Remember, remember the fifth of November…

I sat up all night watching the election coverage, my hand clasped to my mouth between typing to friends and asking people on the west coast of America to continue voting. When Obama was announced the winner, I waited anxiously for the numbers to confirm… fearful it wasn’t real.

It was real.

As he finally stepped up to the podium in Chicago and spoke, I wept. His words were epic; His message clear. I’ve heard people talking about it as cheese… c’mon now, that reaction says more about you than the words being spoken, as my reaction speaks volumes about me.

I am not American but I am a piece of this world — a world Barack Obama has touched — and he WILL be THE most powerful man in it.

I, for one, am ecstatic that he’s not a bumbling “nucular” fearmonger, and where I once saw America as something to be very wary of, I now see a place I look forward to being a part of (screenwriting permitting!)

There are so many other things I could talk about: The way he has forever changed politics; the fact that he is the first black president; how he has inspired none-voters to get off their asses; the belief in change he has rekindled in so many… but I’m going to keep this short.

My sincerest congratulations and thanks go out to the American voters, and to every single person who worked their asses off to change their future — OUR future — I will be eternally grateful.

Welcome to the new dawn: Barack Obama, US President-Elect, 2008.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

On the 5th November, 1605, provincial English Catholic conspirators tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and King James I in the Gunpowder Plot. The most famous of these conspirators is Guy Fawkes, an explosives expert from York. He was not the mastermind (that was Robert Catesby,) but he was the man with touchpaper, and as such, has been immortalised. Guy Fawkes was hung, drawn and quartered — but outwitted executioners by jumping from the gallows, snapping his own neck.

Traditionally, every year in the UK, bonfires burn, fireworks bang, and some people burn a guy (an effigy of Guy Fawkes,) in celebration of foiling the plot. Raised by my grandparents, I was brought up not to burn a guy. My grandfather attended St. Peter’s School — the same school as Guy Fawkes — and they do not burn effigies of old boys!

As a child I was acutely aware that Guy Fawkes had been a real person, fighting for his beliefs, and had paid the ultimate price. Strong evidence suggests that he was willing to pay that price through his actions anyway, as it was unlikely he would have escaped the explosion alive, and certainly none of the other conspirators remained present.

In popular culture Guy Fawkes is often regarded as something of a hero… even a martyr. John Lennon, in his song ‘Remember’, wrote a rather cynical view on idealism which finishes with the first line of the bonfire rhyme — and concludes with an explosion:

Remember when you were young?
How the hero was never hung
Always got away
Remember how the man
Used to leave you empty handed?
Always, always let you down
If you ever change your mind
About leaving it all behind
Remember, remember, today

And don’t feel sorry
The way it’s gone
And don’t you worry
‘Bout what you’ve done

Just remember when you were small
How people seemed so tall
Always had their way
Do you remember your Ma and Pa
Just wishing for movie stardom
Always, always playing a part
If you ever feel so sad
And the whole world is driving you mad
Remember, remember, today

And don’t feel sorry
‘Bout the way it’s gone
And don’t you worry
‘Bout what you’ve done

No, no, remember, remember
The fifth of November

That pretty much sums it up…

Wikipedia: Guy Fawkes
Wikipedia: Gunpowder Plot
Channel 4 History: Suicide Bomber?
Old Peterites Club: Guy Fawkes
Parliament: The Gunpowder Plot

Okay… I’m shit with politics and I won’t pretend otherwise. I’ve never really paid attention to it all — something I’m beginning to feel ashamed of. I’ve always felt detached I suppose, like it affects me but I have no say in it.

Well I’m beginning to pay attention.

Subjects surrounding the election in America are really starting to piss me off. If you ever wanted to see how utterly clueless people can be, tune in to the videos of the political rallies on Youtube. I’m amazed at how, in a place so culturally diverse, there can be such narrow mindedness.

In California people are actually voting to decide whether gay couples should be allowed to marry. Doesn’t that violate civil liberties and human rights? Someone I respect a great deal recently had a gay marriage in California… he has an adopted child, a dog and a happy home (I’m jealous).

Is their marriage in danger of being taken away from them because of a vote? A vote where people are actively campaigning these beliefs:

“It protects our children from being taught in public schools that “same-sex marriage” is the same as traditional marriage, and prevents other consequences to Californians who will be forced to not just be tolerant of gay lifestyles, but face mandatory compliance regardless of their personal beliefs.”

Seriously check this shit out; It’s truly scary and, quite frankly, disgusting.

***

So now you’re about to get my naive view on what’s happening in Tibet:

See this news article.

As far as I know, the Dalai Lama has been under pressure from young Tibetans to talk less and take more action, they’re no longer entirely happy with peaceful, diplomatic approaches. Now it seems, since the talks really are getting them nowhere, the Dalai Lama is declaring himself a failure and looking to his people in the hopes that they come up with a better way forward than anger or violence.

The western world seems, to me, to get involved in plenty of battles that have nothing to do with it; battles it has not being asked to fight and has no place being involved with. So why, when a group of vulnerable people clearly NEED western help, is no one stepping forward?

The Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism ‘belong’ to people ALL over the world. Tibet is the spiritual home of, quite literally, MILLIONS. Perhaps it’s not our business when there’s no oil involved? Does it have something to do with China being one of the five major nuclear-weapon states? Debt?

I’m confused and I don’t know enough to understand. I don’t even know where to begin trying to understand. It all seems so wrong.

***

On an entirely different subject… what’s going on with the current recession/depression or whatever the heck it is we’re in? It’s not just our country either, economies all over the place are having epic fail, and the world economy is apparently on the brink of a recession. I don’t even know what that means in real terms… higher cost of living? Less jobs? I know I read an article about our pubs perishing which is surely a gigantic, neon sign of things to come.

Everything seems so GLOBALLY fucked right now — and then I realise — it’s always been fucked for some countries and cultures, far worse than anything we could ever imagine. The only conclusion I can come to is that greed destroys us all. Whether we’re looking at money, land, rights, or power… it’s all fucked because somebody, somewhere, wanted more — or in some cases — wanted others to have less.

What the world needs now, is a generation of new voices; People who inspire interest, a sense of belonging and ownership in us all… because the less we take an interest in these issues, and the less we understand them, the more detached we become. When we’re detached, we’re all at the mercy of those we blindly choose to make decisions on our behalf — and that’s dangerous shit, right there.

I would be voting for Barack Obama as my president.

If I were Californian, I would also…

and…

So… I’m sat here sucking on my fourth lolly, contemplating whether I can do this to the pumpkin I’ve just been given:

… and I realise that, like Christmas or Easter, many people have forgotten what Halloween is actually about (including me). As usual, Wikipedia comes up trumps.

***

Today also marks 15 years of a River Phoenix-less world. I kinda grew up with River y’know? So every year I light a candle for him. His talent, beliefs and convictions opened up a whole new world to me as a kid and changed my life in many ways.

He was the reason I discovered veganism so many years ago; the reason I found the Red Hot Chili Peppers and picked up my first guitar; he was partly the reason I fell in love with film… and definitely the reason I studied acting.

River was an activist who bought up acres of rainforest with his pay cheques, and to me, that is fucking amazing. He would go play guitar with his band in shopping malls, because above all, River loved his music. He landed a major record deal but never quite got it together because of work demands.

I miss him — as weird as it sounds — I think I miss all the things he never got the chance to do. His music, some of which I’ve heard, would have been superb, and he was going to direct but I can only imagine the type of awesome his films would have been. The world is a lesser place without him. I guess some people were just born to burn brighter and faster.

I never had any role models later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?

***

I just found out that on Monday — at a fundraiser for Paul Newman’s children’s charity — Joaquin Phoenix announced that he’s quit acting to focus on his music. Joaquin learned to play guitar for ‘Walk the Line’ and won a Grammy for the soundtrack. He’s apparently collaborating with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, and has written the songs for an album, as yet unreleased.

The timing is impeccable and somewhat poetic but, for purely selfish reasons that I won’t even talk about now, I’m absolutely gutted. Well, I wish him luck, and hope that his choice makes him happy =)

Okay… so as most of my friends will know, I sometimes talk about something called ‘The Happy’. I blogged about this a little at the beginning of the year when it finally hit me, but since I deleted all my old posts, here’s a catch up.

The Happy, in my mind, is not about being successful or rich; it’s not about finding God or spiritualism; it’s not about achieving material goals… and it doesn’t have an end or a fixed point. It’s a state of being where you are mentally peaceful and it’s about being safe in the knowledge that you are doing all you can to become your best — because I believe that if you’re TRYING to be your best — whether you reach goals or not is immaterial, you are already living in ‘The Happy’.

Children live in The Happy: Without thinking, a child’s natural state of being is to live each day as it comes, each moment as it hits and do their best in everything they touch. Children, like nature, are persistent and seemingly tireless. I think we forget how to live as adults… heck, we get tired.

It’s understandable. We have bills to deal with, people to care for, responsibilities and futures to plan. We have ingested tons of information, giving us ten thousand new worries at every turn. We’re simply too aware. So how can we wake up and remember to continue to strive for life, instead of just plodding along?

It’s all about choices: Happiness isn’t something that miraculously hits some people like pot luck; YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE IT. You have to wake up with a hunger for life, something to strive for and something to look forward to. There’s no point waiting for it, it’s not going to land in your lap, you actually need to find the thing that makes your life worth living — and fight for it.

If you won the lottery tomorrow, and bought all the shit you’d never had, would you actually be happy? I mean, when the big house is bought and you’re sat with your feet up on your huge chair, are you fulfilled? The same? Bored? Or do you decide to start living right about then; doing the things you’ve always dreamed of…

The same goes for near-death experiences. Would you wake up from a coma and realise you’d spent your entire life asleep — plodding — or would you suddenly appreciate just how happy you already were. Perhaps the thing that makes your life worth living has been under your nose all along, and you’re too busy being miserable to notice.

You hear stories like this all the time. What does it take to wake up? I don’t even know the exact cause of my clarity. I didn’t have any near-death experiences, I wasn’t stuck in a burning building with an axe murderer; it just kinda happened one day…

I am choosing to make my own life a better place to be and I’m choosing not to get tired and bogged down with the bad stuff. I’ve decided that, when shit hits the fan, you have to join the dots and smile at the picture.

Plodding and complaining just makes you a zombie. The living dead.

When I first made the choice to sort my life — to make a list of goals and be happy — I didn’t realise how far I would come in such a short time. I certainly didn’t realise just how achievable my goals actually were, and the journey is beautiful regardless.

I’ve probably experienced some of the most trying times of my life this last few months but I’m still smiling. I’m smiling because every day when I get up, I know what I’m aiming for — and every day when something shit happens (and it usually does) — I remember that it will still be shit, whether I laugh or cry; It’s all about how I choose to deal with the splatter.

Somehow, that feeling of there being larger things at stake (my dreams,) makes the crap stuff pale in significance. And when the bar is set so high, when you try jumping for it, you notice that you leapt ten other bars beneath you.

Okay… I’m tired and the weak metaphors could go on all night

ZzzZzzZ

Update:

Did I forget to mention it’s also about doing things that make you feel worthwhile? Realising you’re a part of something much larger, instead of being caught up solely in your own little world. That’s why I have a list of links with the same title… and being aware and a part of those things — even just my small contribution — makes me feel very worthwhile and connected, indeed.

It doesn’t have to be saving the planet, it could be as simple as spending an extra hour with your grandma, asking people if they need anything from the shops, or mowing someone’s lawn, y’know.

Spreading happy definitely = happy.