Monday, October 4, 2010

The waters have broken-rebirth of the cliches have begun!!!


Okay we all get a lil misplaced hearing the “f” word escape from our grandparents and sometimes even parents mouths from time to time. And no, I’m not referring to that common blasphemy which seems to sculpt the superlatives of our day-to-day storytelling: rather “folks” is the word and apart from me not really understanding what it actually means, it always is expressed with a sense of affection and at the least it’s a word I associate to oldschool Looney tunes and Disney animations which bring about a warm and fuzzy feeling of nostalgia. The things is that it forms part of an expression which helps excuse one from judging just about anyone else for what they do and an idea that a few more people could exercise, especially when constantly ragging on my daily clothing choices…( Richard). It’s passive, it’s classic and it sounds like this:

“Ag, different strokes for different folks.”

Okay, so I convinced my brother to take an irreplaceable two and a half hours out of his life onetime to try teach me the (still) impossible swimming stroke of butterfly before a school gala in grade 6. He zealously displayed the “seemingly” fluid motion for as long as he could until the enviable image of me having some sort of a fit while sandwiching a pink pool noodle  between my legs, in order to stay afloat, became too much to bare- and he more wisely opted out.  I didn’t feel bad for wasting his time, the countless boggwash sessions he entertained his friends with using me as the chosen target for the early years of my prepubescent childhood made me feel he owed me as much in return.

That’s as far as my swimming career went and the associations I have with the word “stroke” which to me was actually more of an alternating arm-to-pool-surface slap motion that left my arm rather tender and stinging. The other meaning I’m aware of is when a sudden disabling attack or loss of consciousness is caused by an interruption in the flow of blood to the brain which causes ( usually old people) to seize up, and sometimes loose control over half of their facial muscles. But that’s a whole other bag of NikNaks associated to the word “stroke” and in this case- completely irrelevant.

The term “ different strokes for different folks” nevertheless, is a saying I am rather fond of. Yes, not only have I openly and forever concreted in cyber world, my affection for this ancient saying but I have also expressed it with that other “f” word which we usually find in old birthday cards right next to the watercolour image of a patchy cat and a butterfly. I admit it, I am a sucker for words, new words old words and all the obfuscation inbetween! ( see what I mean? Being pompous is fun!)

Another thing apart from words which seems to just get me… is people. I have this love/hate, but mostly love relationship with the human race.
People are the most beautiful, complex and altogether fucked-up species living on this planet- except for those strange flying squirrel creatures which live in the Amazon and commit mass suicides for no apparent reasons??? Who gets those anyways! Back to the point, what is the most fascinating  to me, is our insatiable need to understand each other which returns me to the original idea of different strokes. We all have our own preferences- that’s how we define ourselves from others, and on the contrary it’s also how we find others like ourselves to group to.

We have our own preferences in what food we like- to sushi or not to sushi? To salt or to BBQ spice? We choose our favourite night spots to hang out at on weekends or stay cooped-up indoors with our chosen allies playing x-box and watching late night shows on e-tv. We define our style with the clothing we dress in each day and are attracted to fashion or repelled by its shallowness. Sugar or sweetener? We organise girl nights in or boy binge nights out. Whole nut or choc mint? We call up a mate on a sweet summer’s day or we hit a morning surf mission on our ace. The point is we do what suits us best- what makes us happiest what makes us who we are: different strokes for different folks.

I plan to research not only these folks and these strokes but the means of different strokes and their availability in my area- was that metaphor way to extended to understand? Basically, I plan to base my blogspot around things that interest me most, and hopefully get taken on some tangents of what interest others most in return. Welcome to my blogspot: this is where  your strange stroke makes you a more interesting folk.

P.s. I also plan to fill it with reels of my own mindless chatter and prolific pointess photography and sketches ('',).

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