Paisley Tablecloths
Sylvia Shawcross
In late autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere when the wind picks up it is as if the forests themselves are trembling with impending cold. The mostly now yellow leaves colour the sky itself behind them a tinged ochre between branches. There is snow. Just a touch.
Just enough to wash out the ground like the bleeding of a watercolour painting in the wet. If you squint enough just before dusk you can feel yourself drifting into a painting, a Seurat perhaps or a Turner, the impressions of a place and time set apart from the everyday. Precious. Moody. Tender. A cool air tasting winter.
And on the trappings of the living earth, the people carry on. They go to work and shop and visit. They wear their heavier clothes and boots sometimes. It isn’t time for boots but still they do. They dragged them out of the back of the closet anyway. They don’t much care like they used to what others might think. They have enough to contend with. For prices in grocery stores are very high and mortgages are becoming unreasonable. The price of gas and heating and those endless taxes weigh like stones on their shoulders. They try not to think about it all too much.
It is too much.
And over there of course, the wars. Always the wars. But that is still over there and you can’t much care. But of course the people do. If it were only that but it never is. They march in huge clusters of humanity down grey streets with colourful flags and placards to protest. They want the killings to stop and yet it is only a short step before the groups begin turning on each other.
It is almost human nature to see this now: the tyranny of those who oppose tyranny. And the divides continue. And it was ever thus. But for now, it feels like solidarity. Except for those who are afraid. The Jewish synagogues today. The mosques tomorrow perhaps. The churches have already had their days of burning here. Yet now it is about another country’s war. The people do not see the pavement crumbling beneath their own feet as they march.
“Peace. Here. Now.” I say this frequently now. It is all I have in terms of an opinion.
If only we could all, wherever we are, stand here on this living earth and feel its tremendous patience. Even in the snow. Or in the sand. To stand alone and vow peace to our souls, to the fragile beatings of our heart in silence. To honour the future of children born or not yet born. To take the pain and fear and rage of war and place it into a china teacup painted with colourful flowers and set it waiting on a table for another day.
To stand and stay there in silence and in the quiet streets. Together then. No chanting nor crying nor raging nor violence. How sweet the hot tea will be then when we have become still. We will not drink the anger anymore. We do not accept your divides. We will not do this again. We will not feed your war machine. We will drink tea now together. We will mix it with honey or maple syrup perhaps. We have learned. Why have you not?
But of course I dream of tea parties and the world is a tempest but not in a teapot. It is a serious business when swathes of humanity take to the streets. They play a cacophonous noise to the elected who sometimes but not often will listen. What good did the weeks and weeks of tens of thousands on the boulevards of Paris do? Oh Paris…. Those old revolutionary cries that linger still creviced in the stone buildings and if you scratch at them perhaps with a pocket knife you might hear the old battle cries. Such passion does not disappear forever.
Did any of the elected hear the collective cry this time around? I don’t much think they did but perhaps I am wrong.
Eventually listening has to happen. If the anger grows. The listening that happens before or after the tumult. Always the vagaries of history will know which way it will go. We can never know because we are shoved one way or another and cannot see it anymore. Only the drones high in the sky can see it all. And they don’t tell. They show us pictures but not passion. We will know only when the passion is spent.
But of course we wait. Those of us with that luxury. We wait for winter and we watch the storms on far horizons. Spring always seems far away. But it always comes. In the meantime we set the china teacups out on a paisley tablecloth for the guests that might just come this way. And we put the kettle on.
Earworm for some reason:
“History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope & history rhyme.So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore Is reachable from here,”The quote is from Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy, after Robert Fitzgerald, a translator and interpreter of the Greek classics.
Visit my sub stack if so inclined: ” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>sylshawcross.substack.com
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Late to the party: I glossed over this essay. It’s early morning and still too dark to let the dog out. So, I came back to the delight of reading it.
Drinking hot coffee, however. Never one for tea.
It’s burn season.
The one-hour fuels (oak leaves and grass) have responded to the sun, wind, warm temps and low humidity. They are ready to go.
The herps, the most vulnerable, have moved to higher ground nestled down for the winter and are mostly out of harms way. The summer, ground nesting, birds are gone. The fawns are now lean and swift.
The woods are ready but the window of opportunity is small. It’s now or never.
Millions of years of adaptation and anticipation compressed into a narrow window of time.
Your song touched a nerve at the right time.
My favorite “burn song” was done by Arthur Brown. Played it before every prescription burn.
https://youtu.be/YzHtePuz13U
Thank you for the beautiful arcadian prose. The cold season may be coming, but nature pulls us in… the wind caressing the trees, the subtle, inebriating scents, the crisp air and circumspect birds. All are too profound to describe. Perhaps the ‘Belle Province’ most precious gift is to still be permeated with remembrance, through the blaring quiescence of its winters, if, and when, we only manage to move aside our madness.
It’s interesting you mention the stifling taxes and, in the next paragraph, the demented wars. Perhaps you need to draw an association between the two, because it’s just so strikingly obvious, and so utterly absurd in its repetitiveness. It’s like pointing to the enormous cost we pay for the clever bureaucracy of ‘service industries,’ which in the end, only serves to inflict pain here and abroad; a kind of “Mort à Crédit,” to use an old expression coined by Louis-Ferdinánd Céline before the Great War. How things have changed, might you ask?
Hence, I envy you to be able to hear such poetry as is sung by the northern woodlands, echo from a sacred space into an infinite time within… and beyond.
Dubious
Another dubious article. It refers to “wars”. What is repelling all people with consciences and humanity is not a war but a savage cold blooded genocidal massacre.
Certainly looking that way Placental.
Sylvia, My Dad used to be an engineer on a boat – a comercial seaman, between ww1 and ww2. He used to bring exceedingly delicate pieces of China, from China – very thin and fragile….much thinner than yours. Are yours Canadian or from The Potteries – Stoke-on-Trent?
Whilst I can on occasion take reasonable photographs – even videos, I am completely useless at painting pictures, and I have tried. I do however like art, and I just completely love this painting. I am trying to find out who painted it. She is still my dream girl.
“An Unsealed Letter”
i have no idea who has done this painting Tony. Not me. Perhaps my friend Tamaya Garner. She is brilliant.
If only we could all stand on the living earth and say – <Peace. Here. Now.> According to Hannah Arendt: the loss of the common world – “world alienation” – is one of the elemental origins of the degeneration of the human condition; manifesting as an ethical lack of commonsense (affective sense in common) with a shared vision of a common object of perception. If – when we are saying <Peace. Here. Now.> – we are all confident we are referencing the same referent (actually resembling the “living earth” as it is “here; now” as correspondent verification); only then do we have guarantee of truth about reality in common with no indeterminacy? So we all know that we are saying the same thing in unison? No need to check up on what is actually meant: whichever degradation of sense-making leads to conflict, dispute, tremendous isolationism, totalitarianism, and anomie in communication breakdown (also according to Arendt.)
“And over there, of course, the wars…. Always the wars”. Alas: “We can’t care much” (but as commercially entrained moral subjects, we do.) The problematic with any ‘real-time’ realist description of the living earth is always going to encounter the “evidential problem of evil” and have to come up with a plausible explanation of the gross indifference to gratuitous existential evil. On which, as a modern political phenomena, Arendt wrote the “ur-critical” account of the origins; but only in the 1950s when the scars of the then recent violence had yet to heal. After when: Arendt-indebted scholars have been trying to keep up with the bewildering velocity of change, mounting indifference, and willful ignorance of the problematic or contemporary “ecology of evil.” Suffice to say; the scars have never healed, they just get deeper.
As I write: there is no agreed-upon ethic, no agreed-upon “common world of perception”, no agreed-upon “commonality of world-alienation”, not even a commonly agreed-upon definition of evil – let alone any theoretical plausibility on the contemporary problem of evidential evil and its gratuitous ignorance. Whichever is WIERD; because we wrote the book on that one. The connotation of a “living earth” can mean anything to anyone. The cognitive dissonant blindsight continues.
FWIW: “productive industrialised growth society” came to dead-end in the 70s. To extend our materialist way of life-affirmation (which obviously would have terminated then) production was exported to the sweatshops of the South and the Third World was made into the networked producer of First World consumerism. This effected the structural dehumanisation of billions of “human beings superfluous as human beings” that Arendt herself experienced as a Jewish emigre – but on an unprecedented planetary scale as a “totalisation of totalitarianism” – unparalleled in history – perpetrated still at the multi-species level.
To which “dehumanisation of the Rest” – on a globalised scale of intentionally inflicted pain, poverty and suffering that dwarfed any historical authoritarian totalisation in scope and realisation – the West has remained remarkably silent in its gross and gratuitous indifference to evidential and existential evil of our owned production for consumption we experience for free; or as we have chosen to call it ‘freedom and liberty’ (from shared reality.)
“Morally normalised gross indifference” that would make Eichmann look like a cultural aesthete, far more refined and sensitive than any neoliberal “moral subject”, has turned globalised society into the market-economic “Moral Economic Ape” that can “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil” about market-evidential evil. Nevermind: “Why does an omnipotent god allow evil?” – “Why do we live off it and say nothing?”
Everybody knows that the “wonderful world of command purchase power” is a dynamic of enforcement for getting other people to produce ‘our’ consumer ‘goods’ for us for free. That is the real-time nature of oppressive power (actualised “here and now”) – commodified peace of mind and collective consumer power (unfair ‘competitive advantage’ with big guns and a racialised monopoly of ‘humanitarian’ violence). Everybody knows First World is a net consumer of other people’s property; but fails point blank to recognise our militarism enabled our consumerism. You can only not know if you choose not to know.
MLK spoke of the “Triple Evil” of structural militarism, structural materialism and structural racism – because this consumer tripartheid is strictly racialised necropower – the cost of goods over here, the wars over there, and the racist redistribution of other people’s (Unpeoples) property is all part of the same distributed division of labour achieved in living memory – nominally by Reagan and Thatcher – whilst everybody else turned blind, deaf, and dumb to the “living human” on the otherside of the “living earth.” <Peace. Here. Now.>?
Thereafter: the ‘luxury of waiting’ (whilst waiting in relative luxury) is conspicuously white; feeding the war machinery which keeps everything racially hygienically out of sight. The contemporary “banality of evil” dreams of tea parties with paisley tablecloths whilst their fellow human beings are sub-humanised to make it all possible. Never mind; “Would you like some more tea?”
Peace. Here. Next Time.
oh for heavenssakes Bryan
Bryan?
There is clarity in succinctness.
There is beauty in brevity.
Try it.
I’m very sorry Bryan . I appreciate the effort and time you have given to your thoughts and am honoured by that effort. I don’t agree with your assumptions but I’m not one for debate these days. I will never apologize for making tea. That I know.
Syl, they are not ‘assumptions’, it is brute economic reality that the ‘west’ expanded civilisation by opening up the global market extending ‘services’ that nobody else needed in return for goods we wanted but could no longer afford. Remember the ‘credit boom’; remember the crashes? None of what I say is mere assumption: it actually happened.
In the UK, it is conspicuously self-evident that the UK could not generate the standard of living afforded by the net imperial appropriation of other people’s property. Any time you want, we can go through the entire history of modern capitalist imperialism — which we Brits invented because the UK is not enough. Our resource base is tiny: do we have to include the rerasons why we were in Canada — free-trade freely entered into with Indigenous people who still own the land?
(Hint: I have a relative who has chronicled every broken treaty).
Anyway: you missed my point — the earth ain’t living any more; it’s been turned into a singular cash plantation to feed the western ego. I guess we were talking about a different earth after all?
Instead of cultivating an air of exclusivity, it is better to use more everyday language to encourage debate. Bryan’s ostentatious style has the opposite effect.
I just completed Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem”…she has a lot to say about genocide. What book is your comment from? “World Alienation?”
It is one of her themes (“earth-alienation” is another) that runs throughout “The Human Condition” and the “Origins of Totalitarianism”; therefore there is no specific book reference.
Her concepts and themes have also been extended by numerous other scholars — significantly Agamben and Mbembe — and so is the basis of “Homo Sacer” and “necropolitics” and “brutalism”; which is Mbembe’s term for the sort of violence we ignore.
FWIW: I’ve also made many comments to your own articles referring to “alien possession” and “alien animism” by the <soul, psyche, mind ego> which is based in Arendt’s view of “commonsense cut off from the senses” of the cartesian subject as the source of totalitarianism — an isolationist theme common to many. I might not specifically reference Arendt, but it’s her analysis I am drawing on.
Incidentally, you must know the distinction between “radical” and “banal” evil? There is not enough time to draw out the fact that economic moral virtue “for the greater good” involves getting the Rest of the world to provide their labour and their property for free — a point Mbembe follows Fannon’s Mannichean “white and black” wealth distribution on as an essentially racist distribution of their goods and their services we organise the expropriation of for ourselves. Given the level of literature on this, my comments should barely be controversial. If we all know where our goods are coming from, we can all say so, thereby restoring the “living world” as a commonsense object of perception; entirely in keeping with Hannah’s entire legacy?
From the standpoint of literary art alone, one of your best, Syl.
The horrifying realization that as a writer, not having an opinion is the ultimate freedom… So i revert to literary artifice. I think I was outraged about 3 years ago or so. Now, numbed by horror, I’m simply bearing witness to my small section of the world. Well… of the back yard and stuff. For now.
I thought what I wrote in response to your article, about China from China was pretty benign. I was actually trying to ask your opinion about a painting – and if ypu knew who the artist was – but as normal, what I write gets instantly binned. So I googled you and initially got Sylvia Plath, who is not my cup of tea…then I found almost your entire bio…and some of your paintings – one of which I found completely brilliant…SOLD
You are a Beautiful Girl – so what is it about you – doing half a face looking like death warmed up?
Get Yourself a Decent Photographer and SMILE to project the Beauty of Your Soul especially if you feel like shit.
It is an odd thing you know Tony. I’m very old but at this point I don’t seem to look as old as I am which means I get none of the deference to age nor any of the compassion for old bones. Trust me. I’m no “girl.”
Sail on Silver Girl…
Spare a thought for poor Zelensky.
Cast out like yesterday’s newspaper.
Still, there’s always the comedy circuit to fall back on.
True, but be sure to keep his feet to the fire.
Is it too early to put odds on where is ‘bolt’ hole will be?
One of his numerous beach side properties bought by his family with our money.
Even if Zelensky can escape the long knives of the CIA and his Nazi allies to one of his many mansions in Europe, Israel, or Miami, he will be constantly looking over his shoulder for the rest of his damned life for revenge from the loved ones of the half million young men he was complicit in murdering for material gain, and the country he ripped to pieces.
Besides his own people and the crippled mercenaries, those interested pursuing him will include West Asian peoples. He, his generals or officials sold the armaments donated to the governments there.
Forgive Zelensky, because he never knew what he was doing. He just thought it was a new “never again” show.
The comedy circuit – like Servant of the People. Falling back on that will get you elected president in political theater! Thus proving that reality is more of a joke than comedy.
All the world’s a stage.
Seems unlikely he will be alive for a lot longer.
Another ‘Young Global Leader’ hits the big time:
It’s not what you know but WHO:
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/31/regime-change-web-summit-ceo-israeli-war-crimes/
Oh the beautiful people on mount davos cavorting
Look what I just found. Anthrax used as adjuvants in all Covid vaxx.
https://truthcomestolight.com/between-the-lies-of-the-anthrax-narrative/
The don’t knows we don’t know, until we do.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12
When you realise the vast difference between the flesh, 3D world (the matrix) and the spiritual world, you will no longer cling to the former. It is but a passing breath.
You will then lose your fear of loss, ridicule, shame etc from the ‘people of the world’. They cannot touch you any more.
That’s freedom.
And yes you will find peace and even joy no matter how awful ‘the world’ becomes. Because the world is sort of an illusion. It is what goes on beneath, behind that really matters.
You will stop putting hope and faith in man for solutions. And in worldly things for salvation.
Salvation only comes from our creator.
I live for God now, not man.
Well said Paul, and “Sufficient for the day is the evil there of” Matthew 6:34
It makes me extremely happy on your behalf to see you (also) found the way!
Which God Paul?
So many Gods, so little time.
We follow the dictates of religions according to the random cosmic lottery of our place of birth.
It is arrogant to assume we’ve won the lottery in ‘Christian’ nations.
God, whatever that means, has no creed, sect or house of worship.
God IS NOT divisive, secular or exclusive to one religion.
God is Life, Love and Truth.
Strange logic: “Because there is more than one way, none of them are true”.
I never set out to be a Christian, just to find the truth. I would have stopped at tarot cards if I saw they were that.
Look into it and see.
JESUS is the way, the truth and the life.
https://jesusneverexisted.com
Christian zombies sound like a broken record. Scientology is small potatoes compared to this !
“Salvation” = eternal slavery to the false god of the Js.
Take your regurgitated preaching and shove it where the sun don’t shine, slave.
Meanwhile, in redneck country, it’s same shit, different day:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/wa-public-hospitals-mask-requirements-roger-cook-covid-19/103120580
oh dear gawd you’d think we’d be finished with this nonsense by now
We would be if people refuse to comply.
Well, if you fully realise that the ‘ways have parted,’ Sylvia, and we now live in relatively completely different realities, different worlds, you would know that they aren’t going to let go. And the ‘mad,’ are objectively, well ‘MAD.’
Both sides, the ‘controllers’ and the ‘controlled.’
The controllers don’t want to tell the truth because of the possible/likely consequences. The controlled, well, fear, the shame of being proved wrong, the self-hatred of being wrong in such an important and potentially dangerous to lethal issue, and the need to externalise the shame which when triggered becomes anger which must be externalised, often as hatred for us, the boat-rockers. The un-vaccinated, the disobedient non-mask wearers.
How dare we flout authority. It shouldn’t be allowed. .
Etc.
Let me not forget the desire to reduce the population to 500 million. That has not gone away. And Bryan, it’s WEIRD.
Its multi generational, relax. There’s time.
It has been that way since 1770 where all British criminals, vagabonds and scumbags were exported to Australia’s dry sandy hellhole to be punished for their hang to alcohol and bar fights, and will continue that way in the next 250 years until you Aussies learn to behave yourself in an educated manner. 🎩 .
So. You are allowed to say that about Australians. Isn’t that trolling? Isn’t it offensive and bigoted? Why is it permitted?
Because its the truth said in jest. This is a truth teller site, not your usual alternative media controlled butthurt opposition swimming pool ;-).
Problem is, the offspring of those vagabonds and scumbags now rule this ecologically diverse and utterly awesome paradise on Earth.
Come visit.
You won’t want to go home.
130000 at one Coldplay concert? Yikes. What is this world coming to? That’s a sign of the Apocalypse if I ever heard of one.
Half a dozen good songs doesn’t come near the output of Bach, the Beatles or even the Beach Boys.
Those Sandgropers (West Australians) are desperate for distractions from their vagabond and scumbag leaders.
A cuppa tea and a double choc muffin.
Just what the doctor didn’t order.
Thanks Syl, that was brill.
doctors always fail to appreciate the healing power of choc muffins
Mere amateurs……….
You take some ‘Apple loves mint’, and let it soak.
You take some German ‘Gingerbread Pfeffernusse’
Wash down the latter, with the former………Match made in Heaven!
Apple or blueberry would be my next choices.
In moderation of course.
Pfeffernusse, minus the icing, is good with a cuppa too.