I was made for Afternoons

an early morning walk thinking about being 40 in 5 months realizing i know nothing its all just beginning its all just opening up i've heard this before but never quite believed it its less fact more mystery less tangible  more real its not a concern but a breakthrough like all change it comes  like a breeze or an afternoon suddenly free full of hope n wonder n possibility

Perth has had funny temperatures this year.  Day after day of temperatures in the mid 30c's ( thats between 86f and 100f for my friends in other locals).  Not super hot (as in low 40c's) but at night we only dip to around 18c.  The constancy of the heat is wearing.  Taxing.  You function. You perform.  But you don't really rest well.  Air conditioning is helpful, but drying too. In these times I think of the north.  The heat leaves me feeling like a stranger in my own land. I long for something I can't quite put my finger on. It is the shadow in the corner, the shudder if the curtains, the train just missed, it is the north. Canada, Scandinavia,  Not only for a blessed relief from the heat,  but from all it entails in its history, its poetry, its art, its spaciousness, its mystery, its solitude. Like many, C.S. Lewis' words echo deep within me: “ Pure “Northernness” engulfed me: a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of Nor...

1. Listening to: Last Fm . Type in "Funk" and you'll hear what I am cooking to . . .  2. Reading: As its the weekend I'm into "The Weekend Australian's" political, culinary, artistic and travel pages. On the book front, I just finished "A generous orthodoxy" by Brian McLaren. On the one hand I want to jump up and down and rejoice that someone wrote this book, on the other I sort of yawn and think "most of my friends think this way already" - but maybe that's just us . . . .  3. Clothes: Loving my retro Adidas trainers and dark blue knit polo shirt. Off to Buy some Doc Martens yet again tomorrow .  Loved the Ben Sherman shirts I got for Christmas. 4. Today: I went to Perth Zoo with the wife, the kids, the mates n the family. Good time. 5. Plan for this week: Monday is Australia day, a  National holiday so we'll watch the fireworks with the rest of Perth, then a quiet Tuesday before I go back to work on Wednesday. Tag...

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad ; but chess players do . . .  Perhaps the strongest case of all is this: that only one great English poet went mad,  Cowper. And he was definitely driven mad by logic, by the ugly and alien logic of predestination. Poetry was not the disease, but the medicine . . .  He was damned by John Calvin . . .  Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion... The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits... The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason... Materialists and madmen never have doubts . . .  Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have the mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity....

Just picked up a copy of Brian McLaren's "A generous Orthodoxy" which I have heard loads about but never read.  Have you?  Any comments, advice or warnings?

overwhelmed n undernourished spaced out n cashed up moving on but hanging out living now n crying later all this techno phobe reinvention redesign rejig reface re re contemplative naval gazing leaves me cold cos its not me - whoever that is? its only little bits which i shine up  n make presentable for the general audience all these books n records n words might give ya a way in but no matter what freends I remain a mystery to me to you to the universe . . .  have ya noticed most of dem priests n dem musos would be love da mystic the da cosmic dimension finding the out there in here? looking for the big picture and finding it in  the blade of grass seeking silence n solitude  and then finding themselves in the centre of the world fasting praying loving renouncing then having it all given back to them learn to see learn to hear learn to love thats the journey thats the mystery