In the Garden of Good and Evil

Someone, seeing the books on my bookshelf asked me if I believed in voodoo… I said no, not really, I’m interested in folk’s believes, in the ways people found to deal with the human condition…

But I do believe in good and evil… but not as something that is outside you…

We all have the seeds of good and evil in our heart…

And like anyone who has a garden, it’s up to you what you decide to grow in your garden…

Of course the soil has its importance… sometimes you have some very bad soil and nothing but bad seeds will germinate… but as gardeners know… you can improve the soil… you just need to put a little work into it, find the experienced gardeners  who will give you the advice you need…

Sometimes, the soil is very very good, good seeds thrive in this garden… but it’s fenced, with wooden boards, barbed wire and broken glass on top of the fence… nobody’s allowed… there’s even a sign that says “beware of the dog”… the gardener wants to keep everything for himself… he won’t share… and it’s good turned bad… Of course when you have a garden, you have to protect it from pests… but you don’t have to over-protect it… a little fence and a scarecrow are okay…

Sometimes, and in fact quite often, you have a mix of bad and good plants in your garden… and you have to weed it… keep the good, discard the bad… and sometimes you realize that a “bad” plant is a good one… it can kill but it can cure too… so you keep it… you just have to be careful about how you use it… that is why you need experienced gardeners in your life, they’ll share their experience with you… you’ll use some of their knowledge, they’ll share some of their seeds, they’ll share some of their crops, they’ll encourage you to try things and this will build your experience and then it will be your turn to share…

And sometimes, the soil is of no use… it’s toxic… like the soil around Fukushima… there’s nothing to do… you just have to avoid that garden and its owner, that’s the garden that needs fencing…  But you have to do it in a way that does not condemn the unfortunate gardener… you just don’t know what led the soil go toxic…  maybe it’s the gardener’s fault, maybe he used pesticides and insecticides and thus killed the soil… or maybe it’s just that a chemical plant was built in the area…

Please, bear with me that English is not my first language and also maybe what I expressed sounds a bit naive... or simple... but it needed to go out and it wanted to be shared...

la huesera

""All strong souls first go to hell before they do the healing of the world they came here for. If we are lucky, we return to help those still trapped below."
Clarissa Pinkola Estés from the poem Abre La Puerta in Theatre of the Imagination

ramble on

Don’t forget you’re alive.

Joe Strummer

The truest things are best expressed in the simplest way…

We take life for granted, we complain, we’re not satisfied, we want more of something and less of another…

We want to be out of the rat race but we still want to be part of the gang… We shout our individuality but we want to blend in… And the advertisement industry is well aware of that… They tell you you’re unique but in order to be more unique you’ve got to buy their product because you’re worth it… aren’t you?

I’m sick of that…

Went to see an exhibition about the punk movement some time ago… they tell you the punks were against the society, against the system… yeah right… like the Sex Pistols weren’t just another product… they just exploited the anger of the youth, they made money out of it… but the youth was happy, they thought that at last some people understood their anger and frustration… yeah right…

Just like in 2008 when someone promised hope… yeah right…  the packaging was different but you were sold the exact same product… ok … maybe  not the exact same… a slightly different flavor but the main ingredients remained unchanged… and it’s the same all over the world… and all over the world people take the bait… why? Why is mankind so brainwashed… why ?

Pane et circe or junk food and TV… seems like we always end up in the same pitfall… the snake bites its tail but this time it might be fatal… the resources are not infinite and like the life we’re living, we are taking them for granted, we act like they will be here always…

This rant was written a few months ago... but my views are still more or less the same... thought I'd share... I know it could upset some people... please forgive me...and feel free to comment...

On Death #1

Some people think I’m morbid, that the interest I show about death is insane…
I think the way they deal with death is insane… ignoring it, pretending they will live forever; taking tomorrow for granted is very delusional…
Death goes hand in hand with life… shunning it from one’s life is shunning life itself…
Death is part of the deal… it is painful… it hurts… especially when you lose loved ones… but do you really lose them?
In the middle Ages, death was very much part of life… People were dying at home, surrounded by their loved ones and it looked more like a celebration than anything else… People were ready for death… they knew it was coming and they welcomed it like a new beginning… Cemeteries were not far away… they were right in the middle of the village… in the church yard… and the church yard was a lively place, with merchants selling their goods and children playing… Then… as the centuries passed, cemeteries were pushed away… hygiene they said… which was not really untrue… but still… death became a sad thing….people grew scared of it… one more day please, I’m not ready… And now… it’s even worse… we hide death, we ignore it… and when we see it on TV, we act like it’s no big deal… 50 000 dead… just a number to us… but to someone, there are loved ones in this number… Death is anonymous now… the only people in our western countries to deal with it on a day to day basis are doctors and nurses… because people don’t die at home anymore… for the most part… they die in hospital… between white sheets, inside anonymous walls…it’s clean, it’s barren, it’s hygienic… and when they’re dead…they’re rushed into funeral homes…then buried or scattered… and forgotten for most people… and their loved ones… they hide their sorrow… they can’t share it… because the other people feel uneasy about death… they don’t want to hear about it… “Just get on with your life”…you don’t have the right to grieve past “the selling date”…
If I like so much “primitive” or “tribal” art it’s because of the way they deal with death ( by the way, there is no such thing called “art” in their societies..which is fine by me… I’ll write another post about it later)… To a Westerner, they are rather cruel and creepy… I mean… scrapping off the skin from the bones of their ancestors and things like that… but nonetheless they have, to my opinion, a much saner approach to death than the one we have…