On summer nights when it is hot and clammy indoors, when you can feel the sweat beading and running down your back, take a few moments to stand outside and gaze into the sky. There is so much happening up there. The clouds, the stars, the colours, the many shades of darkness and shadow and myriad layers of quiet.
It's a rare kind of comfort that comes from the darkness of night, from the coolness of the moon. It radiates with a light that washes everything in its cool and calming blueness. It soaks into the fibre of one's being, seeps into your grain, relaxing, soothing and relieving the heat that bundles up in your muscles after the stress of days.
It certainly is a strange kind of an energy that emanates from the light of the moon. Lonely, cool, calming and soulful, washing over everything like a silver blue rinse. And it's comforting to look up past the stars, into all that deep night and know that we really are a part of something far huger than ourselves.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Ratana
Today is the anniversary of the birth of the prophet T.W. Ratana. 25th of January every year and the whole of Ratana as well as well wishers from all over the country converge upon Ratana Pa in Whanganui.
I attended the celebrations once with Sister Heeni, a well known and highly respected Maori Methodist deaconess and Charlie Fenwick, a Pakeha man and also highly respected in the Maori community and within the church. Charlie had been a bridge builder and overseeing road-gangs had built bridges all over the north island. Most of them are still around today. He's well known and highly respected at Ratana Pa.
Walking up onto the marae atea at Ratana Pa on the 25th of January is an incredible experience. The air trembles and vibrates with the punch of haka powhiri while the brass bands march on ahead splitting the air into matchwood. It feels like a first contact between worlds, an eerie and profound experience where the crossing of cultures is as literal and present as it ever could be.
I attended the celebrations once with Sister Heeni, a well known and highly respected Maori Methodist deaconess and Charlie Fenwick, a Pakeha man and also highly respected in the Maori community and within the church. Charlie had been a bridge builder and overseeing road-gangs had built bridges all over the north island. Most of them are still around today. He's well known and highly respected at Ratana Pa.
Walking up onto the marae atea at Ratana Pa on the 25th of January is an incredible experience. The air trembles and vibrates with the punch of haka powhiri while the brass bands march on ahead splitting the air into matchwood. It feels like a first contact between worlds, an eerie and profound experience where the crossing of cultures is as literal and present as it ever could be.
The Black Dogs
Strange thing happened to me recently. I'd been feeling pretty bloody depressed. It had been making me angry, resentful and incredibly bitter about a long term relationship that had ended some months previously. For months I had felt extremely hard done by, and violently angry.
And then one day, I came home, put out the rubbish, walked in the door and decided to go evacuate my bowels, ie take a poo. I closed the lid, flushed and gazed out the window for a few minutes. I washed my hands and left the bathroom still feeling like unleashing hell upon the world. I went and sat at my desk, looked at the computer and felt the sun on my shoulder and across my face. After several minutes I became aware that for the most time in many months I felt completely peaceful.
It was as if a big scary menacing black dog had been living in my house for nine months, walking around behind me. And then all of sudden, I go to the toilet, have a poo, I come out and he’s disappeared. Gone without a trace. Incredible. Anger, embitterment, resent . . . after almost a whole year of solid intense hatred, it had vanished just like that. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m not sticking around to ask.
Mind Your Attention Span
They say that these days attention spans are shrinking, that people are becoming less patient. They say that these days when people read, they do it for information, and the quicker the better. They say that the shorter the text, the more likely it is to be read.
That suits me fine. It means that these entries will only be half as long as I imagined. But there’s a problem with that. Complex issues demand complex solutions - things aren’t always simple. While it’s a mistake to needlessly complicate things, it’s just as bad to go for the lowest common denominator. Besides, I can't really gloat about writing in brevity. As Pascal famously (supposedly) said "I would have written you a shorter letter but I ran out of time."
The simpler and easier a solution, the more popular it is. That’s obvious. But simple and easy does is not always the best. We do live in a world that wants its fixes quickly, easily and “effectively”. We live in a world which says that to keep things simple is to make them better. We live in world that says “good things take time” but in which we seldom take the time to do good things.
That suits me fine. It means that these entries will only be half as long as I imagined. But there’s a problem with that. Complex issues demand complex solutions - things aren’t always simple. While it’s a mistake to needlessly complicate things, it’s just as bad to go for the lowest common denominator. Besides, I can't really gloat about writing in brevity. As Pascal famously (supposedly) said "I would have written you a shorter letter but I ran out of time."
The simpler and easier a solution, the more popular it is. That’s obvious. But simple and easy does is not always the best. We do live in a world that wants its fixes quickly, easily and “effectively”. We live in a world which says that to keep things simple is to make them better. We live in world that says “good things take time” but in which we seldom take the time to do good things.
Can You Tolerate This?
My good friend Neil Young lives in London with his partner and their two young children. Neil and I have been good friends for a long time now after meeting in graduate school at Waikato University. He’s a gun writer in the commercial and corporate communications world and bloody well read. Interestingly enough, we’ve probably had more contact with each other since he’s been in England.
Neil’s sister Ashleigh lives in Wellington and is also an excellent writer. I don’t just mean someone who jots down a poem while the ads are on either. I mean a highly trained well-qualified craftsperson who goes back to the page time and again honing the language down to a diamond hard finish.
Ashleigh has just published an essay “Can You Tolerate This?” on Turbine, Victoria University’s online lit. journal. It’s an incredible piece of razor sharp prose. It reads beautifully and clean with a poetic sense that draws every element of the story into super clear focus. It’s the kind of writing that can only come from many excruciating hours of editing and re-editing. If you havent’ read it, you’re in for a huge treat.
Neil’s sister Ashleigh lives in Wellington and is also an excellent writer. I don’t just mean someone who jots down a poem while the ads are on either. I mean a highly trained well-qualified craftsperson who goes back to the page time and again honing the language down to a diamond hard finish.
Ashleigh has just published an essay “Can You Tolerate This?” on Turbine, Victoria University’s online lit. journal. It’s an incredible piece of razor sharp prose. It reads beautifully and clean with a poetic sense that draws every element of the story into super clear focus. It’s the kind of writing that can only come from many excruciating hours of editing and re-editing. If you havent’ read it, you’re in for a huge treat.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
People LOVE Paragraphs
The biggest challenge to people who write is the increasingly short attention span of people who read. Those in the know suggest bullet points or numbered lists to make stuff "reader friendly". These are techniques that set apart sections of text and give them greater importance. Removing these parts from the main body of the copy clears them out, makes them easy to see and supposedly draws reader attention.
But if the bulleted pointed sections are the important stuff, why bother with the rest of the text. When we make a shopping list we don't open with a paragraph explaining why. We don't compose a conclusion for our list interpreting our choices in a wider context. We just bullet the items, one under the other.
And this is the problem with publishing lists. They appear as a set of instructions or rules, they point the finger, and warn us not to be naughty, not to forget something. But they lack depth, have no capacity for detail. Lacking reason, they simply parcel information into tiny forgettable bites. The bulleted list sends a clear message: "I might be important, but I'm just a summary, I'm boring but you better not forget me!"
Bullets and numbered lists are useful for summaries and sets of instructions, text that TELLS people what to do. But if you really want to interest your reader, really pull them in, the paragraph is where it's at. There's nothing as effective a well pointed, nicely weighted paragraph. Try it. Your readers will love it.
But if the bulleted pointed sections are the important stuff, why bother with the rest of the text. When we make a shopping list we don't open with a paragraph explaining why. We don't compose a conclusion for our list interpreting our choices in a wider context. We just bullet the items, one under the other.
And this is the problem with publishing lists. They appear as a set of instructions or rules, they point the finger, and warn us not to be naughty, not to forget something. But they lack depth, have no capacity for detail. Lacking reason, they simply parcel information into tiny forgettable bites. The bulleted list sends a clear message: "I might be important, but I'm just a summary, I'm boring but you better not forget me!"
Bullets and numbered lists are useful for summaries and sets of instructions, text that TELLS people what to do. But if you really want to interest your reader, really pull them in, the paragraph is where it's at. There's nothing as effective a well pointed, nicely weighted paragraph. Try it. Your readers will love it.
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