It is a new year, it is a new country, it is a new life, we started baking bread again, we getting better at that, the others.. well that it is still to be seen. As a paraphrase i believe so, at least i am enjoying it more.
The diaspora our lives have become entangled in is rather strange, we really hoped and believed we would be able to meet and find some real Kiwi's to interact with, yet we have become no different to the normal garden variety immigrant Cafe owner/small convenience store owner or any other nationality, i suppose in a Global sense, korean, indian and any other race that has gone forth to conquer the new world in search of a "*****" life. At this stage it is difficult to say? Yes it is a better life, but now I understand why people all say, and I would. do it as soon as you can... Do it as young as you can.. I am not sure If I should say why, It would not really make sense..
But other than that, we return near full cycle to the loaf of bread. A new year, many new loaves of bread, many new days await us beneath the long Cloudy sky, speckled with sunshine between the howling wind, fields of green pierced by fluffy white sheep.I imagine William Orbit got it wrong when he spoke of little fluffy white clouds in Arizona, he would have gone insane standing outside of my back window. How easy it would be to confuse the multiple layers of clouds above the rolling green hills interspersed with small fluffy sheep.
It is really a diaspora from Africa, yet we do not share a national and/or ethnic identity, but rather a common origin. We can sit as a group of ex-pats and reminisce about different things. I see once again the question of being an African raises it's head (Now does this require Capitalization?). What makes you a citizen or naturalized in a country or continent? In Africa it appears that only your skin colour can make you African or is that african?
As context to this read the following 2 links:
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/sentletsediakanyo/2010/12/28/we-are-not-all-africans-black-people-are
http://necrofiles.blogspot.com/2010/12/defining-race-and-ethnicity-in-south.html
Well I wonder, are we still african in either contexts or if we are afrikan or African or Afrikaans, if we leave the continent either way. But there is little we can add or say regarding this. It is not something that can be simply resolved by us or by intellectual debate as this goes deeper and closer to a grain that spirals in every direction, not allowing us any context or point of view.
But to return to the loaves to feed the many or the many loaves to feed the few, as we dawdle along the pathway of bread appreciation, and not the facebook liking or page or anything similar.. But in general the appreciation of something so simple yet so complex. something I have gotten to realize is that like all other noble pursuits bread making is an ever continuing process. Each loaf I make holds surprises for me, yes I know I should attempt for some consistency in the process and possibly an element of repeatability.. But no nothing like that.. in an attempt to learn, each attempt is doomed to possible failure or flop.. a couple have been.. but on the whole they have been successful.One of the most interesting details I have discovered about bread making and most probably more essentially artisan style breads or sourdoughs is the fervor and vigor that the followers exhibit. The lengths that people go to to create the ultimate loaf of bread is just insane, albeit ranging from the sourdough extremists to the perfectionists to the others .. such fun...
But to return to a much earlier post, it is fascinating to follow the web that bread has woven through our lives and our predecessors. something so simple that we take for granted that has a complex and mostly not understood technically by laymen or even those who's lives depend on it. And it is at this point that we have to question the notion of advancement and how it impacts on the survival of the human race as a whole. How important are these meme's in the survival of the race we call humans. I suppose it could most aptly be called a race as we are moving at the speed of a meteor towards eventual cataclysm.
But we are what we are.. we as the human race have been there a couple of times, depending on the book there are a number of different stories, atlantis, ages in chaos, the bible (the pillar of salt story)..
BTW they way i am now seriously in doubt about ever using the pillar of salt metaphor any more after I read the entire text and the in depth discussions around where it leads to .. freaky stuff..
But then again it is from the book that implies i should smite my Canadian neighbours ... ROTFL
But on a lightly more serious note, this does not mean to undermine that which gives meaning and importance to others. We are all a construct of our own devices, minds and cultural biases. How strange we are as humans, we could almost imagine that we are all different. Are we not all searching for the same enlightenment in different places. Some find it in the Bible, some in the Koran some in the Bhakgavat ghita and some in the street art of Banksy, some find it in the patterns on a well formed loaf of bread.
Banksy in afrika
It is a strange thing this perspective or hindsight that we have on our first world pedestal. We throw stones at those poor soles whose lives are within the millieu of their 3rd world existence. throwing stones at those who leave, consoling themselves with their conscience with oxfam dontations and other similar justifications and conscience beating interludes. But is there anything we can actually do to improve the plight of others in far away 3rd world countries? Does it make it better or worse, where do we draw the line between assistance, intervention or interference? I must apologize I am not casting a stone whilst having a log in my eye, this is merely an observation. But is there a way that the world can be rescued from humans? There are fragments where humanity has managed to bootstrap itself out its mire, but only here and there, and only to be thrown over by natural events or humans again.
So where does this leave us,
Clive and George's perspective on this would not be any different or would they? More on that another day, it is the essence of what life is for us, you and them. In some ways Karl had it right, in others he didn't, it is not the whole nor the individual, but rather the creative masses and all of the individuals and whole molded together in one writhing complex inexplicably complex mixing pot. Momentarily flashes of light and brilliance emanate from the washing machine of human lives.
What responsibility do we have as individuals within a larger super organism or entity play, within a story about a story within a moment in time.
to quote the inimitable :
Yeah, It's been a ride...
I guess I had to go to that place to get to this one
Now some of you might still be in that place
If you're trying to get out, just follow me
I'll get you there....
....
....
There's a game called circle and I don't know how
I'm way too up to back down
But I think I'm still tryna figure this crap out
Thought I had it mapped out but I guess I didn't
This fucking black cloud still follow's me around
But it's time to exercise these demons
These motherfuckers are doing jumping jacks now
It is so strange to stand on the outside and wondering what it would like to be on the inside. So we stand on the outside looking in, based on what we have seen before. how much of that is a reflection of others. How many are great, how many of the greats are reflections of society which were great at the time. How much lurks in the shadows of their minds. Where does greatness start, can it be defined as something which is new or a new look at something old. MM3 looks at himself with laughter, Albert stares absurdly, Freddie looks on stating there is no God, Other Albert said God is in the numbers, frank says Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories. .... We all look back, mouths sealed, eyes so wide the white pierces everything. Does it matter that we stand here doing nothing, does it matter that we stand back, does it matter than we run like dog with our tails between our legs and don't make stand like a dead Lion. The Lion, Zion stands tall, we creep away like the small puppy we are. I was afraid, the ruins still stand, the phoenix rises, each time more spectacularly than before with no relevance to what it burns in each incarnation.
But to quote Frank
"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience."
enough for now .. more later
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