Sunday, March 13, 2011

Water & Marble - P.K. Page

I found this poem posted in a streetcar earlier today.

Water & Marble - P.K. Page

And I shall tell him that the thought of him
turns me to water
and when his name is spoken pale still sky
trembles and breaks and moves like blowing water
that winter thaws its frozen drifts in water
all matter blurs, unsteady, seen through water
and I, in him, dislimn, water in water?

As true: the thought of him
has made me marble
and when his name is spoken blowing sky
settles and freezes in a dome of marble
and winter seals its floury drifts in marble
all matter double-locks as dense as marble
and I, in others' eyes, am cut from marble.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

social media & social construction

In a few short years (or even shorter..??) social media has exploded with all these multi-dimensional ways of staying connected and re-connecting with each other. It's also given us different ways of socializing, communicating, and relating with one another. Suddenly we've turned into our own mini-celebrities amongst our friends (or "friends"), and we can follow each other into different facets of our private lives - from the most intimate to the most mundane. (E.g. somebody tweeting about their child being born AS it's being born. E.g. someone's fb status declaring some boring everyday thing they just ate.) We can be each other's critics and advice soundboard as we comment on each other's statuses or we can become part of someone else's support network just by validating them through a "like" button. We can connect with strangers across continents and yet feel so intimately connected because we absolutely resonate with whatever it is each other is blogging about. Social media and the internet itself can gather crowds for common interests, rallying people together for a seamlessly organized flash mob to rallying together whole political revolutions that succeed in the upheaval of a country.

Gosh...it's just so crazy isn't it??

I'm rambling I guess. Every day of dripping sweating hot yoga must have drained some filter out of me and I suddenly feel the need to ramble out loud. I forget that's what this blog was for.

I find it ironic that despite all the ways with which we seem more "accessible" to each other via social media -- we can still find ourselves struggling to just plain talk to each other when we just want to. The irony to it all sometimes is that despite this virtual linked-ness, there are still invisible levels of connectedness and dis-connectedness that still structure the very relationships we hold with people. It's almost created a whole different kind of "public self" versus "private self." Yes, for our more "open" facebook counterparts, for example, it may seem their private selves are splashed onto the network for the whole world to see. Yet a part of those intimate details of a person you do see online is also somewhat constructed. A virtual PR so to speak. It's just pictures at the end of the day. And one has the freedom to edit what others see and what others don't see -- thus constructing a virtual projection of who they are -- or more like how they want to be seen.

I guess we all know this. I know we all know this. We all know it because we are part of this whole process. We do it with ourselves already. The visual world, the virtual world, is our creation. It's not exactly real. It can depict and even share parts of the world and lives that we don't necessarily get to see every day or ever. Yet it's never really the whole story. Our very lives are whole complicated stories on their own. And pictures and blogs, and foursquare check-ins, and youtube videos can reveal different facets. But they are only depictions, often revealing, yet also just as limiting.

The real scope and real depth of things is always just going to be beyond it.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Woman

I woke up this morning with this to share in mind. I dug it out of my old scriptbook I was using for the Vagina Monologues. I remember hearing this for the first time being read out loud by a room full of my strong castmates and found it so powerfully moving.

So! This is for International Women's Day:

To Stop the Violence Against Woman - Alice Walker

WOMAN

TO STOP THE VIOLENCE
AGAINST
WOMAN,
WOMAN
MUST STOP THE VIOLENCE 
AGAINST 
HERSELF.

WE CAN BEGIN TO DO THIS
NOW, NOW THAT WE SEE
A SKY
AND NOT A ROCK
A STICK
OR A FIST
ABOVE ALL
OUR HEADS.

WOMAN

TO STOP THE VIOLENCE
AGAINST WOMAN,
STOP THE VIOLENCE
THAT YOU
PERPETUATE
AGAINST
YOUR OWN
SISTER
WHO IS
A WOMAN, YOUR OWN
DAUGHTER
WHO IS
A WOMAN,
YOUR OWN
DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
WHO IS
A WOMAN.
YOUR OWN
MOTHER
WHO IS
A WOMAN.

WOMAN

TO STOP THE VIOLENCE
AGAINST WOMAN,
STOP THE VIOLENCE THAT LIVES
IN OPPOSITION
TO YOUR LIFE,
DEEP IN YOUR
OWN TERRORIZED AND
UNCHERISHED
HEART.

WOMAN

REMEMBER WHO WE ARE:
NOT "GUYS"
BUT 
THE MOTHER
OF ALL
LIVING.
WE CREATE OUT OF OUR OWN BLOOD
AND MILK
EVEN
THE CREATURES 
WHO OPPRESS US;
WHETHER THEY ARE MEN
OR OURSELVES.

WOMEN

AWAKE!
ARISE!
STAND UP!

WOMAN

TO STOP THE VIOLENCE
AGAINST
WOMAN,
GET UP
ON YOUR PERFECTLY
UNBOUND
FEET!
WE HAVE LOST THE EARTH
LIVING ON OUR KNEES.

Monday, March 7, 2011

I've become...

a yoga-mat toting, david's tea-sipping, coffee-shop connoisseur with a love for weekend brunch and infinity scarves.

Oh Toronto... what have you done to me??! :)