Penny for the Guy/ Your Thoughts?

It's strange that we celebrate Bonfire Night to remember some bloke who tried to blow up Parliament many moons ago and got caught in the act. It's a national festival held up to remind us of the danger of dissent. I can imagine why an old skool monarch would want to stick that day in the calendar. Especially after the imminent danger of having almost been blown to pieces. But it's funny that it still holds.

Is it just a gripping moral tale from the past? Or is it still a useful metaphor to help the government warn the common public what might happen if we try to put a rocket under David Cameron's arse? Turn it on its head, and maybe it's actually a celebration of dissent? The very fact that it's a festive occasion where we utilise Guy's weapon of choice to send pretty lines and coloured spirals through the sky is something I reckon he might've quite liked. Unfortunately for him though, by the time the fireworks kick off, he's usually endured his millionth death by bonfire via the form of another childish effigy wearing Dad's old tennis shoes and Hawaiian shirt. Maybe there is no particular reason for holding up the festivities except it's tradition, innit. And everyone loves an excuse for a celebration. And Mum loves an excuse to burn Dad's vile shirts.

I was just reading about Guy Fawkes (Wikipedia of course). Apparently (according to trusted source mentioned in previous sentence) when he was first caught for the Gunpowder Plot he gave the authorities a false name. Instead of Guy Fawkes, he told them he was 'John Johnson'. HA! That is a man in the moment of panic....'shit...my name...think of a name...definitely not Guy...another name...any name...a man's name...John...a surname...bollocks...nothing...John...John...son?'

Remember, remember the 5th of November. When a bloke fucked up and got caught trying to blow up the government.

I have decided to take my own message from this. Remember, remember:

1) we're all a bit fucked up
2) that's what makes us beautiful and real
3) striving for perfection is death to the masterpiece
4) embrace all of you, including the messy fucked up bits! It's liberating for you, and the guy next door will breathe easier too when he knows you've just fucked up and even more so, he'll admire you when he sees that you can handle it.
5) That's what I'll be celebrating this Bonfire night. Three cheers to you big Guy - for fucking up, and getting a whole country to light up the sky in honour of that on a yearly basis for over 400 years.

A Poem

An Invitation From The Sea

Being by the sea calms our souls.
The crashing of water,
Constant ocean song,
Soothes us all.

We don't have to be anything here.
Water washes our tickling minds,
Intellect seems comical and ridiculous.

The waves creep in to the shore,
And invite us to join them.
To scrub out our boundaries,
Be listless, open and free.

Let's become slippery silver fish that swim forever,
And cannot be caught.
Learn to skim the shoreline in a sidestep, like the crab,
Forgetting our preoccupation with forwards and back.

The ocean sweeps over us and offers to dilute us,
To banish our complexities and itches,
To become uncontained and happy for it.

Kurt Vonnegut on creativity

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007) was an American author and humanist. I imagine his passion for humanitarian issues may have grown after witnessing the allied firebombing of Dresden towards the end of World War II. At the time, he was an American POW trapped in an underground meat locker. That's not the sort of thing that leaves you with a good impression of humanity. Please see my earlier blog on Slaughterhouse-Five for a link to more info on the Dresden Firebombing.

In addition to war,Vonnegut experienced other significant tragedies during his earlier years - his Mother committed suicide on Mother's Day while he was home on leave from the war in 1944. His sister Alice died of cancer only hours after her husband had died in a train crash.

Some of these experiences may lend themselves to Vonnegut's writing style - which typically centres around tragi-comic science fiction storylines. Vonnegut explained in an interview that his forays into outer space surrealism in 'Slaughterhouse-Five' were intended to provide relief to his reader, from the heavy subject of war. I can only imagine these tangents were first employed to provide relief to Vonnegut himself, who had lived first-hand the horrors of war he was tackling in his fiction. The art of fiction itself was perhaps a way to cope with what he had encountered. Art gave Vonnegut the possibility to create something meaningful to share from such utter destruction. Perhaps, in a sense, he was able to escape the heavy burden of what he had witnessed by releasing it to the world.

Read more about Vonnegut's life and career here.

All I really wanted to share here was Vonnegut's below words on creativity, which I love.