Zen and the Art of Splitting Wood

Anyone want to buy a sadly neglected Canadian Canoe?

It’s winter, and winter in the Garden City, means that from time to time, it gets bloody cold.

Not brisk, early morning cold, but bleak, windy gloomy cold.

This is on account of the fact that the city in general, and the specifically the part of it that we live in, is perched on the edge of the escarpment, exposing us to the wind from the South-west and scudding low cloud which blocks the sun if it makes any attempt to warm us.

Consequently, I’m routinely splitting timber to feed our very efficient wood heater.

It works well enough to need no other form of heating in the house, as with the winter fan in motion, warm air is blown into the upper bedrooms. This seems to keep inhabitants of these bedrooms warm and content.

And that’s always a good thing.

Over the last ten winters I’ve learnt a thing or two about splitting wood. I started badly, buying an axe, inspired by memories of my father chopping (not splitting) wood for our cooking stove pre-mains electricity in the fifties.

Like me, my dad was a chalkie, so splitting wood was not necessarily his forte, although I remember him being proficient, not swearing much, and always making sure I was at least ricochet distance removed.

So I grew up with the idea that an axe was the appropriate tool. It’s not, of course, but it took me a few winters to wake up to that.

Once using a wood splitter, and understanding the nature of the wood, the task became much easier, and almost enjoyable.

I studied Taoism once, as part of Asian History and Religion, and the understanding that you work with the wood rather than against is in line with the Taoist view of things..

You look at the grain, and split accordingly. That way, little effort is necessary, and the results are predictable. It’s all about the Zen of the wood.

Unlike this clip, There’s nobody making admiring noises when I’m at the woodheap.

Anyhow, you don’t need an axe, but a tomahawk is useful for making kindling.

A Winter's Tale

It's early evening in Charleville, the sun's dropping, and a damp chill is settling in.

We've had a front move through after a brief storm at Tambo yesterday, and it will be crisp tomorrow.

Charleville's a great base to work from to access Cunnamulla, Quilpie, Augathella and Tambo, and I seem to be spending a lot of time here lately.

I reckon I could live here, but would probably appreciate an alternative for a month or two at the height of summer. A donga by the sea at Carmilla beach would probably do the trick.

Wasn't that all the go at the height of the Raj?

Except that the alternatives were hill stations, and they came with Wallahs of all kinds. I'd not be comfortable with a Wallah, but someone to do the ironing would be good - not my bride - she deserves a break from that also.

It's been a good trip. Bush kids are inspirational, and they keep me on my toes.

I just wish these same toes (and other parts of my ageing anatomy) were better at keeping up with me. I'm finding getting down on the floor (essential with pre-schoolers) is not as easy as it used to be.

To be precise, it's the getting up again that's the problem.

We missed the transit of the F111 from Roma to Longreach yesterday. I'm buggered if I know how we managed that - it was 4 metres wide.

Dunno why they didn't fly it from Amberley to Darwin whilst it was still airworthy.

Mandawuy Yunupingu

The Tribal Voice album was released at about the same time I started working in Aboriginal Education at Mt Isa in 1992.

I often heard this music played in the schools along and around the beef road through Dajarra, Urandangie, Boulia, and Bedourie.

It takes me back to a vibrant and exciting era.

This is dedicated to Mandawuy Yunupingu and his life and work.

Now two rivers run their course
Separated for so long
I'm dreaming of a brighter day
When the waters will be one

Some Questions About Autism

This is an American graph - the trend here is similar.

Back when Adam played second row for Valleys (1971 to be precise) and I started teaching in special schools, to encounter a child with Autism was a rare event.

From memory, in the school where I worked at the time, with an enrolment of about 70, there was one. He was also profoundly deaf, so some of the non-communicative behaviours he exhibited may have been as much a function of his hearing loss, as of Autism.

Contrast that with the situation these days. When I retired as a special school principal in 2005, over a third of my school population was classified as being on the spectrum*.

It's over diagnosis, I hear you say.

Perhaps - there is a process available (called Verification in Queensland) which identifies these kids, gets them diagnosed, and acquires additional resources to support them in their schools. Indeed, a large part of the work I do is guiding schools through these processes. Sometimes I feel more like an auditor than a teacher.

Other states have similar protocols.

Having said that seeking to support these children inevitably results in more of them being identified, but there's much more than over diagnosis happening, if it's happening at all.

There are simply more of these kids around. Anyone who has been at the chalk face as long as I have (over forty years) will tell you that. It's also backed up in the research. The incidence rate keeps rising.

So what's going on?

Is it diet? Has the advent of supermarkets and the necessity to apply preservatives to food which is going to sit on the shelf for a while having a cumulative effect?

Is it lifestyle? Is the exposure of the developing brain to screens rather than parental care an issue? Is the fact that many children these days spend less time in those vital years between age one and four communicating with their parents because of work commitments having an influence?

Are we so worried about childhood security that we don't allow our kids to bounce off the physical environment in the fashion that I did when I was growing up in the bush? Does this "cotton woolling" of the developing body (and the developing brain) prevent the normal development of the nervous system? We're only just beginning to appreciate the importance of the role that sensory integration has in both social and intellectual development.

And yet, there are so many kids who have had early childhoods that feature all these normal developmental exposures who are profoundly affected. How do you explain the phenomenon of children reared in identical family situations to their siblings presenting with Autism, when these siblings do not?

Does pollution, especially from vehicle exhausts, have anything to do with it?

I could go on - there are so many questions.

The point is, something has changed, the incidence rate is increasing at an alarming rate, and we need to spend some serious research money on this problem before the costs of not doing so come back to bite us.

"Us" being schools and parents all over the country.

*Spectrum - diagnosing Autism is subjective - the DSM - V describes a range or band of individuals who can be diagnosed.

Swing Girls

Whether you're a fan of big band swing or not, this is an engaging clip.

It's full of life and energy, and you'd have to be moribund not to get caught up in the sheer joy of performance. It's from a Japanese movie called Swing Girls, with a fiendishly convoluted plot.

Forget the movie, just enjoy the band.

 H/T Dave.

Francis on the Market

 The worldwide financial and economic crisis seems to highlight their distortions and above all the gravely deficient human perspective, which reduces man to one of his needs alone, namely, consumption. Worse yet, human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away. We have started a throw-away culture. This tendency is seen on the level of individuals and whole societies; and it is being promoted! In circumstances like these, solidarity, which is the treasure of the poor, is often considered counterproductive, opposed to the logic of finance and the economy. While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling. 

This imbalance results from ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and thus deny the right of control to States, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good. A new, invisible and at times virtual, tyranny is established, one which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules. Moreover, indebtedness and credit distance countries from their real economy and citizens from their real buying power. Added to this, as if it were needed, is widespread corruption and selfish fiscal evasion which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The will to power and of possession has become limitless. 

This is a quote from a recent speech made to diplomats accredited to the Holy See by Pope Francis.

He is obviously no admirer of the mantra that the market rules, and is our salvation.

He calls this belief a cult, and he's not far from the mark.

I probably would have used slightly more colourful language. For mine, the market can be described as behaving like a reptile, rather than resembling a cult.

That is, I guess, a distinction between what it is, and what it does.

Ask Google - they have used the market successfully to avoid paying their fair share of tax for years.

The Doors

This is as good an excuse as any to post this vid.

Make sure you have your headphones turned up high.