What is Fantasy? Truly?

Athena, the patron goddess of Athens virgins, wisdom and heroes who, fought her way out of Zeus's head at birth.

I am generally a patient person when it comes to respectfully listening to people's opinions and sides to their stories because, hey, I wouldn't be an observer if I couldn't do that.

Except when certain buttons get pushed. Then I go into defender knight mode. Well, there are different levels to it, but essentially, there are a few things that you do not push with me the wrong way; unless you want to get your ear ranted off.

Female empowerment, rights etc, Tolkien as himself, his works, and anyone who plays with it (ie: movies or fanfiction), ancient and modern Greece/Mediterranean culture and anything to do with fantasy or storytelling.

Now, all that quite briefly said, you are perfectly and rightly entitled to your own perspectives, judgements, whatever. Frankly, so long as we coexist without blowing each other into oblivion, then it's a live and let live world. Being impeccable with your word, no judgements, assumptions and always doing your best, remember?

That said, I am no perfect warrior of peace either. I have my fair share of judgments, assumptions and the like but I am human and I am practicing. That is all we can do.

To me, fantasy is a place where a great amount of that practicing can take place. Yes, getting out into this reality, interacting wih others and having experiences is the ultimate and main method, but when you are at home, in bed, about to go to sleep or moping about on a rainy day (if you are that sort), then reading fantasy allows for you to drop another lens over the reality we all live in by taking us to other lands and other persepectives. In short, I see fantasy as the first step to being able to live the Four Agreements, a bit like moving from training wheels to two wheels on bikes.

So following in the points that fantasy is just another lens over our reality (which is already an illusion in and of itself) and that fantasy is like training wheels to the full bike riding life of the Four Agreements then why is do people sneer at it, call it for children, for people afraid of "reality" or as something utterly fake?

First of all, labelling something as fantasy does not give either the author or the reader the right to be disrespectful to the cultures being borrowed from, the histories or people you are flashing a light on, Nor is it perfectly fine to not give any basis in realism because, "hey it's all made-up, for fun!"

Think of literary fiction for a moment. Is that made-up? Yes. Definitely. The only thing you might ever read that is not made-up should be non-fiction or articles of some kind. Then again, even those can have elements of storytelling or "selling" in them. People want you to read their words so they will go to all lengths to ensure you do. Think, click-bait, but in all forms of media.

So then, why, because something has the label of fantasy on it do people sneer at it?

In my opinion it goes right back to fear. People fear what is different, new, has no right or wrong answer, and what, in general, makes them question their belief system.

That is fantasy. It makes you face your fears. It makes you confront the reality that this world we live in is wholly fabricated by our perceived social and cultural values and mores. When really, at heart, we are just creatures of the Universe, beings of light, as much walking sticks of matter as the stars are great balls of it.

So the next time you label something fantasy, don't do so to worm out of your lack of research or respect of the human condition and the Universe.

Always fantastical because reality is the same.
Moony.


PS: Pandora had a jar, not a box, that whole kerfuffle came about because of a basic little mistake in terms of translation between Greek and English back in the 19th century.

Also, see the below image of a fresco once adoring an ancient Greek temple? Yeah, those pretty and austere white columns and statues were originally a playground of prime-colours. Brightly.

Using Creativity to Live

Carousel's aren't stereotypically magical places for nothing. Especially old ones like this in San Franscisco.

You've all probably heard about the power of art to help people work through problems (of all levels and kinds). I've got a slight twist on it however as I see art (creativity in general) as a way to view the world around you. Creativity is a way of life, not just a method of healing.

In other words, if you strive to be creative with at least one thing per day, you will find yourself thinking "I'm living" rather than "I'm just existing." Rather than going through the motions, day after day, with creativity, just a bit, will allow you to slowly start taking control over your life.

Use creativity to live.

But wait! I'm not creative! You might say.

Sorry, but actually, you are utterly wrong. I believe everyone is creative. After all, creativity is not a personality, nor is it a genetic trait. It is a skill.

The definition of a skill is something which can be learned, and eventually mastered (though frankly I also believe, like life, you will never be a master of creativity, after all, what is living and learning, if you reach an end point? Death? Probably).

Think of it this way also: creativity is about reconnecting the dots. 

Either way, you are creative. It just takes the determination to practice and an inordinate amount of belief in yourself. Especially as it is easier than ever to compare yourself to even that indy author who just published an ebook, let alone anyone who lands on a bestseller list and is a household name like John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars."

The thing people often forget (and I'm just as much a culprit) is no one got anywhere by doing a lot of comparing. People create things because they love to. Because it is a way to express their innermost thoughts, turmoiled or peaceful. It is a way to reflect on the reality of this Earth and the reality of their lives and perspectives or try out the perspective of someone else.

It's life. You do thing because you love to, not because it will get you fame.

If your creativity extends to lyrical facebook statuses, great. You might have made someone's day. I did. Numerous acquaintances expressed their love of the statement and one even wrote it down to share with others and I'd love to share it with you all too.

"People are moons. Don't look at them as new or full, light or dark, they are who they are, which means a lot of deep asteroid scars that no one can ever fully see, all at once. Not even them. They are a deep, moonlit wormhole. That makes them real. Not their reflection on society's waters." ARR

 It's not going to be a perfect path. Your idea of perfection will likely never exist on this reality, but what can exist is a good life lived. One where you create something. Daily.

Start with making someone smile.

Moony.

P.S. If you want further words about the values of creating things, check out this brilliant address by Neil Gaiman, a trule admirable storyteller, to American grad class a couple years ago.

Make good art.

Values of Difficult Relations

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1))

After my last post I figured I should do a more standard quote-based post. It's one of my favourites (though who am I kidding, if it's got JRR Tolkien's name attached I'm going to like it). This one is especially perfect though because it runs a balance between a perfect compliment and a sneaky insult.

Try it on people. It's a laugh. Truly. 

That said, I'm going to take this post to both unpack the multiple meanings in this oft befuddling quote (remember the looks of the poor hobbits in the movie?). 

The best sort of friends use broken sunglasses to make cyclop guards for your sandcastles.

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like" is the easy bit to the quote as it implies Bilbo would like to get to know more of the hobbits in the Shire because he believes they are all worth knowing. Simple.

However it goes a step further. Due to the implication that half of the hobbits there are worth getting to know better, we can take it to imply that most people we know will reveal hidden gems to us as we get to know them better. Perhaps it is a hidden talent, a perspective or a common experience, at least half the people you meet in your life will be worth getting to know better. They will teach you something.

"I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve" is a little trickier as it can be disguised as a bit of an insult to the other half of the hobbits.

However it too goes a step further. In all actuality it doesn't reveal that half of the hobbits present at the party are not worth knowing, but rather that Bilbo is acknowledging he has a personal shortcoming in that he doesn't like half of them as much as they deserve to be liked. As with the first half, this second half is also implying that all the hobbits there are worth knowing, it's just that Bilbo cannot quite make himself come to like one half of the lot as much as they deserve to be known and liked.

That's rather true of life for us humans too. We all have people we dislike, or at the very least, little habits and triggers that others do which bother us. Nonetheless, it is important we all move beyond that and recognize everyone deserves to be liked. Maybe you are not full on friends with them. Maybe you were friends with them and it fell through. Maybe you never will be able to friends. But at the very least, find something about them which is admirable. Find something about them you could learn from.

Also, and most importantly, recognize your own faults. What triggers and habits bother you? Do you dislike people who show-off? Do you find laziness irritating?

Now ask yourself why that is. More often then not, the things that irritate you, irritate you because they trigger feelings of doubt within you. Perhaps you feel unworthy, or you work and work and work but no one ever recognizes your effort?

Scratch it. Tough, I know. But worth it. Yes, it is important to surround yourself with people who allow you to be honest to your identity but it is also important to learn from others who trigger insecurities and other such negative thoughts of your identity and skills.

Not only do they help you become aware of those insecurities so you can work them through and finished, but getting to know people who bother you might just give you a new perspective to observe the world from.

Am I the only one who is curious about the inner lives of the silverware stealing Sackville-Bagginses related to Bilbo?

Maybe. But regardless, take a moment now to think of someone who you dislike, or at the very least, has a habit which bothers you. Think about why. Think about their life. What is their perspective?

Respect. Live and let live. Learn.
Moony.

Smile for Life

Note: As a general rule I do try not to blab much about my personal life and when I do, I try to spin it toward being more useful to you readers than the silly thing I once had on Livejournal during the years of angsty teenager-dom. Today though, I ask your understanding as I get a little more personal as I express what some would call an ephiphany experience. Regardless I hope you all can take something to apply to your own life perspectives and observations.

If I ascribed a landscape to my friend's perspective it would be this.

A few weeks back I lost an old friend who had lived with cystic fibrosis her whole brave and beautiful life in this world. Yesterday was the proper funeral and that "ephiphany" moment. I realised I was standing amid an end of an era and I wasn't sad. Instead I was full of deep gratitude that I had been fortunate enough to have known her.

Though I still owe her endless batches of force-fed pink icing cupcakes to create happiness (and fatten me up) during a period in which life hit one of those pits and the universe conspired to have her move around the corner from me during that time. It'll have to wait until I catch up with her one day.

For now I just have to find some of my own people to cheer up via force feeding of pink iced cupcakes.

In all seriousness, I owe her more than cupcakes though. Aside from my best friend, who I was able to reconnect with a few years back, I never had anyone who actually listened to me, let alone understood even 10% of what passed through my mouth. My friend was an amazing supporter of my mental particularities. Though perhaps that was because she had the emotional range and empathy to cross two Earth's and still have enough love for a China-sized country of individuals.

Whatever the case, I often find myself in a crowd, people milling around like yappy sheep, asking those impersonal yet apparently obligatory questions and then finding the conversation stunted worse than the ridiculousness of weather conversations in 19th century novels that the writers often poked fun at. So why must we still do it? I've never understood why people do it. Is it some ingrained primodial action that proves to the other party you are not a threat? Perhaps. Yet people still do it.

Occasionally though, people branch beyond it and start chatting about their lives. Very few words were directed around about my friend, though my observations were not scientifically founded in perfection as I left the family members who were largely seated at various tables, in peace from my lurking. I do understand certain boundaries. I also need to admit here that though I have lost extended family, I've only ever been able to attend a celebration of life which was centered around remembering the deceased rather than an typical funeral which is what I attended yesterday.

Pre-service, during the service and he reception I had a growing sense of disassociation from the people present, my sole connection was a thread with my friend as her favourite song was performed and I watched her life smile by in the form of photos. It was the end of an era and I felt more whole and certain of my place in this world and who I was since way back when I was ten, and entirely sure I was going to be one half of an epic crime fighting duo. When you're ten and your best friend hasn't moved away, yet, the world is more your oyster for eating than for taking and hiding away in a bank account. Like adults do. Instead, I subscribe to the Peter Pan sydrome.

Was the experience ephiphany?

No. Definitely not. As far as my knowledge and experience goes, ephiphanies are what characters in books get because the writer needs to move the story along quick enough to prevent readers ditching it out of boredom. After all, the ephiphanies of real life apply more of a sneak ninja style or, transformation via slowly administered drugs.

In other words, ephiphanies are gradual realisations over time, except most people tend to put a lot of stock in the aftermath when you realise you had a realisation of some sort.

In my words, I had a fraether. Over at my Life Hacker's Dictionary you'll find the particulars of the defintion if you're curious.

But for those of you less curious, a fraether is simply a realisation that you can finally to look over the edge of a cliff without desiring to leap over the edge to probable death, or getting the look from people who think you might have done if they hadn't been shoving pink iced cupcakes in your face instead.

This past era wasn't true to me or my spirit but thanks to my friend, and the building blocks of enforced cheer plus numerous sprinkles from other meaningful persons, I have identified my confidence. I can thank the past era for getting me to this point where I feel I can head out and though I may not end up being one half of an epic crime-fighting duo, I will certainly end up being proud of my efforts to share my voice of creativity in order to help others find their own. I owe it to my friend to extend all thehands I can.

When was the last time you listened to someone and extended a hand (or regular cupcake visits)? 

Humming her favourite tune, Hallelujah.
Moony.

Training Your Humanity Skills

“The World is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”

Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles

The world is an eternal showcase of art for humanity to appreciate. If they are willing to observe.

 

 Something is always happening. It's the blanket fort of the universe under which life unfolds. 

Usually those somethings are rather small and insignificant. Like a child stubbing her toe in a doorway, or bumping shoulders with the sardined individuals during rush hour on buses.  

Except that neither of those are small and insignificant. 

Put yourself in those situations and suddenly stubbing your toe or being squashed around many sweaty, tired bodies and their packs and phones and perfumes, is the biggest thing to happen to you in that moment. Simply because it. Happened. To. You.

Sometimes though, things happen which are very large, nebulous and shockwave cities, nations and numerous governements.

A plane disappears over an ocean, a ship sinks and a thousand people die. A shooting occurs in a midnight city street while an earthquake rocks the ground elsewhere.

Media has a large part to play in putting us into those situations. Many of which, 95% of the world might have never known, had we been back a few hundred years, or at the least, most of the world might not have known as quickly as we do now.

Media might be wonderful for how it has connected many people who would not have been connected and how it has allowed us humans of Earth to help each other on a much larger scale than ever before. 

However, media also is largely to blame for the heart of our problems. 

It inspires fear, distrust, judgement and confusion.

All the things which cloud our perspectives from the obvious. 

The obvious, of course being that we are all human. At the centre of things.

Being human means we can relate. If we use a bit of imagination.

But instead of "putting yourself into someone else's shoes" figure out what the heart of the matter is. 

Namely, if an earthquake inspired panic in people. Imagine a time when you felt panicked. 

Yes, your panic is being felt in a completely different context and level than that of people experiencing an earthquake but the basic concept of panic is still there. 

It's not a safe feeling. Obvious right? Wrong. When you drag media into the mix of big situations then you are sparking all sorts of extravagent titles and phrases designed to flash you to death via sensory overload than by allowing you to connect to the cold hard, human emotions. That's why people start getting shocked by such events. The media over does the drama to such an unrealistic degree, that is so far removed from the actual situation that people start to shut down. 

Again, that's not to say the media is bad and needs to be removed or ignored. It's a valuable tool. The problem is just that most people take thing straight up, without observing beyond what they see. 

Like that person you just passed on the street who has a laptop bag smelling of fresh leather. It is slung over one shoulder and a manila folder is clutched tight under one arm. A wrinkle is on the back of one sleeve of their iron-pressed, navy shirt and they are striding to the beat of the peppy music blaring out of their ear buds. Their free hand fiddles with a gum wrapper, which drops to the ground as they pass you.

You might be irritated by the peppy music and think them rude as they brush past you. You might think them to be messy and lazy. But you don't observe beyond that and see the obvious underneath.

Perhaps that individual is new at their job (fresh leather) and slept in, but are concerned about their appearance, hence the rush-job iron. The peppy music is their method of calming themselves and getting pumped for something they are uncomfortable for. The gum, well to freshen their breath and further calm those nerves which sparked the absent littering.

Now, whether or not you are correct with your observations of this individual is irrelevant as the key is always to find the core human emotion. In this case it could be nervousness (but remember there is no right or wrong answer, you just need to find an emotion that pops out for you that you can relate to).

What makes you nervous? Think on that for a moment. You'll find yourself not getting irritated by the loud music of that individual as they passed by, or that perhaps they brushed into you as they moved passed. 

Once a day. Find the humanity in a situation. Imagine your humanity. Make it up if you have to.

After all, nothing good is ever going to get done for that child who stubbed their toe or the families who lost loved ones to that sunken ship if you cannot start by observing another human. You'll find life to be a lot more obvious.

And a lot more fun. (Particularly when it involves finding favourite quotes and finding odd angles by which to examine them which were probably not intended in the first place).

Always watching with a curious perspective.

Moony.

 

Can We Control Fate?

Sometimes I feel like the world has it in for me. Then again, don't we all at some point?

Bit like how Nature does with abandoned human habitations

That is a perspective however. Same as all the things that happen to you, whether they are said, seen or felt. Those are other people's perspectives clashing with my perspective of their perspective.

Thing is, when you go through daily human interaction, there are numerous levels of intimacy that impact the perspectives being created on all sides in addition to the simple logica that there is honestly no other way to deal with thousands of people a day without herding them around a bit like sheep. No one has the time to actually get to know every single individual they run across, down to their intricate life stories, fears, hopes and dreams.

Even then, it's my belief that you can know a person for decades, and still, they will always surprise you.

So that brings be back around to perception. My perception of myself often reminds me I have no right, rhyme or reason to feel like the world has it in for me. After all I am sure that many of you reading this have dealt with worse things than I am. Like those which have prompted the amazing movement #WeNeedDiverseBooks. But none of who I am, regardless of perceptions, means I am stupid, incompetent, unworthy (insert negative adjective here), in terms of anything I think, do, or say. I'm just human.

We all are. Humans are often uninformed or unable to see over the nose blocking their rear-view windows. It goes for me, and probably you. After all, even if you are the most informed and enlightened individual, there is always something to learn and grow with, otherwise you may as well be dead. It's my belief, if we are not constantly observing ourselves and others, we aren't going to be learning at least one thing every day.



Learning is just another way to spell Life.

 


Either way, an individual's perspective of themselves and others all comes down to one thing.

Fate. The Three Sisters with their thread and looms, busily stringing together lives or snipping others apart. Randomly. Stories might give reasons for a grand hero getting blindsided by fate, but to me, that's just us humans trying to comfort ourselves in hours when we are faced with "but why me?!"

Thing is, most of life doesn't make sense and it isn't going to get better any time soon. Science doesn't explain everything, most of it is theory, religion doesn't validate squat if stuck next to science and fiction lets us play around with both to the extreme point of a messy child's sandbox.

Before I get you flaming with hatred, let me say that those three things, do however provide the most important thing we humans need in life:

Hope. 

They give us the powerful belief of hope that enables us to get past the feelings that "the world has it in for us," they help colour our personal perspective on life and of other humans around us.

They also allow us to put things in order. To make sense an endless circle of philosophical chaos. (Though hopefully not just tidy file folders that will get dusty in some closet in your mind. Do take them out and examine them once and a while). 

In short, whether you believe in science, religion, fiction or a combination of those three (or something else entirely), they are the one stop between us and jumping off the cliff of insanity because the sheer incomprehensible Size of the Universe was making our brains overheat.

So that brings me to ask, whatever your perspetive on life, or the perspective of others:

Does anyone deserve what happens to them? Good? Bad? Boring?

I'd say no.

No, because sometimes good things just happen, and bad things generally do too. More often then not, most of life is spent waiting, falling off into a daydream, or avoiding things entirely.

Is that bad? Nope. Sure, plenty of meditation and enlightenment experts will say it's the worst thing possible because the only way to live, is the moment.

So what I say in return is this:

As I said before, we are all human. Mistakes are supposed to happen. That's not learning otherwise. Just, no matter what you let yourself do, think or say, be aware of it. Take the thought, the action or words and hold them in your mind for a moment. Whether you catch it after the fact, or before, does not matter.

Just catch it. Observe it. Recognize whether it for what is was: something said in hate, did someone say something hateful to you and how did you react, was it an assumption and ultimately, who are you at heart, in this moment? Who are you going to be?

Now, let go.

You are controlling your fate.

Always learning something.
Moony.

The Value of Mundane Activities

I love to imagine all the things the moon sees through windows as it treks the night sky.

 
I always make it a habit to observe people and read their stories.

It makes the time pass, first of all, but even better, it gives me things to use in my writing and a chance to play around with conflicts, characters and dramas in my head.

I've done plenty of lining up, queuing (whatever you want to call it), over the years. Whether it's recently for the reams of paperwork required to get you a job in another country, for a geeky panel at a convention or just to buy the monthly bout of groceries, there is a lot of waiting to be done.

What I've come to learn through all of it has nothing to do with patience, though I will admit I probably have spagetti strings more of it than most people simply because I can occupy myself for hours picking apart people's stories.

What the lesson does have to do with anything, is realizing a great value lies within the mundane. Well, the publicly done mundane things (I have yet to understand the value in laundry or heavy cleaning. The most I get with homey mundane things is baking, because, well, it's a giant learning experiment when you use recipes as guidelines rather than rules. Chemistry is useful for something).

The value of the mundane is this:

If you look at life as a never ending sequence of observational periods and outcomes of experiential learning, or in other words, you look at life as a lesson planned by your universe, then even your grocery trips will never be dull.

There are a million things I've picked up about humanity from observing them during these mundane moments, but seeing as that could take a whole series of books to get through, (I've got notebooks full of odd things), I'll share just a few tidbits right here.

As you stand, waiting for your turn to present your problem, to buy some clothes, hand in a form, you are taught that human nature is full of errors.

It is impatient.

Lines are the best places to discover the rude sides to humans. They bring out the huffy growl of a suit, one ear on a phone conversation, the other on the airport employee warning of the plane's delay in landing, for the fourth time in six hours. They bring out the flowers and lace woman with fifty's style spectacles, who butts in the converged group in a police office (because apparently small towns don't do line ups), when the woman who was unanimously noted as next doesn't realize it was her turn because she was is busy sniffling and staring at the floor mumbling about how an officer had assaulted her the night before.

It is needy.

Lines always make people blab to strangers. I've come down to pinning it on a desire to rant, to compare or just to share because waiting allows for a lot of space for too much thinking, no matter if you're in the line or the one dealing with things at the end of it. That gets exhausting too. This blabbing lands on the grocery clerk in the form of a mother with a baby carrier on one arm, wielding her credit card in another and shouting at her other two children to stop running relay from the end of the check-out to the optometrist store on the opposite end. It comes out in an elderly secretary at the city hall who just dealt with a loud and grumpy couple debating a building permit as she sighs and asks what I'm there for and I land on the receiving end of a tale about her sweet and talented granddaughter who is currently teaching in Dubai, but had spent two years in the UK before that.

But sometimes it is kind.

Waiting for things often inspires a ridiculous amount of opening doors and phrases like "no you go first," "be my guest," or "would you mind watching my stuff?" These are always met with "thank you's" and "certainly's." Also smiles. Lots of smiles. And then no other exchange happens after. It's just too strangers continuing on. Yes, more often than not, this happens in the aftermath of the lines when you leave the buildings you were waiting in, get off the planes or what have you, but sometimes people band together when that same plane takes eight hours to show up before you can get on it, let alone getting off. The best come at conventions, where everyone is there for the same geeky reasons and everyone is waiting in the same long line ups. Which brings me to the next highlight of lines.

It can spark temporary companionship or long friendship.

It has generally only been by waiting at conventions that I've managed to discover people who are now long distance friends, there is plenty of temporary companionship to be had too. Like deep conversations about travel and business dreams bouncing between a ponytail and shorts girl and a young man in a suit jacket and jeans after the he asks if she'd mind watching his stuff while he pops off to grab a snack. They spend the whole eight hour wait for the plane chatting, negotiating seat switches with various people once the plane arrives, chat for the whole flight and they walk off together after landing. A deep discussion over the merits of coconut yogurt versus Greek yogurt gets volleyed back and forth between a dreadlocked university student and a guy still in a construction vest for the five minutes of a grocery line. They end, shaking hands and wishing the other a good day, going off to separate lives with their respective grocery bags.

I cannot say enough how fascinating watching people can be and how much you can learn from it. Plus, there are often times when you are just confused by it and you save the bits you pick up for later use or mulling over of.

I got on a bus once, most of the seats were full but nobody was having to stand yet and a scraggly bearded man with a toque and a box still covered in post stampage and tape kept muttering "nine-hundred and ninety nine stars. The sun is burning." Over and over and over. He sat there muttering this for the ten minutes I was on until he got off at his stop, walking as straight as anyone.

Other times I've been witness to hushed phone arguments between couples, or the excitable hand-waving of tourists from the top bus window who thought double deckers only existed in England.

The next time you are waiting for something. Watch the people around you. You might learn something about humanity, or yourself, or pick up a fun conversation starter, or writing prompt. You don't even have to wait to do so. Find a busy spot like a food court, a harbour, a tourist area, bus stops, ferry terminals, airports, parks, beaches or even wandering the streets and drink in it and all the people, with all your senses.

You might just be surprised with how fast the time flies.

Always observing from corners and high perches.
Moony.