A Reason to Live?

I heard on the radio that it's suicide prevention week. I've never been suicidal (other than the Ican'ttakeitearthswallowmeup feeling when really upset) so I have no idea whether the song below would help someone out. But it's my favorite song about suicide... if that's not terribly inappropriate. (Billy Joel's "Second Wind" has a true concept at its heart, but that's some goofy music, yo.)

Whether it's suicide-preventee or not, Alanis Morissette's "Joining You" is just a great song, an original take on the "What the eff is it all for?"

The premise is that a friend has tried to commit suicide, and her mother is freaking and asks the song narrator to talk to the friend. The song is a letter to that friend.

The central message is: If all life consisted of was...

our bodies
our futures
our defenses
our culture
our leaders
our denials
our nametags
our rejections
our outcomes
our indignities
our successes
our emotions
their condemnations
their projections
our paranoias
our incomes
our obsession
our afflictions

...then the singer would kill herself too.

I like that Alanis doesn't spell out what life IS about, that's left for us to ponder/decide; she just says that it's More. More than the feelings that overwhelm us at times, more than the labels people put on us, more than these shells we inhabit.

dear dar(lin') your mom (my friend) left a message on my machine she was frantic
saying you were talking crazy that you wanted to do away with yourself
I guess she thought i'd be a perfect resort because we've had
this inexplicable connection since our youth and yes they're in shock
they are panicked you and your chronic them and their drama
you this embarrassment us in the middle of this delusion
if we were our bodies
if we were our futures
if we were our defenses i'd be joining you
if we were our culture
if we were our leaders
if we were our denials i'd be joining you
I remember vividly a day years ago we were camping you knew more than you thought you should know
you said "I don't want ever to be brainwashed" and you were mindboggling you were intense
you were uncomfortable in your own skin you were thirsty but mostly you were beautiful
if we were our nametags
if we were our rejections
if we were our outcomes i'd be joining you
if we were our indignities
if we were our successes
if we were our emotions i'd be joining you
you and I we're like 4 year olds we want to know why and how come about everything
we want to reveal ourselves at will and speak our minds and never talk small and be intuitive
and question mightily and find god my tortured beacon
we need to find like-minded companions
if we were their condemnations
if we were their projections
if we were our paranoias i'd be joining you
if we were our incomes
if we were our obsession
if we were our afflictions i'd be joining you
we need reflection we need a really good memory feel free to call me a little more often

3 old work friends, 1 teacher, + 1 oldy-but-goody pal

Not much to report this weekend, just some socializing.

* I ran into a woman I worked with 13 years ago. That was fun, cause I have thought about her often. She was a real book lover, and you don't forget real book lovers. ;-) She hadn't changed! (I have, my days.)

* On Tuesday I went to see a couple short aboriginal films and poetry readings, and ran into my high school English teacher (we only had 3 in my school). She looked great too, and just as bubbly and full of energy. We rode the metro together until my stop. So that was another fun encounter.

* Then Wednesday was sushi with my since-grade-7-besty Swiss Girl, which has become a nice routine. I discovered that the street we go to is where the well known comic store Drawn and Quarterly is housed and I finally picked up a book I've been wanting. (I told the book store people it was a new book, but it came out in '09. Just shows how my life is flashing before my eyes, cause I know I first looked for it when it was announced as new lol.)

* Last weekend Fernando and I had supper with an old work friend and her boyfriend, who was also a work friend though of a later generation (when you work somewhere for 15 years you speak in generations.) She eventually left the workplace to focus on her ceramics-art career and is doing well for herself. We love her things! She has a really distinctive style--it's playful, but with a lot of craftsmanship and dedication to detail and high standards (like her!)

She throws every single one by hand, no employees yet. I think she sells to a boutique in the US, but it's not listed on her website.

Here's an older photo of our things.



During the daytime this week I'll photograph our new buys. But let me tell you, when you wake up all grumpilstickinsy, it certainly helps to eat your cereal from a bowl that's smiling at you. It would be so nice to make little plastic kiddie bowls! But apparently to get a design manufactured can cost tens of thousands of dollars--to go to China and find a manufacturer you can trust etc. Yikes! It's apparently better to find someone who already does something of that sort. (Someone who won't just steal your design idea for themselves, I guess? !!)

She hopes to move towards more art pieces soon, rather than utility art. So we have to collect all the bowls and cups we can.

Her boyfriend Ford is equally interesting and fun to hang with. Li's shortish (of Chinese descent, although born in a small northern francophone town) and he's really tall (of... East Indian? descent, but I forget which country) so just physically they are a striking couple.

I think he designed her wonderful web site, and he's a writer, and just an all-around friendly guy who seems to know everyone on the planet. But also brim-full of interesting ideas.

Even though they lived down the street from us for years (and now they don't), this was the first time we got together with them socially. !!  We'll definitely do it again. We talked a lot about Li's business, and my crap. We need to get to know Ford now!