Tomorrow I’m off to see the wizard. And maybe it’ll be the start of something interesting. The thing about being a fence sitter is that the edge is sharp and uncomfortable, the energy to balance is a tiresome distraction. In the end it is such a relief to step off…whichever side of the wall.  But because I’m not sure how to handle that, I think I will just sit here a while longer. Unless something gives.

yeah
sad sad news
but at the same time as registering the shock of this inhuman action in a place I love, the brain computes and races along the continuum of humanity and touches our aggression in all parts of the world. There is only so much crying a heart can do.

London tube train

Safely on the platform, I view the ‘people en masse’ and wonder how anyone could set a bomb. I look at one of the mass, one human being – you the black girl. You with the beautiful round face and big, lash sweeping eyes, sharp white in contrast to your ebony skin, you with the long, tight knotted plaits woven with Caribbean coloured threads. I look down to her stylish black, silver-buckled boots. I flick to her outrageously huge silver bull ring earrings and drop my gaze over her smart, heavy black, ankle length coat with great collar pulled high, the gay, coloured scarf tucked to keep out the -6°c winter up top. She is beautiful, a treasure of the Tube.

When I close my eyes I see an unaccompanied bag, waiting. Someone knows about it, but who? I open the bag with a film clip from Terminator, a clip which shows the slow motion progress of the explosion. A movement, something bulging, something angular pushing the outer skin of this stoutly built case. It expands to bursting point, there is a tremor and many sharp angles bust through the puffed up fabric with a star exploding fire flash… Then, with the aid of any of the gruesome, gratuitously violent ‘action’ movies littering our movie screens, I view the black girl’s clothing suddenly whip violently. Her eyes register alarm, the whites bulging in the momentary extremity of her fear. I see her beautiful features twist, contort and snap in the violence of the pressure wave – as her body lifts, liquefies and explodes onto the tiled walls of the Underground. Still in the slow motion grip of a nightmare Hollywood invention I see the masonry falling through the searing fire ball, now crumpling and imploding the arriving train, the brightly lit tube full of commuters packing home this Christmas eve. The parcels, the tiny tinsel trees and Christmas lights…

Koala – Australia zoo
Originally uploaded by Driver2.

Koala still doing what it does best

Human beings are just one of the myriad species of life on this planet ever vulnerable to habitat damage. Have no doubt the writing is on the wall for us. Extinction is probable.

I am a man in the street. I am subject to all the pressures of modern global society but have no voice globally. I have a vote where I live but the communcations I receive are blurred by the overblown commercial world; muddied by the spin of voices whose power and vested interest is supported by ‘money’ or gargantuan resources not available to me. It seems that the common good of mankind is not on the greedy agenda of those who would control the world’s resources. It worries me and I seek to hear more outrage, more from the man in the street.
Not a word.
Just a lawnmower.

Takahe bird
Originally uploaded by Driver2.

Takahe are classified as an endangered species and are managed by the Department of Conservation. To help conserve the species, a few pairs of takahe have been established on four islands: Maud Island (Marlborough Sounds), Mana Island (off Wellington’s west coast), Kapiti Island (north of Mana) and Tiritiri Matangi Island (Hauraki Gulf). Since 1984 these birds have bred and increased the total population on islands to about 60 birds. This shows that takahe may adapt to a variety of habitats.