Renouncing the World
Tue Aug 5, 08:37 | RandomI’m very, very sad about no longer being able to participate in the show, but I can’t be somewhere I think is wrong. I’d definitely opt to participate if I could be assured that the Fine Arts aspect of the Fine Arts show could be withdrawn entirely. There’s no pride to have when things are only granted on the basis of who you know.
After a disappointing and dangerous Icelandic Festival this year – drowning, stabbing, beating fatalities – I’m beginning to question the place and what it’s always been (though I was too young to recognize it). The fireworks show was sad, and the art show so disappointing that I skipped the parade, park, Icelandic food, and all other events. There isn’t much draw to my hometown anymore, it’s recently appearing more and more that the people who return there have nowhere else they’ll go in life.
Gimli seems to be where people go to die, both in namesake and in actuality. They posture themselves as gods, yet only have relevance in their own community, and fade out as embarrassments in Betel. It’s a construct of lies, posturing, and gossip, and all three essentially come out to lies in the end.
Manitoba really isn’t a good place, either – I’ve been personally promoting the slogan “Where mediocrity is our expertise.” I realized on my trip to Toronto that when I told people I was from Manitoba, it sounded guttural and uneducated. This province seems to desperately plead, “we’re just as good as anywhere else, I swear!” yet does nothing to back it up.
The unfortunate thing is that every place on Earth has unforgivable issues for living. The United States has a horrible political climate, other places in Canada are essentially no better than here, India is just disgusting in manners and in societies, China has too many people with terrible toilet habits, Australia has the “who cares about Australia” global interpretation down perfectly, South America has deadly everything and terrible government, Africa is one giant continent of corruption and disease and ungrowable land, Europe has… Europeans, and that horrible stench of smugness that wafts around the world.
There isn’t much of a place for me. Good work is an anomaly rather than a regularity on every corner of the globe.
Wolfe had it right when he said you can’t go home again.