Urban Haiku

Chaos on the Periphery

I’ve decided to look—I was going to say ‘beyond’, but let’s settle on ‘sideways’ at my current situation. The chaos is there in my peripheral vision—it lurks and shivers in anticipation. At this moment however, right now, I am unbowed. Fuck it, it can wait.

Instead, let’s chat about “Lilo and Stitch” and why I like it so much. It’s not that it is wonderfully, surprisingly funny. It’s not that it’s warm and compassionate without being cloyingly sentimental. It’s not that it is surprisingly clever. It’s not the subtext of “the other” and of being an outsider. It’s not the anti-Disneyesque subversive image of the family. It’s not even the animated version of the Pulp Fiction style Ving Rhames!

Let me set the scene for you: a big bowl of popcorn, a cold winter evening, the boy and me curled up on the couch. More than three-quarters of the way through the movie, I realized that my six-year-old had spent most of it watching me. He had seen the video a few times before and was looking for my reactions—a little grin in the corner of his mouth. He wanted to see how I would react to the funny bits. He wanted to share something he liked so much—share those moments with me. Looking at it now, it strikes me how often I’ve done the same thing in the past. We want to share our happy moments with others—share our perceptions.

We want to look through the same lens as a loved one.

Ah, my old Friend the Abyss

I was going to write about Lilo and Stitch—my favourite movie of the year—the initial outline of that blog entry began to take form in the shower this morning.

A lifetime later and I’ve been laid-off from my shiny new job.

There it is again, the warm, oily embrace of the abyss. She slides into my arms like a leprous lover—her curling black flesh envelopes me, bit by bit.

Come! Into the void!