Apology

I spent a lot of time at the car dealer today, waiting for them to fix the car and rob me blind in the process. But, that's not why I am writing this blog. To pass the time I looked through the newspaper and found this article:

"Australia issues an apology to Aborigines for injustice". While Rudd apologizes "for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture" he rules out compensation.

I felt myself tearing up, feeling a knot in my throat.

I couldn't stop thinking about the many more cultures and generations which suffered a similar plight of massacre and separation of children from parents.

I recalled a movie I saw a few years ago: "Rabbit Proof Fence" and last year's "The Tracker" (I did go through my Gulpilil phase watching his movies including his first "Walkabout").

How can we prevent actions that will make us have to later apologize for ?

Are we going to apologize to the Africans, American Indians, Iraquis, Vietnamese, Nepalese ... Mother Earth ... the list goes on and on but, will there be anyone to apologize to ?

Peace !

V Day and other digressions

Valentine Day is approaching and although I do not reserve matters of the heart for this day alone, I find myself pondering the meaning of it all.
Apart from the commercial aspect of it, which I abhor, I do appreciate the exchange of friendly and romantic expressions (leave out the corny cards or flowers, but bring on the chocolate, baby ...)

I have recently expressed my appreciation to my friends for whom I have a special kind of love -a reassuring, solid, quiet understanding, borrowing from Tahir Shah's "In Arabian Nights":
Real friends can sometimes dispense with talking. They can take confort in the awkwardness of silence.

The appreciation for family is unique to that individual and very complex to express in a few words.
Parents - Love grew from being that of total dependence from birth through childhood to defiance as I was striving to grow out of the nest to admiration for the enourmous task they undertook in raising this being.
Sister - The Love is a Friendship built on blood, a blend of parent/child interactions.
Husband - A Love that has seen its roller coaster moments and now softly rides the smooth waters, there is no effort for or against it, just the being in the moment and the understanding that the good times are to be cherished, and the bad ... well, those are temporary, as you assert so many times.
Little Ones - I think the word Love is not enough to express the feeling ... there is a mixture of Joy, Awe, Ecstasy and if I had to ever describe the feeling of Divine I would say its presence was felt by me for the first time in my life when you were born.

These are a few of my Favorite Things

The moment is now and maybe by the time I am done with these favorite things new ones will emerge but, this snapshot might make me laugh a few decades from now (or maybe not).

Some things go without saying and their omission is only an indication of their everlasting presence. They are the Fs in my life (Family, Friends and Food).

Now for the Fun:
- I am very much into Books. I mean, I am really into books, a little too obsessed with it in a way only I can become and just as rapidly un-become. If only I could turn this fad into a practical healthy leisure, but no, I let it take over my time, my shelves, my mind, my sleep ... it's all over me, into me and around me.

- Movies, Internet and all other forms of Media (and thinking of it Books are a part of it) are a source of information that continues to feed my curiosity.

- Politics. Now, that's a first !
I am sure I echo millions of others in this country that have only now awaken to this important facet of our life.
The reason for this new found interest is the set of characters now playing the field for presidential candidates: Hillary and Obama. We are staring history in the face and to be part of this exciting possibility is exhilarating.

- Blogs.
I was slow to catch up with this new form but now that I have, I am a loyal follower.

- Morocco.
Well, that might be cheating, if it was not for it starting with M, I would say it is one of those subjects that belongs with the Fs above, the ones that do not need to be mentioned. But, in truth this fav thing does show stronger signs now, probably triggered by the latest book I have been in bed with (no pun intended) - "In Arabian Nights "- Tahir Shah's latest and greatest work.

- Lost.
The TV series, not a state of being :-)
I am not into TV shows, I watch mostly CNN, Bill Maher and sporadic shows here and there but of this one I am a serious follower. I just dread having to wait one week for a 50 min episode. I prefered the marathons this Summer when I found myself in posession of both part 1 and 2, a whole 50 episodes that I gobled during the long trips we took throughout Ghana.