Hanging around..

If you are anything like me (and I am not saying you are), then it would come as no surprise that the amount of scrolling, pointing, clicking, pushing, minimising, deleting, entering, sending, and highlighting seems to be proportionately high, even for a part time writer like myself. There are the email, the text messages, the journals on the hard drive, the blog, and the just plain correspondence. Then there are the spreadsheets and the presentations for other projects and work. Bill Gates, for all his other traits, certainly got one right when he saw a computer in every household. Those that have houses, anyway, which I am fortunate to be one.

I was thinking about this mania of keyboard relationships on my daily walk along the coast and bush of this beautiful island. I breathe in deeply, bringing much needed oxygen deep into the cells of my body. Conscious of each step, it is a simple reminder to me of the simple things in life, that are so healthy and bring much balance into my life. I had been at the computer for more than 3 hours, and although that may seem like nothing to some, it gets my body into a state of inertia that no doubt effects my mind as well. The wind was crisp, the waves hardy but not threatening, and autumn was well on its way in the Southern Hemisphere. My route takes me through the "settlement" of Rocky Bay where I live, and through nicely paved streets with about half the homes empty for holidaymakers, and the other half occupied year around. The track through the bush leads off the road about 20 min from my house, and meanders down through native bush to the beach and Regional Park. A return trip of about 45 min, it is the ideal diversion for someone that needs a break from sitting down at a screen for more than a couple hours at a time.

When I read blogs, so many of them are concerned (as well they should be!) with some of the more unsavouray aspects of their societies such as the politics or economics affecting their lives. This is the reason that many write, no doubt, and I will leave the pundits to their predictions and analysis. I have no desire to enter the debate on Bush and his unpopular ways, or any of the other myriad of charged topics so popular in blogosphere. That requires an emotional investment of time I am not willing to put into these people. Hopefully I can regularly include links such as this one from the Cloud Appreciation Society, that allow a more creative approach to living each day with an understanding that there is more to life (alot more, in fact) than who has what power, who has manipulated or eliminated whom, and what money will get for you today.

Not that we can avoid the calamaties that are a product of American hubris and short sightedness, it is just that well, let's take it in a wider perspective, and do what we can..

Actually the nature of power - who has it, what it really is, how it is used, and why it creates the illusions it does - is of interest to me. John Lennon said so much in his song "Imagine", which I see was recently performed in front of the Secretary of State during a visit to Britain. If we were all to have a chance to have all the "power" we wanted for a week, what would we do with it? The power of our attitude is available to us quicker than we realise, and I believe the dissatisfaction and ever increasing need for "more" and "quicker" can be directly correlated to our lack of use of the power we do have. The power to change our attitude. The Slow Movement has its merits, and I am a supporter. No surprises there, with me living isolated on an island in the South Pacific. More later on that, the tide is in, and driftwood has been exceptional the last few days. Gotta move. Slowly. Deliberately. Consciously.