Eleven plus one is a great team
This could be a long post…
Have you ever had a week where it feels like someone or something is trying to tell you something?
Where a series of events seems to transpire that lead your thoughts into a certain direction and state of mind?
Well I’ve had one of those weeks, sort of, well a few events have made me think about life and stuff like that and realise a few things, good things.
I’ll start at the beginning and we’ll see if this goes anywhere.
To top up my writing income I teach, the past two weeks have been holidays, so I took on a temp job last week to bring in a few extra dollars. Just a pretty dull data entry job, and whenever I take my rare and occasional trips into corporate land I’m always amazed at how much time and money businesses waste on things like databases and collecting data. Systems that don’t really work, and campaigns that involve vast amounts of people, paper and time to just gather a few facts and figures. Surely in this age of technology most of it’s unnecessary? The four days bought a few thoughts into my head, firstly the amount of information a temp is suddenly entrusted with, I had addresses, bank account details and security questions at my beckon call. I found myself committing small acts of subversion to alleviate the boredom, like giving people incorrect titles and doubling the amount of items they requested, stupid really but after a while people stop becoming people and just words on a screen.
What it did do though was make me realise how extraordinarily lucky I normally am with my work, OK I don’t make a lot, but I please myself and get by. I find it so hard to understand how people can work in the corporate world day after day. Day after day of getting the same train, sat there at a desk with those horrible felt covered partitions watching the clock. I know that’s not everyone’s experience, and some people do enjoy it, but personally I am now pretty resolute in being happy to offset money with freedom.
A random thought to interject at this juncture : Why do I get so excited or enthused when I see six cyclists go by? They still pale into insignificance in comparison to the 600 cars that pass me by every day.
So last week was a fairly stressful one for me, locked in the corporate Southbank with perhaps the worst food court I’ve ever experienced, where everything tasted of nothing and I looked forward to the weekend.
Friday night I went to see 1990’s which hadn’t sold very well so they gave away loads of tickets, you know the sort of thing, prize give-aways where everyone seems to win! Afterwards I ended up at an 80’s rock Air Guitar Karaoke, which was fun…
Saturday was Grand Final day so Melbourne wasn’t in it’s normal mood, Geelong beat Port Adelaide by over 100 points which was a pretty crazy victory and I think one of the largest margins ever. On Saturday evening I ran a gig / event for the Melbourne Social Forum, which despite the bad choice of day ran fairly well and was pretty successful, Cate and I went home and watched Teen Wolf 2 in bed, we got 1 & 2 for $10 and I’m glad, because they’re actually pretty bad films and have the same plot anyway!
Sunday is where the story recommences to the point (if there is one) of this post. The day was spent wandering the city taking a look at some of the Fringe festival, eating Chocolate and the like, the usual Sunday past times. In the evening we watched some episodes of Michael Moore’s Awful truth including an episode that obviously went on to become the basis of Sicko. Cate went to bed and I settled down to watch Donnie Darko, a film I saw a while ago, which despite enjoying, I never quite understood.
It could be said that sometimes you have to experience similar things to understand what an artist is trying to get across, and watching the film this time round it suddenly deeply resonated with me, even bringing tears to my eyes at points. it’s still hard to quantify quite what it is, and I guess those of you who understand me will, well, understand what I mean. it’s a brilliant summation of life and what’s important and how much bullshit there is in modern life. So this and the episodes of The Awful Truth sent me to bed with all sorts of interesting thoughts swimming around in my head and I had some very odd dreams including hearing a repeated statement that I felt to be so important I forced myself to remember it when I awoke, it was this :
Eleven plus one is a great team.
Now, that sounds vaguely football related to me, so who knows what that was about, but I even remember someone saying to me in the dream, that yes, it could be football related, but there was something else as-well.
I woke up this morning feeling extremely refreshed and lucid, a feeling of clarity and harmony mentally, spiritually and physically. I walked the 7Km from Cate’s house to mine and didn’t eat until the afternoon, just feeling at peace and fulfilled.
It waned somewhat in the afternoon and then this evening I went to see Gummo at a local film night, which is another peculiar film (and quite gross and sordid) that explores people who you may not normally see in the great American patchwork. To me though it showed that no matter how disgusting they were, how backward, ignorant or offensive, they’re still just people looking for a meaning, going through life the best way they can.
I’ve also been watching nature a lot recently and when I see two contented pigeons cuddled up in the sun or a cat lying in front of a heater with a look of pure bliss on it’s face, you realise that happiness actually comes from very simple things, comfort and companionship. We spend so much of our lives chasing superficial things that really aren’t important but are rammed down our throats so much that we think they are and that we need them.
Well, I don’t know if that made any sense to anyone but me but I wanted to say it.
To finish off, a final and unrelated random link to a news story which I think is pretty amazing :