scattyme (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} scattyme) wrote,@ 2008-01-13 16:21:00 |
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Happy 2008
On New Year's Eve, our friends who live upstairs came down and we all sat around the fire here and drew pictures of things that we want to disappear in 2008, and burnt them in the fire. The pictures ranged from a creature that catches people to Lyme's disease to war, with a certain US president featuring more than once.
I decided that I wanted the things that are burning to disappear - or, to be more precise, the things that are contributing to global warming. It was quite easy to draw an SUV and a Humvee, and I was very proud of my factory spewing smoke into the atmosphere. The airplane wasn't too bad, and there was also one of those scaffold things for oil wells that looked vaguely realistic. But I stumbled badly when trying to draw an oil pump. I've seen them a thousand times and yet can't visualize them properly at all.
Since you're allowed to draw more than one kind of thing, I also threw in a few weapons such as a missile and a pistol - both easy - and an attempt at a rifle (or possibly machine gun) which was totally pathetic. It looked like a stick with a piece of string attached to it.
How is it that I can be so familiar with something and yet not be able to visualize its actual shape.
When I look at the four-year-old and the nine-year-old who live upstairs, and at the other children I know, I think that perhaps we're simply carrying on the long tradition of betraying the next generation, forcing them to carry the burden of our mistakes and violence. I realise of course that I'm not exactly the first person to think about this. It would be so nice though if I could be one of the last.
The companionship and the fire give me some hope that there's more to life than passing on the pain down the line, but I can't be sure.
In any case, I hope all my friends who read this, and any strangers also, find that 2008 is a better year than 2007.
On New Year's Eve, our friends who live upstairs came down and we all sat around the fire here and drew pictures of things that we want to disappear in 2008, and burnt them in the fire. The pictures ranged from a creature that catches people to Lyme's disease to war, with a certain US president featuring more than once.
I decided that I wanted the things that are burning to disappear - or, to be more precise, the things that are contributing to global warming. It was quite easy to draw an SUV and a Humvee, and I was very proud of my factory spewing smoke into the atmosphere. The airplane wasn't too bad, and there was also one of those scaffold things for oil wells that looked vaguely realistic. But I stumbled badly when trying to draw an oil pump. I've seen them a thousand times and yet can't visualize them properly at all.
Since you're allowed to draw more than one kind of thing, I also threw in a few weapons such as a missile and a pistol - both easy - and an attempt at a rifle (or possibly machine gun) which was totally pathetic. It looked like a stick with a piece of string attached to it.
How is it that I can be so familiar with something and yet not be able to visualize its actual shape.
When I look at the four-year-old and the nine-year-old who live upstairs, and at the other children I know, I think that perhaps we're simply carrying on the long tradition of betraying the next generation, forcing them to carry the burden of our mistakes and violence. I realise of course that I'm not exactly the first person to think about this. It would be so nice though if I could be one of the last.
The companionship and the fire give me some hope that there's more to life than passing on the pain down the line, but I can't be sure.
In any case, I hope all my friends who read this, and any strangers also, find that 2008 is a better year than 2007.
