Underneath We're All The Same

I'm smitten: Mariposas

When I was four or five, my Dad and I made me a butterfly costume for Hallowe'en.  My Dad came up with the design, and we had so much fun decorating it together, that I loved wearing it.  (Most of the design was in the wings, because Hallowe'en in Canada means you might need to wear a snowsuit.)

via toimage

 Several years later I travelled both to a nature reserve with a butterfly hatchery in Hawaii, and a butterfly sanctuary in Michoacan, Mexico, where the Monarchs migrate in winter.

Julio Garcia Castillo

Who knew that little butterflies could fly thousands of miles South like birds?  They're so beautiful and delicate, it was an education to learn that they were that strong.


There are so many butterflies (mariposas, in Spanish) blanketing everything in the sanctuary, that you have to try hard not to step on them!

So, maybe it's no surprise that my heart fluttered when I saw this dress from Mary Katrantzou last week...

Peter Stigter

Fashion artistry!  Everything is exciting and unique - from the graphic print, to the asymmetrical neckline, to the diaphanous pleated overskirt billowing out to the sides as she walks.  Really, it's the closest a grown woman can get to dressing up like a butterfly.  A chic & modern way to relive the fun of your childhood?  I'm all for that!

Less fun?  Many butterfly species are endangered because of habitat depletion.
Here are some ways to garden for butterflies.

I'm smitten: Kurt Vonnegut

My friend sent me this recently.  Love it!  I love this sentiment about the arts - I think our lives are flat and devoid of depth and meaning without any artistic venue to express ourselves - and I love Vonnegut.  He has an empathetic and humanist perspective that I identify with very much, and his writing is very darkly funny and accessible.  His style is very American, like Twain and Salinger (who I also love), and so unpretentious, he seems like he could be your (very smart, very moving) buddy at the bar.   And his thoughts on war, after serving in WWII, are honest and poignant - very relatable, but not romanticized.  If you haven't read Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse-Five (which in my imagination might have in some way inspired The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and been inspired by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald), I highly recommend them.  A different friend just recommended God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, so it'll be next on the reading list for me...

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. 

Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. 

The world you desire can be won. It exists... it is real... it is possible... it’s yours."

- Ayn Rand

"What I need is the dandelion in the spring.  The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction.  The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses.  That it can be good again."
- Suzanne Collins

Ideologies: Part 2

I've never found a quote that expresses my feelings about tolerance & personal liberty better than this one.  But as soon as I share it, it's interesting how polarizing a quote on tolerance can become...

"Why not let people differ about their answers to the great mysteries of the Universe? Let each seek one's own way to the highest, to one's own sense of supreme loyalty in life, one's ideal of life. Let each philosophy, each world-view bring forth its truth and beauty to a larger perspective, that people may grow in vision, stature and dedication.

The religions of humanity should be a unifying force, for all the great religions reveal a basic unity in ethics. Whether it be Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism or Confucianism, all grow out of a sense of the sacredness of human life. This moral sensitivity to the sacredness of human personality -- the Commandments not to kill, not to hurt, not to put a stumbling block in the path of the blind, not to neglect the widow or the fatherless, not to exploit the servant or the worker -- all this can be found in the bibles of humanity, in all the sacred books. All teach in substance: "Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you." There is, then, a basic unity among the great religions in the matter of ethics. 

True, there are religious philosophies which turn people away from the world, from the here and now, concentrating life-purposes on salvation for one's self or a mystic union with some supernatural reality. But most of the great religions agree on mercy, justice, love -- here on earth.

And they agree that the great task is to move people from apathy, from an acceptance of the evils in life, to face the possibilities of the world, to make life sweet for one another instead of bitter. This is the unifying ethical task of all the religions -- yes, of all the philosophies of humankind. There is no need to force our own theological points of view upon one another or to insist that the moral life grows out of final, absolute authority."

- Algernon Black
  

The way I see it, religion, philosophy, politics - any filter, really - can be a great lens through which to view the world.  As long as you recognize that the lens itself is also coming between you and the world.  

It's my personal conviction that only you know through which lens you can finally see most clearly...  I'm talking about the acceptance that not everybody wears (or should wear) the same prescription.  

In response to that, a friend said, "But then the problem arises of one personal truth in conflict with another's personal truth.  Whose personal truth trumps the other's?"  

My response:  is assuming the difference is a threat our only option?  The key word here is "personal."  I honestly don't see the need for a trump.  That's like arguing that blue is a better colour than red...  Who presumes to have the authority to declare a winner?  Can't we coexist peacefully even if you love red and I love blue?  Does someone else have to lose in order for us to feel like we win?  Something about the lack of empathy in that concept just makes me uneasy inside.  For me, it's precisely this delicate balance of similarities and differences that makes the human condition so beautiful and intriguing and baffling.  It's free will, mate.  It's what makes life so textured and rich and invigorating.

There was a bit of discussion that people from other religions/cultures should be regarded with some suspicion, because they sometimes have unfamiliar practices - cutting themselves to release evil spirits, was one example given.  But honestly I think people here can hurt and mutilate themselves to try and exorcise personal demons just as much - only they call it something more "elegant", like: anorexia or plastic surgery or meth addiction.  No matter what you want to name it, I'm guessing that troubled souls can be found any place on earth that humans congregate.  

What drives this insistence that we should be policing one another, should all be clones of 

each other?  Or that we need an external absolute authority, instead of each being our own best authorities?  I've puzzled about it, and the only answer I can ever come up with is: fear.

Seems, as with most things, whatever you're looking for will stand out to you...

If you're looking for differences, you can find them. If you're looking for similarities, you can find them too.

Even in the presence of multiple differences, there is common ground, there are human relating points, ways "to make life sweet for one another instead of bitter", if you genuinely want to see them.  And I want so passionately for each person to have the right to do their own looking and finding.  I'll just say that I often run into surprising arrogance from folks who wouldn't dream of assimilating others' points of view the way they expect others to assimilate theirs.  I guess that's the truly puzzling part for me - really how can you think you have the right to expect anything other than exactly what you're willing to give in this life?

Where does this discomfort with differences in others come from?  I'm guessing it's the notion that our particular beliefs are objective, transferrable fact - when really our beliefs are our own (or someone else's) subjective constructs that we have elected to accept.  These choices and the resulting constructs become our truth.  We choose to have faith, hope, apathy, or cynicism because it's serving a purpose for us.  And for most of us that purpose falls somewhere on a sliding continuum between present and future, or altruism and selfishness. 

Picture several thousand people attending a big concert in an arena...  Now choose ten random people distributed in different locations throughout the audience, looking at the stage from their different seats.  Some are centre, some are aisle.  Some are down in the front row, some are all the way up in the nosebleeds.  Each person will have a different sightline or perspective based on the variations in light, shadow, distance,  and obstruction from their respective location.  Bottom line: if you took a photo of the band on stage from each individual spot, none of the photos would look the same...  But these variations don't make one perspective any less true than the other.  It is, instead, the truth from that angle.  

In my humble opinion (and I know some, maybe even a lot of people won't agree), the ability to appreciate tolerance and empathy in this way has more to do with the person themselves, than with their respective religion.  
Call me crazy, but I think it's naïve to believe that we all can sit in the same exact concert seat.  I'd even go as far as saying I'm glad we don't.  Half the fun of the experience is sharing it with everyone around me.

I'm smitten: Street Art by Banksy

My friends know I love street art.  

Graffiti is totally another medium for modern art.  But of all the current artists, UK-based Banksy is the stand-out revolutionary.  I've been watching him for a few years, and I'm still impressed.  His work continues to gain notoriety, but his identity remains a mystery - he refuses to reveal his real name or face.  He's gotta be the most famous anonymous person alive today.  Or is that the most anonymous famous person?  However you want to slice it - the man is a mystery.

He used to sign his work, but now his style is so recognizable he doesn't even need to. 

He's genius, because he often plays off of existing graffiti in a space, to make it work in a new way...

Sometimes he even incorporates nature, or other pieces of signage or infrastructure...

The real reason he rocks though, is the apt social & political commentary in his work...  I find his work just as witty, creative and heartbreaking as any "museum approved" art.  He offers an alternative to most of the messages we're bombarded with in the media these days.  He strives in a very innovative way to make us all stop & remember how to think for ourselves...

“A wall is a very big weapon. It’s one of the nastiest things you can hit someone with.”
— Banksy (Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall)

(If he were caught painting the one above, on the wall that defines the Israeli-West Bank border, he likely would've been shot.)

His messages are often intended to raise awareness about the consequences of poverty, war, discrimination and rampant consumerism.  He's trying to make us think about human rights and animal rights, and to consider our environmental impact...

Basically he's a badass vigilante social conscience.  A modern day Robin Hood, if you will.

He's here with a dose of perspective - the graffiti wake-up call the apathetic public so desperately needs.

"The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists... Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little."

- Banksy

I totally dig how he juxtaposes traditional art imagery with a modern street look.  It's an energetic mash-up that only a really savvy person could pull off.

“I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.”
— Banksy

“Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing.
And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can
make someone smile while they’re having a piss.”
— Banksy (Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall)

My personal favorites are this funny Star Wars one, below:

And this amazing early one below, where he manages to riff on freedom (twice!) both with respect to our own imprisonment within the relentless commodification of everything, and the cruelty of large animals imprisoned in zoos.  Break free!  This is the first one I saw that really impressed me with how much of a statement a motivated creative person can make with just a couple of stencils and a can of paint. 

And...

this one above, found in New Orleans right after the hurricane and the government's terribly slow response to help the people.  It really moved me when I first saw it - it struck a chord.  I can't put into words exactly why it resonates with me, I just find it particularly poignant.  This ability to convey emotion is what distinguishes an artist from a mere tagger.

Seriously, though, the fact that Banksy has to complete these pieces in such a fast & stealthy manner, to avoid getting arrested, makes me appreciate their artfulness all the more.  It's next level shit - part art, part adventure.  I can see why it'd be fun to do.  He'll make you laugh, and he'll make you want to cry, but he always, always makes a point.

“Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.”
— Banksy (Wall and Piece)

He's an artist cleverly making use of free speech, with a new vocabulary, in a new venue - and how can you not admire that?  The best part is, he doesn't take himself too seriously.  Banksy seems to do it all with a sense of humour, with tongue placed firmly in cheek.

To see more pics, check out his retrospective books, 'Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall' and 'Wall and Piece', or his movie 'Exit Through the Gift Shop', where he satirizes his own fame, street art, and skewers the whole "art as commodity" scene in general.  It's not to be taken too seriously.

(Any painting he does on animals is with non-toxic children's finger paint, FYI.)

Brilliance & hilarity!   
<Swoon>

 (all art by Banksy)

Watch the trailer:  

Exit Through The Gift Shop

by anieelaney.tumblr

Ideologies...

"Any ideology makes me a little nervous because there’s some point where it doesn’t allow for the complexity of things." 

- Kim Gordon

(photo by Rolling Stone)

That's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.  Ideologies work until... they don't anymore.  I just feel that in order to stay vital and relevant, it's essential to be able to continue to learn and evolve throughout life.  Yes, we need guiding principles and values and ethics.  But when we learn new things, we've gotta be able to be flexible, to adjust, and assimilate them into our worldview - and not just reject them because they don't fit neatly into our previous operating system.  And when we meet new people with different perspectives and backgrounds, we've gotta be able to adjust, and assimilate them into our worldview as well.  It only seems healthy to stop every once in a while and evaluate whether our philosophies and ideologies are still working for us, just as we would for our vehicle or cell phone plan.  It's almost like computer software: we need periodic updates and improvements to work out the bugs, and to help us function optimally.  

And I think any kind of outlook or ideology that's strong and vital will welcome questions, conversation and dialogue with others, because there's no reason to fear, and maybe even something to learn...  Flexibility is a crucial, and often over-looked sign of strength.  Just as the yoga principle of 'building strength around flexibility' does wonders for the body's agility, I think it can do the same for the mind.  I'm not talking about being wishy-washy, I'm talking about being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and honestly consider things from their perspective.  It takes strength to acknowledge your biases, to remain empathetic, and able to continue to learn.  I'm wary of perspectives that are so narrow and rigid and subjective that they leave no room for differences in others, or for refinement and innovation.  I think that's a one-way ticket to intolerance, fear, prejudice, and ultimately irrelevance.  Over time, it seems only natural that some of our values will shift, based on our experiences and the phase of life that we're in, as well as changes that take place in the world at large.

It would be much simpler and tidier if so many things in the world were black and white.  But more and more I see the shades of gray.  I think most things operate on a continuum, and very, very few are absolutes.  I know many people who prefer to see things in absolutes because they find the simplicity comforting.  I guess it's just a matter of preference -  whether you prefer comfort, even if it means ignorance; or if you prefer informed, active realism, even if it means adjustment.  I suppose it also depends on whether you can see beauty in diversity and complexity...  But sometimes I see signs of strain in people who are struggling to maintain a certain unmodified ideology in the face of a contradicting practical reality, and it makes me sad, because they seem the opposite of comfortable.  

I understand why it happens.  And It's idealistic of me (ha!), but I wish we could be driven by more beneficial forces than fear.  I think it keeps us fighting amongst ourselves (and worse - within ourselves), instead of being all we might be.

I'm smitten: Dept. of Urban Betterment

John Locke has this seriously cool vision he's called "Department of Urban Betterment."  I really admire it!  A great example:  Since mobile phones have taken over, he's designed a way to transform ubiquitous NYC public telephone booths into free guerrilla libraries, that any old passersby can borrow from and add to.  Genius!

(Design & photos by John Locke)

Check out DUB here