Kiwi On The Loose

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

Well today the Democratic convention starts here in Denver. 15,000 plus media staff, only 6000 delegates. AND thousands of hangers on.

Its going to be interesting. The longer I am here, the longer I find English styled, New Zealand type politic, much more appealing. I kinda cringe at the money thrown around in America for politics….just to get the vote. The rhetoric is draining on the human pshyche. Blah Blah bloody blah……………. on Fox news the conservative channel I have not seen ONE slither of news that is outside America.

Whose navel is being gazed at?

Thank God for freedom of speech, but I don’t know if you are as free if you criticise or see things differently. No such fear in New Zealand. There are a lot of emperors new clothes stories here. I get embarrassed by what people think about their role in history and the present.

I don’t want to feel like this.

Maybe I have Mondayitis.

I know what Friday feels like in New Zealand, (even tho it felt like that yesterday coz of the date line).

Fridays feel the same in America.

It starts in the morning with a sigh of relief that the weekends here as people head to work.

Then from 4 pm on you can feel it in the traffic as people head home.There’s a bouancy on the traffic line up at the lights, no one seems to mind and the music on the radio sounds better today..

This kind of thing unites mankind, as we all shrug off the burden of work and head into that space where you can have some choices with your time.

Saturday morning after a Friday night where you didn’t have to be so careful how late you stayed up.

Have a great weekend!

Its been a good day, a day of kids playing on the road @ the intersection, avoiding the brown UPS truck. Up the street the water works guys are  diggin’ up the road and cutting off the water. Its a huge hole and a typical scene globally. Two guys doing the work and the rest standing around watching & eating in this case.Nice guys tho, all dressed in orange. Between the relief of knowing that your water alone hadn’t been cut off for some reason, and their relief that you hadn’t come to see them to be some kind of ‘moaning urbanite’, there was humanity. Happy people.Kindness and smiles cost you nothing do they? The one and a half hours without water will be an excuse to sample more white wine with ice cubes.Its been a good Wednesday in America. I can feel the happiness on the street, the novelty of the road being closed, gated by orange cones to match the workers ‘can you see me vests’.The sounds of happy kids continue and I better go check the pork on the grill.There’s peace today in my world.

Was New Zealand @ the Olympics?

There I was watching the open ceremony, looking forward to and wondering how I would feel watching ENZED enter the beginning parade.

When we finally got to it………after lots of commentary and team USA promo patriotic adverts………………. team New Zealand entered the stadium…………ahhhhhhhhh. I started to feel things.

Was Sam Warriner there from my hometown? THEN after barely 5 seconds of seeing Black….’we are gona cut to a break now!’

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. No it wasn’t our politics or nuclear policy, pure and simple someone made a call that we didn’t matter, that some other nation of ONE entrant was more interesting.

In that one moment I had such a vivid illustration of worldview and NZ place on the world stage thru American eyes. Didn’t they know I was watching in Denver??? LOL.

Of course its normal and good and okay for USA to be there for the collection of news about themselves. If Naru had a broadcasting crew, they wouldm be there for Naru. Which makes me wonder, who does cover the little guys @ the Olympics for the fans at home. Eg,Samoa and Tuvalu had a representative this year….who does I wonder.

Maybe coverage isn’t that important, but being there is.

And there is worldview in a nutshell. America wants to see America, NZ wants to see NZ, Ukraine..Ukraine and so on down the line.

It all illustrates our preoccupation with ourselves, which to be honest some of which is good and healthy and needed BUT if we go deeper into it, PERHAPS the Olympics is just ritualised imperialism or one upmanship for some nations. And nothing is really gained from the spirit of competition that is mind broadening beyond a fascination and cutesy value of other competeing nations. Apart from the opening and closing ceremonies the media does nothing that will perhaps parallel relationally what is happening on the ground between the athletes in terms of life changing meetings.

IMAGINE if the media talked to competitors and people from other countries than there own, and there was passion and pride in a more global way. THEN I think the Olympics could be a defining time for all the nations.

IMAGINE being interested in the worldview of other atheletes from strange lands.

I didn’t mean to deep here but here I am again pondering serious stuff. IF I had been in NZ I know we would have got more than 5 seconds of USA entering the stadium. I know you gotta cut to the break somewhere in the studio BUT? I think NZ has a less self absorbed view of itself and others.

So I want to have a worldview that sees the adventure of getting to know what others think as a primary objective. It by no means giving up your own convictions, or worldview BUT it sets a platform for UNDERSTANDING and with understanding comes tolerance, and sometimes understanding comes with a big stick too. I don’t want a gushy accept all behaviour kinda world. Its just not good when the stick comes out from self absorption or the road to understanding hasn’t been walked first.

So I wont get to see NZ’s entry and performance at the games, and find out how I will feel about it.. I don’t have a clue from TV how many medals we’ve got or how Sam Warriner did.

BUT the USA team patriotic adverts are the same, just no silver fern or black. AND I am happy to feel pleasure and pride in USA’s achievements. Its a different worldview, thats all.

I must confess

that I was really impressed by this debate with the presidential candidates and Rick Warren. Before the debate (which took the form of 60 mins each, same questions and with neither hearing the other), Warren said Americans needed to get over demonising those who thought differently, or held opposing worldviews. WOW I thought that is so what it seems like over here. Their are TWO camps, Republican or Democrat and never the twain shall met. I’d like to know what Mark Twain would say about this state of affairs!

In NZ it is not so one eyed about politics. I didn’t realise how pluralistic we really were until I came here on holiday.

ANYways back to the debate. I was hugely impressed on several levels.

A. The honesty and humanity of both Mc Cain and Obama in answering the questions. Impressed with them being there in the first place.

B. The depth of the questions. These weren’t as Warren said easy questions, and he didn’t want ’stump speech answers’. (campaign I wana win vote answers)

C. I was impressed that Christians were behind setting this up, and being salt to society. Sadly lacking in a beat up the fundamentalist kind of world.

D. I felt like I did get an ‘apples to apples’ kind of comparison of the candidates. They are both not perfect but I could see who they were and where they were coming from a bit more.

In this debate I so saw how the media has pushed Obama to the fore, how they have played the good footage etc and how they had done the reverse to Mc Cain. Mc Cain came over as a man of convictions, humour and deep passion. I had not seen this in the media. I liked how he saw America needed to see and work beyond its own self interests.

I know who I think would be the kind of president America needs. And they both need our prayers. I believe they are both good men.

Heres some of the intervew

Hi everyone, sorry for the technical problems yesterday, BUT its all solved and we are rock’n and rolling again. GOSH it was horrible thinking I had lost everything. This blog has taken a lot of time over the months working out how to tweak it and format it, not to mention the time writing down my thoughts etc, OR to mention the posts of the people who have responded.

May I just say that I really appreciate those who have responded. Susan and I were talking about this kind of thing the other day. The internet and the instant communication revolution has been great BUT we get a bit jaded by it all, we have so many choices to communicate, we end up REALLY communicating less. (really meaning the less in depth and perhaps meaningful coz it costs us nothing). MY THEORY is that we tend to go towards the easy less demanding web experiences, we will browse stuff that doesn’t make us have to think or reflect or go deep.

So we are back online and I intend to continue. Its raining here in Denver for the second day in a row ……………fall is in the air.

Great for working on the computer and writing………………like making banners. CLICK image below!