Melancholia Speaks Depression

I watched the movie MELANCHOLIA recently.  This is not a movie I would recommend to just anyone.  Most people will find it tedious and annoying.  However, I saw it for its artistic merit.  It is a beautiful study on depression, its affects on a personal level, and how the family and friends of the person suffering from depression are affected.  As a person who has battled with depression for most of my life, I found it haunting.  It echoed deep within me.  At the end of the movie when all hope is lost, those who were "normal" fell apart and could not handle the idea of their eminent demise.  They fell to pieces.  However, the character, whom everyone had remained annoyed with due to her horrible bouts of depression and need for constant care, was the one who took over the caretaker role.  She embraced the moment and was able to help those who had previously cared for her through the moment of transition as all life was ending.  This film is not for everyone.  After the credits rolled, I confess I felt my own my own melancholy seep through.  Life is a beautiful fractured mess but it is not pointless.  It is given meaning when one forgets oneself and bends to help another in their time of need.

Transit of Venus

Is the Transit of Venus an omen of good or a harbinger of doom?  I have heard it argued both ways.  When linked to the end of the Mayan Calendar (December 21, 2012), it is said to be the first sign of the end of time.  however, I choose to see it more of a harbinger of change.  Or as Bob Dylan famously sang, "Oh the times, they are a changin'."

I have had a lot of changes that have already happened this year - some good and some bad - and I know that there are more changes to come.  As the planetary bodies have moved through the heavens, month by month this year, my life has had changes bit by bit.  So far I've done fair to middlin' on my New Year's resolutions - I'm counting this as a plus.  But I also lost a friend this year when the head of my department suddenly passed away.  I self-published my first book this year.  A compilation of poems entitled "Making Poe Proud" which has made me proud of the accomplishment and the lovely reviews I've received.  Then I had to have major surgery, for which I am still recovering.

The heavenly bodies move across the skies above us.  The paths can be charted mathematically and anticipated far in advance, as proven by the Mayans.  I am not convinced, as yet, that the heavenly bodies take any notice of us at all, though we have admired them for centuries.

I know that change is coming.  I didn't need a darkened spot traveling across the sun to tell me that.  But it does make us stop, momentarily, look up at the beauty with amazement, and take stock of our lives.  Perhaps this is why we decide to make changes.  As the celestial bodies dance, they inspire us to move and change our own patterns as well.

Late Night Ramblings

I have had a lot of late nights and/or sleepless nights since the surgery  in the early part of May.  That led to a lot of odd TV watching and net surfing.  This in turn led to some odd poetry and odd pieces of writing.  I hope that both of these pieces will lead to more fiction writing and a collection of poetry.

Written June 1, 2012

Wail into my world
open the doors of perception
I'll open my soul to you
with no regrets or deceptions
guide me to new landscapes
show me the path you glide
whisper me your secrets
with you I will confide
I am open and receptive
waiting for your wail
I am cloistered in uncertainity
deep within my cell

Written May 28, 2012 - This could be a great jumping off point for a sci-fi or fantasy piece of fiction!

If I have learned anything from watching "Life After People" it's that 5,000 - 10,000 years after people there will be little to no evidence that people were ever on Earth.  Even the islands of plastic waste floating in the oceans will finally disintegrate.  Monuments, cities, dams, canals, machinery, roadways - all are washed away, broken down, and destroyed.  After 10,000 years only a few things consisting of stone exist and because of plant life, climatic changes, the shifting of the Earth, the blowing of dust, and the endless flow of water, these little bits of evidence are buried or drown, making them hard to discover.

Add that to the claims of "Ancient Aliens" and one begins to wonder if perhaps there was once a thriving advanced civilization on Earth that met with a great disaster leaving few survivors.  These survivors would not be able to maintain the advance systems and would move out of the cities, which would become dangerous, and into the countryside.  They would pass down to any descendants stories of what their lives had been like BEFORE.  Over time, after the original survivors had died out, their descendants would pass on stories of things they had never seen or experienced on their own.  These stories from the original survivors would get distored as they were handed down by word of mouth.

Within our own recorded history, when the Roman Empire fell, much knowledge was lost and had to be rediscovered.  Even some monuments and buildings were lost and are only now being rediscovered by people, usually due to our need for expansion.  Perhaps there have been several cycles of civilizations building up and then being obliterated with few survivors to rebuild.  Perhaps even several settlements of different species or evolutions over time from both this planet or from the stars.

When one lets one's mind wander to these ancient ruins for which no one knows the history, one could conceive of many alternate explanations and histories for this planet and its many varied conquerers and inhabitants.