draw a dream

Has it ever struck you, perhaps watching the sea breathe against the shore or seeing the whiteness of snow-capped mountains behind a city skyline or just lying in your bed staring at the molding on your ceiling- has it ever struck you how absolutely small we are? Vulnerable to the elements, vulnerable to our own chemistry, more ethereal than air and more brittle than glass.

Such small, small things, and yet constantly wanting, taking, reaching for something bigger in a vaster world. 

Such weak, defenseless things, and yet waging war, waging peace, living, dying, growing, building, destroying, changing. 

How ironic (but we invented the word ironic, didn’t we) that we look down on our empires from such great heights that it is humanity itself that fails to be self-sustaining. Such fallible things that get torn up inside before anyone sees, that fall in on themselves until we crumble downwards.

Has it ever struck you how fascinating and bizarre and amazing humans are? They say ants are amazing because they can carry up to fifty times their body weight; and humans, barely ants in the greater sense, we have carried ourselves far, far beyond. And we are so small, and so breakable, and we are indeed broken, beaten little things, and yet we press on, and we continue to press on…

[I want to be conscious until I’m gone, I want to feel something even if it’s the pain of salt water in my lungs, I want to feel the fight- something huge and terrifying and brave. — Third Star]

… we will act as though it intends to keep on spinning.”

God, I love that quote. 

London 2012 is coming up, and it’s a raging battle between the geeks and everyone else for which David is carrying the torch. It’s #tennantforthetorch for me, but perhaps my mom and I would disagree on that one. Honestly one could make a full-time career out of fandom, and a bloody hard job that would be too (and I’d do it, if only I could figure out a way to get paid…)

In other news, Istanbul, Tokyo, or Madrid for 2020? All three would be fun, I think- maybe Istanbul? Just to keep the Olympic-followers globe hopping after Rio 2016 and Pyeongchang 2018. But who knows what will happen between now and 2020?

Maybe we won’t even live to see it all. Or maybe the world will indeed just keep on spinning.

Timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff indeed.

Isn’t it interestingly ironic how the most threatening weapon against nuclear arms is… nuclear arms? The nuclear race is over; these days, it’s a matter of standing at the top of your castle and throwing hot oil on everyone else that tries to climb up. Your fortress will never fall if no one can breach the walls.

But of course, no one living in the shadow of a fortress feels safe if the fortress constantly has guns pointed at them. So how does one fix a problem like that? Simple: point a gun back. 

Unfortunately, this whole thing only works if you manage to build an adequately sized gun without someone else blowing you up first, and it looks like the United States is already ready to shoot stuff at Iran for its supposedly “civilian” nuclear program. Seriously though, no one even knows for sure they’re building weapons with that stuff. But someone in the Middle East could light a matchstick and Israel would probably go ballistic, so looks like it’s up to the US to defend liberty and justice and freedom and start arming troops before Israel does.

And the fact that they’ve gone and revealed it all means they’re either a) bluffing or b) ready as hell to use it, and for god’s sake if it’s option b) then may whatever superhuman force is out there have mercy on all our souls. Oh but of course it’s all for peace anyways, what am I worrying about? 

1:13am.

I am sitting in a room now as bare as the day I found it nine months ago. Nine months living in this compact cinderblock room, and it’s been a journey and an adventure and a brave new world indeed.

And it’s hard to remember where I was a year ago, and hard to imagine where I’ll be a year from now; time is a rollercoaster you can’t get off, except rollercoasters are almost predictable and time is hardly linear at all. I’ve changed, for better or worse— maybe a little more hipster, a little less stern, a little more reckless, a little more determined. I have met people and learned things that have been and will be worth more than I can imagine, and I owe so much to so many.

The road’s been about as smooth as New York City sidewalks, and based on my observations I am about as prepared to deal with the world out there as NYC roads are prepared to deal with heavy rain. But the rain adds depth to the city air, and dimension to glassy tiles, and I have been soaked cold through and through if only to learn how to dance in the rain.

In two hours, a car’s going to come and take me away; the nomad in a strange land is going home to dreams of another kind.

May 8th, 1945: The Allied Forces formally accept the surrender of Nazi Germany, and VE Day- Victory in Europe- is declared.

When you think about how much has changed- or how much we think has changed- since then, 67 years seems such a short amount of time to describe something that seems so distantly in the past. 

67 years since a major European war. The same can’t be said for war in general, unfortunately, but a happy VE Day anniversary to you all nonetheless.

Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy might have held out a a little hope after close results in the first round of French presidential elections last week, but any dreams he had of being president for another term have now been firmly dashed with the election of Francois Hollande from the Socialist Party. (x)

Maybe it’s the relatively poor state of the global economy, but it seems like it’s been a good year for Socialist parties- at least in France and Canada, both in which leftist parties have made extremely large strides in comparison to their rather sad histories. These next few years will be interesting, to say the least. A test of socialism, if you like, especially in the already flaky European Union. And Mr. Hollande has been thus far untested in government office, so the world will be watching whether this new blood brings a fresh perspective or idealist failures.

In any case, that’s two governments becoming significantly more socialist in the past year. And with American elections coming up in the fall, one can only wonder what the bizarre set of presidential candidates is going to inflict on the country in November.