a little pre-US election chit-chat

I’m reluctant to go all global on you again, but I can’t help being obsessed with the big picture. If we don’t manage to curb world population growth and the resulting increasingly acute resource crisis within a few decades – and that’s about as fast as it could possibly be done, eh – then the Last War, which many point around the globe and say has already begun, will accelerate to levels of destruction more wretched than any the planet has yet seen.

You don’t have to be a seer to figure that. Does publishing make you a prophet? Who cares. The point is, even if Barack Obama has the vision to address the impending tragedy, does he have the power? His most loyal sidekicks in the battle for planet Earth don’t inspire confidence – Gordon Brown’s already offered Parliament (ie, vested interests) his prerogative to declare war, and as for Kevin07, the Australian Tintin – whose global influence is stronger than it would otherwise be because he speaks Mandarin – he’s good; he’s very good… but what weapon can an honest Christian wield against the ruthlessness of Hu Jintao? The leader of the world’s largest nation says his political principles are, domestically, a harmonious society, and internationally, peaceful development. Call me naive, but doesn’t this sound arse-about to you? Shouldn’t he be advocating the peaceful development of his own nation, and a harmonious global society? What kind of international development does he have in mind – other than peaceful, of course?

And although Obama will win the election (there’ll be riots all over if the Republicans rig another one) he’ll need bionic (or at least logistical) superpowers to dodge the bullets of his trigger-happy constituents long enough to effect real change.

Ho hum. The view from the Pembroke eyrie is grim as ever. It’s a rainy day and I’m fighting the flu, but that’s no excuse for world leaders to faff around on the important shit.

couplet on tidying the dressing room

I walk the house in joy intense

my hands are covered in frankincense

science/religion

Every religion claims the strongest understanding of the reasons for our existence, and thence extrapolates principles or directives for how best to live. This, in the madness of its multiplicity, is surely folly.

Science claims only a weak understanding of the reasons for our existence, and extrapolates only the infinite possibility of how we might live. It cannot claim that the universe is moral – but it knows there are realms (as yet and maybe forever) beyond its reach.

There, we feel the flux and seek always the pattern. And there, all too often, we fall into folly.

what the fuck :)

I drive to his house in the middle of the night, and park out the front. He is waiting in the garden and makes me jump. We spend all night and all morning in his dark, beautiful room, and by afternoon I’m dashing to work feeling somewhat tousled – tousled, hell, I’m ravished. We spent hours touching, tasting, arguing, debating, making love, fucking like beasts, laughing, whispering and playing, and there is clearly more to come.

But GHM, he is less than half my age. Fortunately, his girlfriend arrives from Europe next month. Perfect. Truly, today my resolute freedom reaps great dividends.

a hole in the sky

We were sitting out the back on the terrace on the public holiday, chilling out the day after the night of Eclectica. The temperature was spring mild, clouds and sun were competing amiably. Justin said, ‘oh look, a hole in the sky,’ and started taking pictures. ‘Can you see heaven?’ I asked idly. There was a long pause while he took the shot, then a laugh.

‘No… just more sky.’