barbeque

Barbecue over at Jim and Janet’s place. They got back late last night from their weeks vacation in Utah and Colorado. Mostly fishing, but also showing their two Aussie sheepdogs at a show in Richmond, Utah, where they packed away a few ribbons. Marianne was over for dinner too. Hadn’t seen her since Christmas, so was caught up on her two book projects, one which has found a publisher. A book about the lives of ranch dogs in the west of the US, with various creative texts and photos… Conversation ranged far and wide. Whilst in the background the Olympics jingoism blared onward to its ecstatic self-congratulatory conclusion … I really can’t stand it, yet I am drawn to the imagery like a magnet. That’s one reason I have not had a teevee around my own house for 15 years or more — because it is so seductive. But I am getting more and more conscious of the need to totally limit mediated input in this life — taped music, radio, newspapers, books, magazines, teevee, telephone — and concentrate on the unmediated. Observation of other people and the immediate physical surroundings. Hearing stories about other places direct from some one else. I suppose

would characterize the approach. But this alone is not enough. There must be an active component, a pursuit of what lies behind the purely physical. I try to meditate on these things. But mostly I just am confused on the course life is taking. Under-employment, well, socially a downward spiral for the past three years or so. I don’t know when it will end…