This week has been a good one. There is a line in my favourite book ”11 minutes” that goes something like “life rushes us from heaven to hell in a matter of minutes.” I think that is true except my rushes seem to go in weeks. Except really most of the time I am here on earth and for me it is not such a bad place to be.

So why was my week good. Lots of little reasons but here I am going to talk aboout the big ones.

1) I did a tutorial presentation and my teacher told me at the end of it that it was one of the best he had seen. I had to talk about the movie “Psycho” (charming topic). I brought in 7 props and gave them to members of the class and we talked about when the props were used and what they symbolise. One of the guys I work with reckons my teacher said it was one of the best presentations he had seen because one of my props was a white bra and a black bra (there was symbolism in them, really!!) but it wasn’t the bras. There were lots of other things that made it a good presentation. 

2) My hair is now dreaded. Not quite all of it but a fair amount. I think it looks pretty cool. I am really happy because I hadn’t brushed my hair or conditioned it since the holiday of fun so it had already started to dread it self but needed to be  ordered a bit. My friend who did my dreads said my hair was in perfect condition to make them. It feels a bit strange. I probably don’t look as pretty nor would I call them sexy but I really like them.

Consume, consume, consume. Forget the fact that the world is so full of stuff that it is coming close to being stuffed and consume some more. Here have $900, be patriotic and buy Australian made. Or if you can’t do that go down to your local DFO and by direct from Asia’s sweatshops.

If you are as stressed as me about all these messages coming at you from all directions and need to know there are people thinking differently about this stuff check out this website – mannafromkevin.wordpress.com. It contains quotes like: –   

His gut tells him that what we need are not policies to reinforce our destructive habits, but communities animated by hope, able to imagine an alternative future. Communities who remind each other not to put blind faith in any human-made economic system. Communities who remember that the only ‘real’ economy is the earth, to which we must pay the greatest respect.

However the purpose of the $900 cash hand out is simply this: shop ‘til you drop. It is yet another development of the disturbing idea that a citizen’s duty is to consume. It says that even though the current crisis is a manifestation of our collective greed, and even though this greed is killing the planet and creating poverty, we are determined to do more of the same.

His addiction to the pokies had seen him blow his entire pension cheque at the casino — again. He would speak of how he had told himself just the night before that this time he wouldn’t do it. But the human capacity for self-delusion is immense. His denial of the odds led him to believe that this time it would all be different. Such is our problem with climate change. We are addicted to the very things that accelerate global warming. We know the problems but remain in denial about what it is going to require of us to fix them. Like an addict who thinks they can control their addiction or stop any time they like, we cling to the train as it hurtles towards the abyss.

Urban Seed has a new member joining the executive team. Her name is Meridee Costello. It is all rather exciting really. Her husband maintains leadership at World Vision but now she is cooler because she is going into leadership at Urban Seed. She said in the interview that she has always really valued the work of Urban Seed and believes that the role is perfect for her at this stage of life.       

 At present the executive team is made up of three blokes so Urban Seed had been looking for a woman to join the team since the end of last year. Many wonderful women were asked to apply but most of them turned it down. In the end there were two applicants and Meridee Costello was offered the job.

I can’t say life is going particularly great. I am having a flat phase and I feel really out of kilter with everything. It is all a bit yuk really. But that said there are still simple things to enjoy like drinking tea on the outdoor fire escape while watching the rain and finding a really comfortable bean bag at the library to read a book on and talking to Matt about is soon to be new life in London (ofcourse I am sad but it is also exciting) and laughing a little on the phone with David at something really inappropriate and finding time and space to share stories with a Korean woman in Credo who is generally really hard to understand. Pain sux but it is forcing me to find comfort in the beautiful little things going on around me.