JeffAndJanice.com

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

I've been reading Herman Melville's "Typee" this week. Actually, I've been listening to it in audiobook format. Melville was a seaman, and the book is autobiographical, detailing his days stranded in a tropical paradise with a tribe of natives which he believed inferior to Western man. But gradually, he could not escape the obvious, and made these observations:

There seemed to be no cares, griefs, troubles, or vexations, in
all Typee. The hours tripped along as gaily as the laughing
couples down a country dance.

There were none of those thousand sources of irritation that the
ingenuity of civilized man has created to mar his own felicity.
There were no foreclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no
bills payable, no debts of honour in Typee; no unreasonable
tailors and shoemakers perversely bent on being paid; no duns of
any description and battery attorneys, to foment discord, backing
their clients up to a quarrel, and then knocking their heads
together; no poor relations, everlastingly occupying the spare
bed-chamber, and diminishing the elbow room at the family table;
no destitute widows with their children starving on the cold
charities of the world; no beggars; no debtors' prisons; no proud
and hard-hearted nabobs in Typee; or to sum up all in one
word--no Money! 'That root of all evil' was not to be found in
the valley.

In this secluded abode of happiness there were no cross old
women, no cruel step-dames, no withered spinsters, no lovesick
maidens, no sour old bachelors, no inattentive husbands, no
melancholy young men, no blubbering youngsters, and no squalling
brats. All was mirth, fun and high good humour. Blue devils,
hypochondria, and doleful dumps, went and hid themselves among
the nooks and crannies of the rocks.

Here you would see a parcel of children frolicking together the
live-long day, and no quarrelling, no contention, among them.
The same number in our own land could not have played together
for the space of an hour without biting or scratching one
another. There you might have seen a throng of young females,
not filled with envyings of each other's charms, nor displaying
the ridiculous affectations of gentility, nor yet moving in
whalebone corsets, like so many automatons, but free,
inartificially happy, and unconstrained.

How much can we learn from those uncorrupted people? Even before reading this passage, I had begun removing myself from sources of hate and discord. I used to be very politically minded, but have concluded that my side is wrong about almost everything. Accepting that, I explored the other side of the aisle, and saw that they too stoked the fires of hate as much as my former party (no need telling you which side I was on, as they are both equally guilty).

So I'm off politics.

I'm also not watching much news, though it's hard to escape. To watch the news is to have all the world's problems gathered up and served at dinnertime (terrible timing on their part). I've spoken to people who bemoan the state of society, and I ask them how they know it's so bad. Well, it's in the news. Okay, but how much of the crime, and injustice, and evil have you seen with your own eyes? Usually the answer is none, or very little.

Am I suggesting we bury our heads in the sand, and deny the world's problems? Well, I can't tell you what to do, but I know that I haven't been able to solve any of them, and dwelling on them only frustrates. The Typee didn't give a rat's ass about things beyond their control, but I'm expected to "care" to the extent that I get ulcers, but change nothing. Maybe I'm making a difference by stepping aside, and minding my own business.

So I'm off the news.

I'm also keeping away from most internet messageboards. I've met a lot of nice people on them, but for some reason, people get hot headed and hateful when they communicate in near anonymity (a phenomenon similar to road rage). The worst is CraigsList. What an awful place! I'd been hearing a lot about it, and decided to join the fun. Well, it seems that Craig created the site for the sole purpose of flaming and trolling. It seems like even the most innocuous post becomes the target of flamers.

But it's not just one site. Flaming seems to come naturally to messageboard users, and I'm just too old to engage in teenage flame wars with people I have no quarrel with.

So I'm off messageboards.

These days I spend my evenings painting pictures and listening to audiobooks. It's a pleasant pastime, and I look forward to every single evening. I paint for a couple of hours, then I scrub away the picture with mineral spirits, so I can paint on the same surface again tomorrow. It may sound like a waste of time to you, but it's done with a purpose. The paintings get better and better, and I don't have to clutter my home with bad pictures. When I start painting keepers, I'll start keeping them. The audiobooks allow me to make double use of my time, and keep my left brain away from my paintings.

For decades Janice and I have dreamed of escapes. We talk of moving to exciting places, or remote places, or pretty much anywhere but where we are. I like the idea of living in a paradise, and I like the idea of living in a metropolis. One day we were discussing this, and we concluded that we already lived in paradise. No, not New Iberia. It's just a place to live. But we really have a paradise of our own going on. We're healthy and happy. We have few problems, and easy access to the activities we enjoy. It's not the kind of paradise that you can print on a postcard, but the kind that the Typee enjoy. Well, not entirely, because we lack their innocence, but it's similar. You've heard the old saying, "lead, follow, or get out of the way". Well, I earnestly want to get out of the way. I'm planning for early retirement, and have no illusions of spending my time traveling the world. I just want to cultivate my own paradise.

Anyway, there's not much of a point to this post. But this is where I stand these days. A paradise in the making.

another hasty insight by Jeff on 2/22/2006

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

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