2014.05.01 13:00 - Truths are just attitudes

The Guardian for this meeting was Aphrodite Macbain. The comments are by Aphrodite Macbain.

Aphrodite Macbain: Hiya Zon!
Zon Kwan: Hi Aphor Isabella
Zon Kwan: which is it?
Aphrodite Macbain: :-) Isabella is my character I play in the Commedia dell'Arte play this weekend
Zon Kwan: ah :)
Aphrodite Macbain: call me Aph please :-)
Zon Kwan: very nice outfit
Aphrodite Macbain: Thanks- just a little Japanese outfit I picked up :-)
Zon Kwan: what is Isabella's fate?
Aphrodite Macbain: she marries Flavio in the end- through subterfuge
Zon Kwan: will she be happy?

Aphrodite Macbain: I hope so- until her next role, anyway
Aphrodite Macbain: You will have to come and watch this Sunday
Zon Kwan: what time is it?
Aphrodite Macbain: 11 and 1 pm
Aphrodite Macbain: I sent out an email this morning
Zon Kwan: i will try
Aphrodite Macbain: wonderful- it's fun
Zon Kwan: is it a classic play
Zon Kwan: or is it written for sl?
Aphrodite Macbain: Commedia dell'Arte is street theatre
Aphrodite Macbain: that was performed in Italy beginning in the 15th century
Aphrodite Macbain: lots of "characters"
Aphrodite Macbain: some wearing masks
Aphrodite Macbain: there is an exhibition on Commedia if you're interested
Aphrodite Macbain: Harlequin (Arlecchino) is one of the stock characters- always playing the role of the clown
Aphrodite Macbain: Isabella is the young heroine
Zon Kwan: smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: lots of rude jokes, pratfalls,
Aphrodite Macbain: innuendo
Zon Kwan: so the play you are performing is old classic?
Aphrodite Macbain: It is a "take" on an old classic
Aphrodite Macbain: love denied, love fulfilled and a lot of machinations in between

Zon Kwan: how long is the play?
Aphrodite Macbain: about 1 hr
Aphrodite Macbain: a bit less
Zon Kwan: sounds classic
Zon Kwan: smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: yes :-)
Aphrodite Macbain: It's great way to learn how to manipulate your avi
Zon Kwan: so you are the leading female actress?
Aphrodite Macbain: I perform a multitude of manoeuvres
Aphrodite Macbain: yes
Aphrodite Macbain: although my maid, Columbina, does most of the work and is on stage  the longest

Korel Laloix: Osiyo
Aphrodite Macbain: Kori! Hiya Osiyo
Aphrodite Macbain: How's life?
Zon Kwan: how is Thursday for you Korel?
Korel Laloix: Good to see you both... smiles
Korel Laloix: Home sick today... so not that good really.
Korel Laloix: How about you?
Aphrodite Macbain: aww- where are you?
Zon Kwan: sorry to hear
Korel Laloix: Just at grandma's now.. not going anywhere today.
Aphrodite Macbain: homesick at your grandmas?
Aphrodite Macbain: you are
Korel Laloix: I live with my grandma.
Aphrodite Macbain: so how can u be homesick?
Korel Laloix: lol... bad typing probably
Korel Laloix: I am home and sick.. not homesick
Aphrodite Macbain: ohh
Aphrodite Macbain: I'm sorry
Zon Kwan: lol
Aphrodite Macbain: chicken soup
Korel Laloix: lol.. no worries.. another time when English sneaks up on me.
Korel Laloix: Having that .. just need to take some Nyquil and go take a nap I think.
Zon Kwan: i must go
Zon Kwan: waves
Korel Laloix: Ciao Zon.

Aphrodite Macbain: byee Zon

Aphrodite Macbain: I've just come back from the high arctic
Korel Laloix: Sounds cold.. how was it?
Aphrodite Macbain: and seem to have survived the -20C temperatures
Korel Laloix: Oh good lord.. that sounds horrible.
Aphrodite Macbain: It was very beautiful=lots of snow and ice and blue sky
Korel Laloix: I can imagine... but you can get pretty weather without being cold... smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: :-) true
Aphrodite Macbain: I was working
Aphrodite Macbain: come and join me (pats the cushion next to her)
Korel Laloix: I need to move to a tropical rain forest I think.
Korel Laloix: I am so lagged I can't move.
Korel Laloix: I can[t even see what I typed until after I hit enter.
Korel Laloix: Thanks... smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: then I'll join you
Korel Laloix: How long were you up there?
Aphrodite Macbain: a week
Aphrodite Macbain: they are planning a cultural centre and print shop there -in Cape Dorset. Cape Dorset is the Inuit capital for artist prints and sculpture
Korel Laloix: I had a job offer to do a winter stint down near the South pole.
Aphrodite Macbain: wow
Aphrodite Macbain: doing what?
Korel Laloix: Would do health monitoring for a crew that would stay the winter.
Aphrodite Macbain: brrr
Aphrodite Macbain: what would the crew be doing?
Korel Laloix: So I found the person that gave me the offer, killed them and hid the body. (joke)
Aphrodite Macbain: lol
Aphrodite Macbain: you could have simply said "no"!
Korel Laloix: Not sure what they were doing... something about solar particles and weather monitoring.
Aphrodite Macbain: Interesting
Korel Laloix: Once I saw the location, I stopped reading... lol
Aphrodite Macbain: apparently solar flares were affecting the Internet every afternoon when I was there
Aphrodite Macbain: sun flashes?
Korel Laloix: In what way?
Aphrodite Macbain: It wouldn't work!
Aphrodite Macbain: They interfered
Aphrodite Macbain: in some way
Korel Laloix: Oh... that will do it... smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: I'm no physicist
Korel Laloix: I think it would be a good experience.
Aphrodite Macbain: but I couldn't get my emails...
Korel Laloix: That must have been nice then.
Aphrodite Macbain: The Inuit are wonderful people
Aphrodite Macbain: very warm, open,
Aphrodite Macbain: creative
Korel Laloix: I have met a few at powwows... and I have a standing invite to go up there to visit.. but probably will not do it.
Aphrodite Macbain: but lots of problems with suicide and alcoholism for the youth
Aphrodite Macbain: It's a balmy 60 F in the summer
Korel Laloix: Not to mention rape, abuse general violence.
Korel Laloix: Nice.... but in the winter.... I would just die or learn to hibernate.
Korel Laloix: That going to be a regular trip for you now?
Aphrodite Macbain: nope
Korel Laloix: Probably better that way.... smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: a one-off investigation
Korel Laloix: So hopefully it won't be then.
Aphrodite Macbain: collecting information on what they would like to see in their cultural centre
Korel Laloix: Oh.. that kind of investigation.
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Korel Laloix: I am told the Museum of the Native American in DC is absolutely horrid.
Aphrodite Macbain: is it?
Aphrodite Macbain: how?
Korel Laloix: I don't know.. never been there.
Korel Laloix: But never found anyone more than half blood that did not think it worth anything.
Aphrodite Macbain: There has been a lot of improvement in these type of museums over the past 50 years
Aphrodite Macbain: they now actually consult with the people they represent
Korel Laloix: My ex described it as a racist, Hollywood, politicized fake.
Aphrodite Macbain: and have returned a lot of burial remains to the communities they came from
Korel Laloix: That is good....
Aphrodite Macbain: Has taken a while but things are improving since I began working in museums
Korel Laloix: Sort of irks me how my ancestors remains are museum pieces and others remains are sacred graves.
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Aphrodite Macbain: the "west" has been responsible for a lot of stupid things
Korel Laloix: But I sort of understand the logic... as faulty as it is.
Aphrodite Macbain: which logic?
Korel Laloix: True... but not just the west... hard to pin that one just one culture
Aphrodite Macbain: the colonizing cultures
Korel Laloix: Europeans have a bias toward preserved records.
Aphrodite Macbain: Like Britain taking the marble sculpturesfrom the Greek Parthenon and putting it in the British Museum
Korel Laloix: So cultures with no written records, they seem to dismiss.
Korel Laloix: It is an unsound bias.. but I understand it.
Aphrodite Macbain: interesting
Aphrodite Macbain: so many of these cultures have an oral history
Aphrodite Macbain: not written down
Aphrodite Macbain: passed on to youth by elders
Korel Laloix: But then again... if you have seen the movie Apacalypto.... that is pretty accurate... so pointing fingers at other regions can be self serving more than justice seeking.
Aphrodite Macbain: the colonizers had a need to collect, and classify, record and preserve
Aphrodite Macbain: I haven't heard of it...
Korel Laloix: Exactly... so they dismissed things they could not collect the history of.
Korel Laloix: I probably spelled it wrong... one sec.
Aphrodite Macbain: Apacalypto  what does that mean?
Korel Laloix: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/
Aphrodite Macbain: ah - Mayan
Korel Laloix: It is a well done movie... very vivid... and very brutal.
Aphrodite Macbain: recent?
Korel Laloix: I think it said 2006.
Aphrodite Macbain: kk
Korel Laloix: wow lag
Aphrodite Macbain: must be the sun!
Korel Laloix: Another good book on us that does a good job is Empire of the Summer Moon.
Aphrodite Macbain: who is "us"?
Korel Laloix: It is mostly about one of my great great great grandfathers...
Korel Laloix: First Americans.
Aphrodite Macbain: cool
Aphrodite Macbain: what was his name?
Korel Laloix: Quana Parker... last really revered Comanche War Chiefs.

Aphrodite Macbain: When was that? in the 19th century?
Korel Laloix: His house is now a museum over by Lawton Oklahoma.
Aphrodite Macbain: wow. have you been there?
Korel Laloix: Been to it several times... funny, I went a few times before I knew he was an ancestor... and was there with great resentment.
Aphrodite Macbain: why?
Korel Laloix: Changing my view now I know I am part Comanche.
Aphrodite Macbain: ah
Aphrodite Macbain: why did that make a difference?
Korel Laloix: The Commanches were very brutal to the other tribes that were death marched to Oklahoma.
Korel Laloix: SO knowing what they did to the ancestors I knew at the time... sort of a racist view to be honest.
Korel Laloix: And my mother pounded in my head from when I was little.. you had to hate Jews and Commanches...
Aphrodite Macbain: It's easy to dislike one's historical enemy- whoever it is
Aphrodite Macbain: wow
Korel Laloix: So learning I am part Commanche... sort of changes the game.

Korel Laloix: Was very much like looking into a lake.. seeing your reflection.
Aphrodite Macbain: why Jews? Were there that many Jews that she knew?
Aphrodite Macbain: what reason did she have for hating them?
Korel Laloix: No idea where she go that.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-) a wavy muddled reflection !
Aphrodite Macbain: who am i?
Korel Laloix: Sometimes it is a very honest reflection.
Aphrodite Macbain: I suspect we see what we want to see
Aphrodite Macbain: or what we have been conditioned to see
Korel Laloix: I think you do in mirrors... but not in the reflection of water.
Aphrodite Macbain: that's what dropping is all about
Korel Laloix: How so?
Aphrodite Macbain: recognizing our veils of perception
Aphrodite Macbain: what makes us think the way we do
Aphrodite Macbain: our attitudes and prejudices
Korel Laloix: I try to do that all the time.. difficult task.
Aphrodite Macbain: no kidding!
Korel Laloix: And I grew up with such strong ones.
Korel Laloix: Luckily, I have had some major life changes that let me have a different look.
Aphrodite Macbain: It takes courage to drop those positions- and sometimes major life changes
Aphrodite Macbain: we grow up forming those attitudes they are embedded in our body and mind
Korel Laloix: I am not sure about courage.. I think most people would change their lenses if they could figure out how.
Aphrodite Macbain: Courage to say "I don't know" I mean
Korel Laloix: I think being able to look differently is more a skill than a revelation.
Korel Laloix: But maybe you have to have the revelation to build the skill first.
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Korel Laloix: An interesting thought to explore
Aphrodite Macbain: you have to have a reason to change, yes
Arisia Vita: greetings my friends
Aphrodite Macbain: to recognize that our "truths" are just attitudes
Aphrodite Macbain: Hi Ari
Aphrodite Macbain: welcome
Korel Laloix: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanah_Parker_Star_House
Arisia Vita: interesting...truths are attitudes
Aphrodite Macbain: Thanks
Korel Laloix: That is the museum I mentioned.
Aphrodite Macbain: Ari- Quanah Parker is an ancestor of Korel's
Arisia Vita: how wonderful. I always knew Korel was special :)
Aphrodite Macbain: Few people have museums about their ancestors
Aphrodite Macbain: We are talking about prejudices, Ari and how to recognize and drop them
Korel Laloix: To be fair, the man had like 27 wives... so not being one of his descendants and from Oklahoma is rather hard to be... lol
Arisia Vita: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: he he
Arisia Vita: so he "got around"
Aphrodite Macbain: nevertheless- you have some of his genes
Korel Laloix: I think my English completely escaped me in that sentence... smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: his genes got around anyway!
Korel Laloix: It is an interesting history.
Aphrodite Macbain: yes?
Korel Laloix: If you do end up reading that book, please let me know what you think.
Aphrodite Macbain: OK
Aphrodite Macbain: I will
Aphrodite Macbain: :-) It will go on my mile high pile of books to read
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Korel Laloix: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...he-summer-moon
Aphrodite Macbain: I wonder who the author, S.C. Gwynne, is.
Korel Laloix: Not looked the author up.. but it is spoken of well in the Comanche community evidently.. my father recommended it to me and so did Reeba's mom.
Aphrodite Macbain: sounds good then
Korel Laloix: The quality of First American books I am told has really increased in the last decade or so.
Aphrodite Macbain: Perhaps because they are lests romanticized and are based more on the truth
Korel Laloix: I will have some Nyquil and go to bed.
Aphrodite Macbain: sleep tight Korel
Aphrodite Macbain: hot lemon and honey too
Arisia Vita: see you in dreams
Korel Laloix: Not quite yet.. need to wait as long as I can.. you are keeping me awake for sure.
Korel Laloix: I actually remembered a shard of a dream again the other day.
Aphrodite Macbain: yes?
Aphrodite Macbain: was it painful?
Korel Laloix: lol.. let me find the paper.. one sec.. had to write it down.
Korel Laloix: Ok.. so I was walking in a woods or corn field or something at night.
Aphrodite Macbain: listens to Kori
Korel Laloix: And I came to a place where there was a big black square on the ground, and one above it about 15 feet or so.
Korel Laloix: That is all I remember.
Aphrodite Macbain: interesting
Aphrodite Macbain: what do you think the square represented?
Korel Laloix: No idea.. I hardly ever remember dreams and never much of them.

Aphrodite Macbain: I had a horrid dream when I was up in the arctic- it was like a very evil force was about to punch me in the face. I woke up screaming
Arisia Vita: oh dear
Korel Laloix: Yours sounds bad though.
Korel Laloix: Hope that does not repeat.
Aphrodite Macbain: I was very frightened.
Aphrodite Macbain: The force was pure evil
Korel Laloix: Evidently most of my dreams are bad based on talking with people I have slept with...
Aphrodite Macbain: odd how dreams can construct something so abstract
Korel Laloix: I am glad I don't remember them.
Aphrodite Macbain: you are screaming in your sleep?
Korel Laloix: Evidelty I am a violent and vocal sleeper... frowns
Aphrodite Macbain: maybe the dreams help you to deal with stuff you can't deal with in your waking life
Korel Laloix: I asked that question, in my dreams I end up yelling not screaming.. not sure that translates to English well though.
Aphrodite Macbain: no it doesn't ...:-)
Korel Laloix: A scream would be in fright.. but yelling is me raising my voice.
Aphrodite Macbain: in anger?
Korel Laloix: Is that a good distinction?
Korel Laloix: Yes
Aphrodite Macbain: ah - fear and anger are very different, yes
Aphrodite Macbain: yelling in fear
Korel Laloix: One of the things I try to work with my shrink on.. but can't get there.
Aphrodite Macbain: why?
Korel Laloix: I just can't remember my dreams.
Aphrodite Macbain: I wonder whether hypnosis would help....
Korel Laloix: I have had a couple of offers, but I am way afraid of that.

Aphrodite Macbain: afraid of what you might find out about yourself?
Korel Laloix: Not sure.. I don't have good view of my dream life.
Arisia Vita: some people "know" they are dreaming....I see them as real when I dream
Aphrodite Macbain: yes- I think we all see our dreams as real
Korel Laloix: Not afraid.. I am pretty sure I know about the worst layers of me.
Korel Laloix: I just can't seem to get there.
Arisia Vita: lucid dreamers can control their dreams, does that mean they know they are dreaming?
Korel Laloix: No idea on that one.
Aphrodite Macbain: hmmm I guess they must Ari- good point
Korel Laloix: I wish I had a memorable dream life.
Aphrodite Macbain: grins
Korel Laloix: But with all the books and thing I have read... has let me remember like four dream fragments in my entire life.
Aphrodite Macbain: Like wishing you could pull out a movie from Netflix
Korel Laloix: That would be nice.
Arisia Vita: so you could experience anything you wished...within the limits of your own imagination :)
Aphrodite Macbain: smiles and nods. I must get back to my unpacking
Arisia Vita: ok, unpack with joy :)
Korel Laloix: OK.. smiles
Aphrodite Macbain: I'll send you an IM with the LM for the performance on Sunday Ari and Kori
Korel Laloix: Take care... thanks for the chat.
Arisia Vita: ty
Aphrodite Macbain: wonderful talking with you both - as always
Arisia Vita: same here