9. Men are great lovers. This is patently obvious to any man who looks in the mirror. Maybe that’s why we take care of it ourselves so often.

8. Men do not have a feminine side. The New Man is a myth. It is a fad that could so easily change when women get bored enough.

7. A man is always right. Women will no doubt disagree. You do? As I said, a man is always right.

6. Men are said to start all wars. This is blatantly wrong, as proved by history. Wars are always started by politicians.

5. A man is a perfect handyman. He can fix anything. He proves this by fixing it over and over again.

4. Men are often said to be lazy. This is blatantly unfair. We simply have to rest our brain more often through over-use.

3. Men are immediate experts in whatever they do. This is drummed into children by women through statements such as ‘wait ‘til your father gets home’, and ‘ask your dad.’

2. All men require mothering. All women realize this. That’s why you all had Teddy Bears as children. To practice.

1. Women often dislike their mothers-in-law. Bearing in mind the point above, it is a fact that men seek out characteristics of their mother in choosing a partner. Oh dear!

© Anthony North, April 2008