delicate,
perfect,
these little moments
of normal;
broken
by the smallest,
swiftest glance;
thoughts
like shards
of glass
dispel
the good
as if
it never was;
and we
would go,
but for
those specks
of light
that bubble
forth,
when we breathe
like
we used to –
before life
Month: December 2014
Kim Jong-un
I have a question.
Kim Jong-un is the leader of North Korea. He is the 46th most powerful person in the world according to Forbes 2013. He is the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army – one of the largest standing armies in the world at 5.9 million people. He leads a state with nuclear weapons capability and one that has threatened preemptive nuclear attacks against the United States in the past.
So with all of these things in mind is it wise of Canadian Seth Rogen to make a comedy movie called The Interview about two Americans visiting North Korea with the mission of killing him?
More importantly is it helpful in today’s global geopolitical climate to exercise your right as a free American comedic actor to create a movie that, by its nature, is an exercise in making money, about killing such a man?
I understand some people will read this as something of an apology for the state of North Korea and its leader but it is neither of these things. This is about how we move forward and seek reconciliation, diplomacy and change with, and in, such nation states and their leaders.
A movie such as this says that this is not possible. A movie such as this makes a diplomatic effort far more challenging than before if not impossible for a time.
Consider for a moment if North Korea made a comedic film about two North Korean spies coming to the United States under false pretenses to assassinate the President of the United States…portraying the assassination in grotesque detail.
Well one might say – big deal – we can take a joke.
Of course the scenarios are unequal…the United States is the most powerful country in the world and such efforts are generally ignored when they are made by a small country like North Korea.
But what if it were China that released such a film or Russia or England? The American response might be different. Such a film would be perceived as unhelpful propaganda. Such a film would be seen as an effort to portray the United States and American’s in a bad light to the film maker’s population. Such a film would no doubt cause the United States to question its relationship with said country and likely be seen as a big step backward.
I am not questioning Rogen’s right to make the film. I am simply questioning whether such a film is helpful and wise right now. Sometimes we get ourselves so emotionally riled up when we perceive we are being censored that we rush ahead with something before asking ourselves if its a good idea in the first place. The more we are told we should not do something the more likely we are to do it because “I have the right to do this dammit and nobody is going to stop me!”
Again I ask the questions – Is it wise? Is it helpful? Is it simply about making a buck? Does any of this matter in the end?
Imagine every nation as if they were one of 196 students in a small suburban high school. Who is North Korea? Who is the United States? How should one be acting toward the other? What happens to the student who is relegated to the sidelines (justly or not) and cast out or isolated from the rest? The one that is lampooned and made fun of because of what they say?
Maybe a couple of the more popular jocks or cheerleaders in the school get together and make a funny little art class movie about the kid and how two jocks go on a mission to become the kid’s friend but secretly the plan is to blow him up and portray it in a pretty realistic and gory way.
How does such a student respond and can they pose a risk to the rest of the student body?
These are important questions that need to be asked.
Personally I would much rather understand why North Korea is what it is than make fun of them. But hey – that’s just me.
too native
too many and young are the hearts
that too soon stop their brazen beats;
too many are the men and women
who lay dead, discarded in the streets
like trash awaiting curbside collection;
frozen girls locked in beaten fear,
shot boys dead from masculine lies
gone from those wishing them near;
too native and unseen are the ones,
invisible lives left fighting for a voice;
as would-be patrons pour useless pity
in place of power or any real choice.
Virtual Cookie Exchange
So I have been tagged by my sister April Laramey in the Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange. So I bring you the following recipe:
UNICORN POOP COOKIES
Main Ingredients
- 1 cup(s) Sugar
- 1/2 cup(s) Butter – Softened
- 1/2 cup(s) Shortening
- 3 1/2 tablespoon(s) Cream Cheese – Softened
- 1/2 teaspoon(s) Salt
- 1 whole(s) Egg
- 1/2 teaspoon(s) Almond Extract
- 2 cup(s) All Purpose Flour
- Food Coloring (As many different colors as you want the cookies to be!)
- Decorations
- Silver Candy Balls (If Desired)
- Food Sprinkles (If Desired)
- Sparkle Gel
- Edible Glitter
Preparation
1. Combine butter, shortening and cream cheese in a large bowl, beat together until smooth. Add sugar and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and almond extract until combined and gradually add the flour beating until combined.2. Form dough into a ball with your hands and then into a log shape, divide the log shape into six portions (or how ever many colors you want).
3. Place each portion of dough into individual wraps of plastic and tint the dough different colors (See Below for instructions on how to tint the dough)
4. Chill tinted dough in the refrigerator 1 hour or freezer 15-20 minutes.
5. Divide each tinted chilled dough ball into 8 equal pieces.
6. Take one piece of each colored dough (leaving the rest in the fridge while you work) and roll out like a rope or snake on your counter-top. If you use a piece of waxed paper on the counter, you shouldn’t have to add any flour.
7. Roll the rope shape to about 6 inches long. Continue rolling all the colors and stacking them into a pile. Gently press the ropes together and roll the large multicolored “rope” on the counter to round and smooth it and if desired to lengthen it to 10 to 12″.
8. Cut the multicolored “rope” into two pieces, using both hands, roll with your palms in different directions on both end of the rope pieces to twist it gently.
9. Coil the rope into a poop shape, using your imagination as to what you think unicorn poop should look like
10. Press in some silver candy balls (dragee) into the dough pieces to decorate if desired. Place dough on greased cookie sheet (or one covered with parchment or silicone mat) and bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes until cookies are set and bottoms are light brown, they will not spread very much.
11. Cool on wire rack.
12. Coat with sparkle gel and/or edible glitter to give them some sparkle and add some sprinkles to the still wet gel for more texture. Let cookies dry completely before stacking.
Dough Coloring Tint
Do this prior to chilling the dough, so that you don’t undo the chilling process with your body heat.
1. Get a large piece of plastic wrap (to protect your hands and table from the dye), place a ball of cookie dough in the middle.
2. Poke a well in the center with your thumb.
3. Add the food coloring to the well and then fold the dough over the coloring.
4. Wrap it in the plastic wrap, and begin kneading the food coloring into your dough.
This may take a while and you may find that you need more food coloring (Hint: Colored Cookie Dough bakes lighter than what you see when you first tint the dough, once you’ve gotten the right color tint, add more).
I now tag Megan Chapman and dare her to find a better recipe!
Process
the tree
feels
the leaf
slipping away
slowly
long before
it falls;
the strong
spring grasp
lets go
one day
at a time
til’ the fall
wind
pulls
them apart
and a
cradled
drifting
falling
away and
unto
the ground
and the
burying
snow
only
to return
again
and
again
in endless
embrace
I
too melodramatic
like a Christmas sweater
soaked in Calvin Klein’s obsession
choking the subtle from the room
with wafting screams of –
“LOOK AT ME!”
evergreen
it is in the thawing evergreen heart
that rests safe/warm in the centre
where all of the spring-fed dreams
bubble as whispers to the surface
through the cracks in my stony self
teaching that my life is not my own
but a burning phosphor flint chip
struck from the bleeding skin of God
and I can’t put it out…
though I tryandtryandtry
exist
even with my own eyes
staring back at me,
from the silver pond mirror,
blue fish bred of elsewhere;
i cannot bring myself to believe
that i exist
ensuing silence
the crackle, whisper, hiss
of a former regular feed
that came like signs of life
from the faceless worlds
that walked in my orbit
flat-lined in the wake of this hotter time,
and now in the ensuing silence –
i hear everything…
machines of entropy
vessels afloat, ships adrift
with beacon eyes that see
but never comprehend
this dream without a dreamer
that leaves us as
enigmatic machines of entropy
falling apart while falling apart
from one-another
from ourselves
and into a darkness
that only holds fear
until the finish line is crossed
Harnessing Chaos 