Most times when I come here to write something, I don't really feel like it. But I force myself to. Because in a country like Australia that doesn't really have a culture of intellectual thought and doesn't in any way promote the need to think (sounds simple but it's actually the least simple thing in the world), it's important to motivate yourself to think. To have these intellectual thoughts. To question, and to let your mind wander from the mundane daily thoughts to the important things. It's hard to explain what's important and what's not, because there isn't much which is universally important in the world, or even in one country. And on top of that I'm not much of a writer. But I believe the one thing that needs to happen in every culture, and in every person, is active intelligent thought. THINKING. THINK. Yearn for more, ache for ideas, knowledge is power. Get powerful. Sometimes in Australia I feel like a kid growing up in a poor household, a kid who, say, wants to learn how to play the piano. The thing is, his parents can only afford a crappy guitar, and the sheet music he gets is limited and some of the time he's wrong because he's self taught. And the other downer is that most kids in this situation would probably just give it up. He has the intent, the motivation, the inherent talent, but he lacks the resources. I want to learn more, I want to better myself, I want to be able to hold intelligent conversations just for the fun of it! But, and this is a bit odd for me, some things you can't learn from books, you can't learn from the internet, you can't self teach. You need people. You need to talk things over, you need to discuss things and open your mind, you need a good teacher. The thing is, most Australians are like the majority of kids in the example. They gave up. They don't think as much as they should, there isn't a culture of intellectual thought. There's a culture of 'oh yay we don't live in a third world country and we're nice guys, life will be good'. And it annoys the hell out of me. I sound all high and mighty on my golden throne up here don't I? The thing is, I'm not claiming to be smarter than all of them, heck I'm definitely not, far from it. But the thing that separates people like me, and people like them, is that I WANT to learn more, I have the INTENT, but lack the resources, the culture that some other places in the world have. People are so important to me for this reason. They can teach you so much, even if they're just triggering or promoting thoughts in your own head. Your mind wasn't meant to be shut off and ignorant, it wants to question things, it wants to learn. All you have to do it let it.

Opening your eyes to the world isn't enough any more. Things are hidden from view, and the old saying 'out of sight, out of mind' is more relevant now than ever. The world doesn't show you the things that need to be seen. The media promotes disinformation. Humanity fuels itself with ignorance. You need to open your mind. You need to think. I say that like it's a simple thing, but it's actually one of the most important things any one should ever do. People need to actively realise what's going on around them, what happened before they came about so the same mistakes aren't repeated. But they don't. People should. But they don't. Humanity has got about ten thousand years of mistakes to learn from, mistakes documented so frequently and commonly that a trip to the nearest good book store would surround oneself with the knowledge on how not to live. Open your mind. Please.

One morning

He's asleep, but he's beginning to wake up. He's aware of his mothers voice down the hall yelling out to his littler sister, he can hear the clatter off the cutlery as his father washes up the breakfast dishes, but he's not really entered into reality yet. He's somewhere in the middle. In a few moments he might drop off again, entering a land created by his subconscious, but instead something triggers him to open one eye, and reality comes flooding in and tears him away from his semi-concious state. He rolls over in an attempt to fall asleep again, but he knows sleep has escaped his grasps, every second he becomes more aware of his surroundings. A bird whistles, his ceiling fan squeaks like a metronome every third of a second. His eyes are closed again, but even the blackness he sees can't block out the reality he feels. He sighs. He opens his eyes, closes them again, rubs away the sleep and sits up. He wonders why he's feeling excited. Suddenly he's wide awake, remnants of the dream he was having are bouncing around inside his head. He tries to grab a hold of the feelings, but all they offer are vague snapshots of his dreamy landscapes and pathetic excuses for emotions he knew he must have felt only minutes ago. He sits there thinking hard, aching for something to click, but everything is just out of reach. He gets mad, and after a few more seconds void of success he gives up, and the last little bits of the dream onto which he was holding fly out his ears and are forgotten forever. He sighs again. It's late morning. The day is about to begin in earnest.

Paracosms

Sometimes I wish my imagination was stronger. Not in the sense that I have difficulty with original thought or that I find it hard to visualize things, just in the sense that I can never truly immerse myself in my imagination so much as to forget the reality that's going on around me. I want to live in my imagination, I want to see Wonderland not just in my head, but in front of my eyes. I want to read myself into a book and make my past life seem like a faded dream. I want to close my eyes, and when I open them, see dragons in sky and faeries at the bottom of my garden. The world is a beautiful place yes, the world sometimes even surpasses the paracosms existing inside your mind. The world is amazing, but your imagination knows no bounds, the only limits it knows are the ones you yourself wrap around it. The world does have limits, limits beyond any one persons control. It's a pity that the longer and harder you look at the world around you, the less beautiful it gets. Under the surface there is a sea of problems, seeping through the soil and slowly saturating the beauty that once existed everywhere. My view is not one of pessimism, nor am I giving up and saying that the world is falling down with nothing below it to catch it. No, the world is beautiful, the only ugly thing about it is ugly people. I know if I can fix the world,  fixing it should be my first priority, not abandoning a sinking ship to live inside my thoughts. But awareness can be a burden. Ignorance is truly bliss. You want to know, but when you do you'll wish you didn't. But instead of seeing it as a curse, you should see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to change things, change the world. Not any one person can do this, but if we work together, perhaps living in your imagination mightn't be so far out of reach. Perhaps with the right people, the right time and the inspiration to kick start it, the world will offer a place to live that isn't so different from the world in my head. One can only hope.