Kiwi On The Loose

Hi and Kia Ora and Gidday.

Gosh  Its such lovely weather in Denver Colorado at the moment. When I am out riding around Denver on my bike my heart is singing so much I almost forget that death is only a car or bus away.

You hear all these stories about people being hit, but I have found nothing but consideration in Denver drivers. I can only think of a coouple of instances where a bus or a car or a human obviously wasn’t aware that I was taking my life into my hands being on the road in the first place.

Denver is neat to ride around becoz the central city and most of it is FLAT. I like flat on my bike!

It makes me realise how hilly Whangarei is, tho nothing compared to WELLINGTON!

So there I am riding in the morning and afternoon sunshine happy as a clam and just loving the soft fall light and the warmth of the sun.

I’d love it if the weather was like this all year round.

In these happy moments out, you forget about the election, dirty politics and the card game being played with America @ the moment.

You kinda look thru all the homes with political propaganda on their lawns as you breeze by, or when you see cars covered in political stickers, usually the ‘other sides’.

An interesting time to be in America…..in fact possibly a historic time.

Riding my bike out exploring and taking photos, I know America will get the government it deserves, or if I really stretch my faith, the one God knows it needs for this time.

Which I struggle with……….because no one deserved Hitler or the Kymer Rouge, Stalin or Idi Amin ….or a long list of other bastards who have wrecked havoc with peoples lifes and countries, oh there is Mugabe too.

Oh to be unaware or unconcerned about these kinds of questions and breese thru life oblivious……………..but I am not, dam it!

I better get back onto my bike and enjoy the sunshine…..and forget about the flouro lights and monitors of Wall St …………..and enjoy the sunshine and avoid the crash. I don’t have much stock in the media………….the real truth may just be that people have had enough…….and tho the rescue package is needed………mainstreet or the working class are sick and tired of being duped, losing money to prop up rich fat cats whose lives go on in blessed luxury after losing millions, they are tired of sending there sons and daughters to war AND being treated this way………………

SEE I am a working class boy @ heart…no wonder I feel so happy on my bike

.

A drunk guy took this photo of me on Sunday last, ( I wasnt drunk @ all but he sure was). It was @ a biker bar in Golden called the Buffalo Rose. I think my shirts in focus.

Hmmmmmm…….don’t get me started on bikers.

Well its been all go, helping a friend move house, writing and taking photos exploring the land of opportunity trying to find the truth……..and I think I am getting nearer.

I have found out that gunfights were not really all duel type situations, man on man type stand offs. Most gunslingers shot their victims from behind coz they did not want to get shot. I watched ‘Open Range’ the other night, a Kevin Costner film. Afterwards they had a doco on the development of gun technology and the gun lifestyle, very interesting. Thats where the above fact re no one on one shoot outs was mentioned. It seems it has been a myth.

Another myth was on ‘Hannity & Colmes’ tonight. This myth is different and beggs some kind of exploration but I am too tired. I have been worrying about the economy all day, it wears you out.

Shaun (sp?) Hannity a Fox media star whose favourite saying is ‘journalism is dead’ was interviewing Condalisa Rice. He said that that America made up 5% of the worlds population but did 95% of the worlds fighting for freedom and democracy…I forget the exact words for the latter part.tho I am sure about the freedom bit.

I like Shaun, Sean, Shawn……..but that seems like a gross exageration. 95% of the world police work for freedom. I gotta think this one thru. For starters  does any nation do anything these days that does not have intrinsic gain. America is not in Tibet, East Timor, The Solomons, etc etc……….I think we could reduce that puffed up or bloated statistic right there. BUT what erks me about this…is that Sean will so believe it…Fox is meant to be about ‘no spin’…………but I find some of the programme hosts to be very verbose on their own veiws even when asking guests questions….especially Bill ORielly….and then they blow you off. If I was gona be anything I’d probably be a thinking or reluctant Republican……but among conservatives sometimes I find attitudes as ugly as those in the liberal camp.

To bed young man……what you think is not important..BUT you have the freedom to think it…..thanks of course to America fighting the worlds battles.

Well this is kind of a continuation of Steven. In fact lets end the Steven story here.

He was a lovely gentle man, he had been ripped off by his employers out of his work inheritance of like 61 thousand, lost his apartment, his mates on the street had taken his clothes and his tax return more than once, AND he smoked the cheapest of cigarettes. Had he smoked more expensively I would have questioned his sincerity. AND he didn’t smell of booze. I like Steven, the sheet metal worker, more to the point in that brief talk I loved Steven, and would have gladly become friends. I have looked for him since and not seen him. Perhaps he’s avoiding this knowledge & understanding hungry kiwi. LOL. Can’t say I blame him. I avoid myself sometimes!

Now to todays image.

As promised, this is almost a generic picture (of the male kind @ least, there are woman and younger than this, though I think a bit of age tampering goes on) of beggars at the crossroads and lights in Denver.

Its a fairly typical cardboard sign. This guy came out crossing himself and I thought he had the look of Moses down from the mountain, which this guys equivalent may just have been leaving the fast food outlet after a feed…invisible @ stage left. Moses eyes would have burned with the presence of God. Wouldn’t yours? I spose it depends if God is a Republican or a Democrat. This guy had the mystical unbalanced look and body language of a zealot.

Speaking of body language, I like John Mc Cain BUT I wish he’d stop pointing to people in the crowd………stage left, stage right…..LOL. who me, what’ve I done. But at least he has a point!

Back to the prophet of the moment. So this is pretty typical. I have it on good authority from  fellow beggars that these guys are well looked after by the churches…feed, clothed, showered and loved.

They have chosen a path……………not just the one to the River Platte to sleep.

Steven was worried with winter coming on. He’d been rained on the night before…..it was getting cold and the shelters didn’t open until October.

As to the burning Bush part of the title.

No doubt Democrats bash Republicans for the problem and visa versa…………………I just thought it was a good play on words.

And you don’t see this kinda thing in New Zealand………..I never have but I guess I haven’t frequented K road.

Please let me know if you have seen this in NZ.

You can see a larger version of this CLICK HERE

Well I have been in Denver tooo long so today I was taken on a trip to Colorado Springs. I had heard so much about that placefrom early contact with a group called the Navigators, ( a christian para-church organisation). Well today was the end (opps forgive me re the Steven story, I am getting back to that  and the round of thinking about poverty and street life in USA. There are new developments !)……today was the end of 90 days of prayer and continuous worship for a church in the Springs. The prayer was directed towards the nation & freedom, and the worship to perhaps an all to forgotten God. BUT not by some. Definitely not those there and many others across Woody’s land.

It was neat to be there, and neat to balance the images of Broadway and Colfax with the images of people who may in fact be poorer, but who represented those who loved a long forgotten Saviour and king.

These people despite their media stereotype are not narrow minded or old or boring or all wearing some kind of cross brand. The only cross they carried was for the love of America and for America to get back to  the God of the founding fathers.

How far America has fallen..and falling and will continue to fall until some sense of black n white in a grey world is re established. I sense in myself even the fear of black n white, so grey I may have become.

There are grey areas for sure, but the problem is that the areas that need to be black n white have become grey, some non negotiables have turned to grey, no thanks to the supreme court and liberal politics.

But the tide is turning.

Yes its war. But the weapons of this warfare are spiritual. Thats what this 90 days was about.

The unraveling has begun.

Humility starts a lot of great changes.

I promise to get back to Steven……but I need to post this picture in honour of some friends I have spent some time having fun with  ( eh Walker )and to get back to daily postings..

Spending time with these people was the nearest thing I have come to feeling like I am in New Zealand.

People are people where ever you are……..but these are really cool cats. We had a deadline and I loved helping out.

Here they are.

These people are really special.

Back to Steven tomorrow!

It is a seriously disturbing thing riding 13 miles up Broadway to turn right up Colfax in Denver. Whether its the morning wake up call or evening rush home hour,  this ‘kiwi’ has seen things that I guess exist in New Zealand but not with the intensity or frequency one encounters them on this ride. Things that you don’t really want to see or be aware of there existence. Knowledge creates some kind of responsibility or response if not external action then internal processing of the heart, mind and soul. Well @ least that’s how it is with me!

Processing that goes beyond the likes of one guy I was riding with just saying ‘Go get a job you mother (you know the rest)! ‘

In NZ we do not see beggars with cardboard signs, them having given up on any dignity whatsoever and bludging for 25 cents or anything to help them. All cardboard signs ( that have various wordings) end with the message of God Bless you. They nearly all also contain the phrase ‘anything helps’. Often these signs are accompanied by appropriate facial expressions, which sometimes look very fake, and can be held by male or females and a range of ages. I have seen 18-19 year olds holding them.

Visually confronting people begging is not limited to Broadway or Colfax, they can be seen all over Denver @ intersections, and all with the cardboard sign. I hope to get a photo sometime.

So here I was one evening at 6pm, riding home down Colfax and I pass this guy, (shown below). I had really been grappling with the ugliness I was seeing, realising full well that reality  (or so they say) is a matter of ones own choosing, these realities I saw on the streets were real, touchable and were possibly tainted by my struggles with answers to the questions of why on earth do Americans think they are so great a nation when I saw all this sadness on the footpaths. Very few people looked happy.

But as I said, I saw this guy and in a very Blind Poet moment decided to confront the truth. I sat down beside him and said I wanted to know his story, how did he get like this and how I had this dilema of thinking all people in this situation in the land of opportunity must be losers! (of course I said it differently, and of course I didn’t really think it BUT it seemed to be the general opinion, even among non red necks).

I am so glad I stopped. I had seen real weirdos, wackos, red eyed obviously unbalanced talk to themselves types, I had seen the rabid drunks sitting with their backs to the wall on the pavements, the obviously insane…the dope smokers @ the intersections………..and I wondered what the hell I was gona find here.

I found Steven.

and the rest of the story is gonna have to wait for another day.

but to process my thoughts I posted a photo. CLICK HERE

I just had the opportunity to wander around glaze eyed The Home Depot. Sort of the USA equivalent to Mitre 10, Bunnings or  Place Makers. However there were some real differences.

It is almost wood heaven. AND the wood seems MUCH cheaper than in NZ.  Its a lot of pre - cut to length type deals mostly in pine and mostly for the home handy man. I felt empowered as a home renovator come ‘Tim the Toolman type’.

I got down right excited.

There is so much diversity here. There were tiles I had never ever seen like with cuts already in place for mosaics etc. I struggle with too many ideas@ the best of times and my mind was racing.

So here I was wandering the aisles, check’n out the price of tools and bits and pieces AND I thought hey why not get some photos. Being the polite cheeky type I asked someone important, who then asked someone else more important than them………..who bought back the message that they needed to ask someone more important than them even………..like corporate office!

DANG! Then the less important guy said just take photos on my phone. So I did. Very clandestine it was too. BUT I would have loved to have got my 30 D out and really got some good pics.

I share them below.

Americans are really clever. Some of there ideas are silly BUT many of them are brilliant. It does not come I believe from having anymore brains, definitely not that, BUT rather in comes from having a higher population for the benefits of numerical evolution. The more people you have, the more ideas you have, the more workers you have , the more people applying innovative type thinking, do you get the picture. AND so we have a cold chisel with something called a target protector installed on the top. MADE awesome sense to me being one who has hit his hand in such a situation. I see things like that often in America.

HOWEVER it does point out something special about kiwis too tho. We don’t have the high numerical evolution thing happening because of our small population, but we have worked, and maybe our tenacity to get the job done as opposed to finding an easier way was from limited resources being available @ the bottom of the world.

That being said we are also innovators in the extreme. Perhaps our mindset hasn’t been how can we get this job done more easily BUT how can we get it done more efficiently or cleverly.

BACK @ the Home Depot I was drinking in all the different products and solutions you never see in New Zealand.

It was a lovely time.

Here are some of the images of that wonderland.

Gosh I have been busy exploring the streets of Denver, walking and riding.

I am really enjoyn the RNC (Republican National Convention).

Just finished watching Sarah Palin. Its neat being in America during such a historic election.

I promise to write soon.

Graham