A gaggle of goldies

Took the ally dawg for a walk this p.m. and met up with a gaggle of goldies. I’m not quite sure what a large number of golden retrievers is called, but these were definitely water dogs, and I got a number of photos of them in and out of the water.

Check them out:

Goldies

Madeleine

Sunday, 20 April 2008

The power of words

Thoughts that have come to mind from reading Graffiti's blog (http://graffiti99.blogspirit.com/) on suicide and how people have trouble saying the word "suicide" or "kill yourself". One of the things we have been taught in our training on suicide is the need to be clear about what the individual is thinking about. So rather than saying "Are you going to do something silly?", or "Are you thinking of hurting yourself?", we are taught to ask the direct question: "Are you thinking of killing yourself?". It was quite interesting to see how many people had difficulty in saying the direct words and would beat around the bush. Some people fear that if we name the act, then it is more likely to happen. That the person's words have the power to make someone kill themselves.

So what is the power in these words? What do they mean to people? What's the Child scare about actually verbalising what's happening.

We are told that words have power. That "black" people are not really "black" but Aborigines, indigenous people, African American etc. These are politically correct terms to use today. People believe that if you change the words, you change the connotation and thereby change people's feeling about a certain topic.

How true is this? How much really changes when you change a word? If I change the word suicide to "glopide" will this actually change people's attitude to the act of killing themselves. Will the magical thinking stop if I change the word? Or will the magical thinking simply shift to the new word?

Is it really true, that by changing the words we change the perspective about an act? Or will people's attitudes and beliefs only change through education and learning? Death is a scary topic in our society. We talk about "gone", "passed over", "gone to heaven (or a better place)". We don't often talk about "he died".

The same would happen with the word "glopide" over time. It would eventually have the same connotations as "suicide" with the same magical thinking that the word has the power to make something happen.

So what is the power of words? Is it the magical thinking that goes with words? Do words actually have the power that humans give them? Can we change the power of words simply by changing the word for the same act?

Madeleine

Thursday, 17 April 2008

Psychological Cleaning??

I was just chatting to someone who had just finished a project. Suddenly she found herself cleaning the house. Something she felt needed doing for some time, but suddenly the urge was there.

I remember when my husband and I split, I cleaned. When my daughter died, I cleaned. I’m not obsessive about the house; far from it. I tend more toward the slob end of housework.

So why is it that women, when something big happens in their lives, clean house?

Is this a rare phenomena, or is this common for women?

If this is a female thing, what do the guys do? Do they disappear into their shed and make something?

What is the psychological process involved?

Is it a “cleansing” act? I sometimes feel it is. Are we cleansing out the old, in order to allow in the new?

So many questions, so few answers.

I would be interested in other people’s feedback.

Madeleine
Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Sunset

These are some sunset photos I took while walking the dawg down by the river

 

I'm just testing how these all fit together.

 

 

 

Madeleine
Sunday, April 13 2008

Fire

I was sitting in my lounge, miles away in my mind (probably watching something mindless on television), and suddenly became aware of the sound of aircraft over my house. I remember my first thought was: “I’m not under the airport flight path”. I do very occasionally get planes flying over the house, late at night, but not often. This was unusual. I went outside to see what was going on and realised that it wasn’t planes, but helicopters. The fire fighting helicopters than dump water on fires.

Of course, I got out my camera and started taking photos of the helicopters coming over the house. After a time, I realised that the smoke was getting bigger and bigger and that the fire wasn’t just something in the hills, miles away, but was actually quite close to me.

Put on some shoes, probably some decent clothes as well, and went for a walk with my camera. Well, the fire was just, literally around the corner from my house. I stayed for a while, had a chat with other onlookers, including a woman in a three wheeled bike, with four or five little dogs in the carrier at the back.

This is what I saw

It was peak hour, everyone coming home from work, and I live on a major road. It was really interesting to watch people trying to get home, ignoring the fact that there was a large fire in front of them, fire trucks all over the place, and they just wanted to get past and get home.

Finally the police arrived at the corner, and started to redirect the traffic

And gradually get things under control.

At one stage, I went home, but kept wondering how close the fire was and whether it was heading in my direction. I was wondering what I would take with me if it came to the crunch. The animals of course. My money and stuff. I didn’t have Lara the Laptop at that stage so figured I would lose all my stuff so figured I would grab the external hard drive which has heaps of personal stuff on it.

Eventually I couldn’t stand the suspense and went back down the road. Watching the fire meant I knew what was going on, I knew if there was any immediate danger. I don’t like fire.

So I started watching the helicopters. I got the series of shots I put on Photobucket. I also got shots of the helicopters dumping the water on the fire. I must have taken hundreds of photos, just to get the few great shots.

Gradually the fire moved away from my house and further into the bush. I took a few final shots of the surrounds, as the onlookers also moved away and moved their cars.

Life headed back to normal. I’m left with lots and lots of photos, and a memory of helicopters, smoke, and relief that nothing major happened. We didn’t even make the news.

Madeleine

Sunday, 23 March 2008