The sap of r)evolution

It's hard to make sense of what's been happening; there are moments when I wonder: how I can consider myself to be a writer, when I'm not actually writing?  Though )at the risk of being redundant) somehow it also makes so much sense:The readjustment, the adaptation, the unceasing movement of impressions and emotions... my need to let this process unfold within, in its own time, and away from the screen.  There is so much happening inside, that I can't keep up the transparent and immediate processing the way I usually do.

Transparent and immediate processing has been a cause of mine.  Lately, I've embraced what I consider to be a yin approach (my own sense)... no words, no conceptualization... only this ineffable mystery of unconscious gestation and silence.


... Meanwhile...
in the streets of Montréal city...
a revolution is wanting to take place.

The students are still on strike!
Protests and marches are happening daily now.


Two days ago (April 25th), I watched this video on Facebook:

I watched this video and I thought of one thing: Prague.

Such mobilization, such fervor, such numbers... It's so important that we remember the amount of power that a people can have, if only enough individuals dare get out and stand up, together.  ''Un pueblo, undo, nunca sera vincido!''
Hold on seers, revolutions take months to unfold... evolutions take centuries.

Now let me say this,
My roommates have been passionately involved in the student movement, while I have personally found it more difficult to fully identify with the arguments and the cause.  I am not in school anymore, for one thing; but that's not a real reason, because I still consider the education system to be the concern of all citizens.  So the reason why I've been tentative about wearing ''the red square'' - the symbol of this strike - is because I don't think we're highlighting the real issues, the real incentives, the real needs...

 And besides, I am after all a good Libra; I can very well empathize with multiple perspectives.

''These students are complaining with their mouths full; tuition in Québec is still one of the lowest in America, and in the world.''

True, and...

''Education is at the very foundation of a society.  In a true democracy, it should be public and free.''

This needs more exploration and nuancing, but I'd say that I basically agree.

''The costs of living have increased so much over the past thirty years; if we want the employees of those institution to earn a fair wage, we need to raise the prices we pay to attend schools.  If we want to keep the universities open, we need to raise tuition.''

Are we talking about finally valuing the work of our teachers?  Then I'm in.  But even here, we'd only be  talking about professors... intellectuals... the elite.  What I really want to see happening is for society to acknowledge the most fundamental role and function of all the people who educate our children, starting with parents, and nannies, kindergarden ''technicians'' (as we call them here) and high school teachers.

One more thing on this.  We need to ask about the management of university funds.  Where would the extra money would be going exactly?  Those currently earning the highest salaries are not our professors, they are the top administrators, those whose job is to bring more funding to the busin... I mean, the school.
Well it's out now, I've said it: Yes, universities are businesses.
(I played four years of NCAA soccer.  I saw it from the inside.)

That's what the strike is really about.
It's not about a few hundred dollars.  It's about capitalism hijacking and corrupting what should be our most valued and noble insitutions.  It's about the mixing of money and knowledge.  It's about something that's not turning quite right.  Something in the equation sounds contradictory... if we live in a popular democracy, where equal citizens get to exercise their reason... that critical thinking... should we not teach how to thing critically?  Should we not focus on emancipation rather than student loans?

Slogans are easy to shout.
The issue is so much more complex and it runs so deep.  We are having a hard time verbalizing what it is.

As far as I'm concerned, that's why the movement is unstoppable.  It is bigger than us.  

 I am talking about that unconscious undercurrent, el rio abajo, that invisible power streaming under the surface... sweet maple sap rising up : we have termed it: 

''Le printemps érable'' (a pun on ''arab Spring'' and ''maple Spring'').

When discussing the situation, I always make sure to underline that what's going on is part of a global transition.  We generally seem to agree.  Nations stand up to their tyrants, corrupted bankers are being uncovered, ice caps are melting faster than ever.  The temperature is rising.
(What year is this again? Oh yeah... it's 2012.) 

From Berlin to Warsaw, Istanbul, Toulouse, and Cadiz.
The revolution is breathing...
(All pictures I took this Fall)

But to get back to the topic at hand.

''If we make university free, people will stop valuing it.  Kids won't take it seriously, and they won't have the incentives to take their responsibilities.''

Really?
Sure, it's true that my debts are ''forcing me'' to get on the boat and join the system.
That's where the problem lies.  Too many westerners are stuck in jobs that alienates them.  Depression is a real plague.  (I bet xanex has a lot of money to put towards university research programs!)  Wouldn't it cost less to society in the long run, if we invited students to try all the classes and the programs they might be interested in, so that they'd be able to choose what really sparks their interest?  Wouldn't we be glad and impatient to take responsibilities in a world that aligns with the values of our generations?

Do we truly need monetary incentives to wanna contribute to the world as best as we can?  Could we not learn to value things for its own sake?

Nietzsche prophesized it: transvaluation is needed.

To be continued...

Feel free to post your opinion and enter the conversation.

Gyohei Zaitsu, 9 mai 2008

Gyohei Zaitsu, 9 mai 2008, a photo by imagesdedanse on Flickr.

Je viens de trouver une série de photos prises par Jérôme Delatour, vraisemblablement parisien. L'artiste de butoh est Gyohei Zaitsu, et... il me rappelle avec force ce qui m'attire tant dans cet art: subversif, cru, révélateur, viscéral, tellement postmoderne et à la fois si primal.
Je tenais à partager.

it's been a while

Silently transforming, from within. That poetic chysalis ;)

yes, it's part of punctuation now

a new kind of emotions

I feel, with emoticons.

Today I woke up and had breakfast while chatting with my ''coloc''.   Morning talks, about fruits and about cheese... and about the art of living together.  She is European, so I get to feel a little bit like I did while I lived on Dunckerstrasse, in Berlin.

I packed my bag and went outside

The Spring sunshine, that light.  

''San Francisco doesn't have this light,'' I thought. 

 ''If I was a poet I'd write a verse about it.''

That light.

Montréal City.

We're in the midst of revolution

students asking the right questions

Student marches happening every day now

It's about tuition fees... but it's about much more than that.
Uranus squares Pluto this year, it was conjunct in the 1960s.  Last square was 1930s.
And crises are crossroads.

Political scandals, financial insecurities, weather changes, postmodern philosophies...
Hundreds of thousands of people marches.  The government remains deaf.

So it's legitimate to ask: What's the state about again?  What's our definition of democracy?
What are the choices we want to make as a society?  And who is making them?
What are the choices we want to make, as a community?

We living together, brothers and sisters from all over,

Africans, Latinos, Chinese, Portuguese, Italians, Anglos, Francos,

we come from everywhere

onto this island

old Hochelaga

in the middle of the St-Laurent.

A religious utopian colony

A port of traders, and dreamers, and hardcore survivors.

What drove Maisonneuve and Jeanne-Mance to settle here, really?

Je me souviens: they were missionaries.

We are all colonizers.

Today I came back home from a bike ride and a walk on rue Saint-Laurent.  Shopping for props, and for thrills, in ''friperies'', walking into a little treasure of a store, called Eva B.

Came home to my coloc's girlfriend playing accordion in the kitchen.  They were just hanging out, him sowing, her playing music.

I love my life.

Looks a bit like a mosque, but I'm told it's
an orthodox church...

Space for Light

Tuesday afternoon.  I biked all the way to Concordia to get some arts supply.  I then ate a free vegan wrap, offered by The People's Potatoe, Concordia's food cooperative. 
Infiltrated the student movement for an hour, met some CÉGEP students who were hanging out with the undergraduate students (We go to CÉGEP between high school and University, so we're between 16 and 19, on average.)

Came home and gathered my tools: box cutter, paper, pencil, ruler, cutting mat, and tape.  I moved some furniture around to be able to lay out my canvas on the floor, and then, I understood:
I am a space creator.  But I'm also potentially... a space dominator!

Living in a coop house one's gotta constantly face these things.  Keeping yourself and others in check is very important.  Communication is a necessity.
Spontaneous communal meals are the best!  And so are crafts nights, morning meditations, friday afternoon music jams, bike repair days, and planting parties.  I have brought myself to what I wanted: living in a coop.

It's not the countryside yet, but it's something else.  Urban life is another game.  We are learning urban agriculture, making art out of recycled and found materials.  My roommates, a majority of geography students, are deeply involved in the student movement at Concordia.  Ideas fuse and fertilize the air...

It's not the cleanest around here.  There are between six and eight people living here and as much as I'd like shiny sinks and spotless floors, it is something I have no control over.  I'm taking responsibility for my needs and desires.  I'm learning to communicate in order to avoid resentment.  We are all learning together.

Both and neither leaders and nor followers.
Together.

I am adjusting to my new life... new city, new reality... still unfolding gently...
That's why I'm needing to stay a bit more silent and write less.
All these magical occurrences will thus remain unrecorded.  Letting them go...
with a smile.

FWD post on: Non-Monogomy in Mtl

Too much is going on to be able to keep up in writing...
but here's an interesting posting from another blog I subscribe too:
In the spirit of mutli-mirroring:

radicalmontreal: Non-Monogomy in Montreal: I`ve been in a non-monogamous relationship for seven years now. My partner and I have been seeing each other for 11 years, and after the f...