Menofizzikkul; Another One Bites The Dust

Last day of March already. For a long month, that seemed short. Is there some kind of tempus-doppler effect corresponding with the short, very long state of Fear-bruary? Who knows. One thing I do know is that we are about to enter a middling month, one of the four with thirty days. Starting tomorrow, you will be bombarded with more of my art, but this time all very recent and almost all digitally created. I thank all those who found anything of merit in my 'variations' shown over the last several Tuesdays. I haven't indulged in live painting since being in the Hutch simply because of lack of space ... or perhaps I ought to rephrase that as lack of my organisation of the space to allow for a creative corner. 

Do you ever feel like you are peering into an abyss? A cave of darkness, a well of inky black?

Every now and then in the past wee while, just for a moment or two, I have had this sensation. Moments following my daily catch up on the news; war is not only in Ukraine but there are still areas of conflict in many other places. Many of these regions are not classified formally as war, yet the disruption and loss of life, the atrocities that they produce, are certainly not to be classified as a community at peace. Yet, because nothing much of anything from those places affects the comfort and convenience of big western society, hardly anything is heard of these things.

Click through here to see this map fully interactive and info on each conflict.

Could you have named more than a couple? Ukraine doesn't appear in blue as this map was formed last September. Neither does it show the area of Jammu-Kashmir in northern India, with its border with Pakistan. Or the simmering on the other side there with China... neither does this map allow for the constant rumblings that take place everywhere with respect to race or religion. Mankind, for all its being a community critter, has great difficulty actually living in community. It requires patience, tolerance, forgiveness... Love with the capital 'ell'.

It is that latter that keeps me sane. Even as anger and sorrow arise, while acknowledged, they get supplanted with Love and compassion and prayer for the better. Not out of naivete or airy-fairy, hippy-dippiness, but out of a genuine belief that the majority of folk just want to get on with life. It is always the bullies and bitches who make the headlines. Where are all the stories of the everyday? Where is the hope?

I read this rather interesting article the other day. An intriguing insight as to the need for something to hang a community together. Also notable was the 'average size' data - that below 100 and over 200 in a group leads to greater potential for dispute. The over-population of the world where so many communities are forced together in huddles far exceeding such a small number might explain the general levels of discontent, the deterioration in mental health and the overall malaise that weakens immune systems... leading to potentials such as we have recently had to endure.

We mark civilisation as having certain standards of living in the form of housing and work environs, hygiene facilities, technology and so on. We are inclined, with a degree of hubris, to think that the more advanced the tech then so must be the civilisation. Yet look what we do with that tech.

To me, civilisation ought to be marked by how civil the community milieu is. What is the degree of genuine, unselfish kindness within it? How does it treat its children, elders and animals? Does it advocate and exercise equality of food, water, power; that those who have an abundance seek to share with those who have less? That this is done not out of 'charity' but out of the necessity of survival and without expectation of boons such as tax break, societal kudos or personal aggrandisement? That the voices of all the citizens are listened to and weighted for the application of any group policy? So many ways there are to improve the lot of all who live on this blesséd yet benighted planet.

So yes, I occasionally look into the abyss, the seemingly bottomless pit of human disgrace... then I do my best to light the lamp of Love and let it shine...