Pleasure / Thrills and Happiness ... and Spaceforce

I think that something that really steered me towards the arts at an early age was the individuals capacity to create a semblance , even a minor infusion of order ...into what would otherwise be mere chaos !

I think that stimuli has a great deal to do with reactionary tendency …. but the core individual / the physical and psychological capacity to endure scales of tumult .. or as I said , stimuli of any nature be that positive or negative …. and to focus the reaction through a rational and constructive process really is the main accomplishment , of all of our so called, often self professed accomplishments … that's the one that's really worth a mention !

I used t find that during times of high stress and anxiety , that to sit in a quiet space , breathing deeply and ' grounding ' myself through the meditative process of pushing lines or pigments around on a blank page or canvas was really the most PLEASURABLE experience, I could transcend any situation and through the creative process … end up with a rendering , a composed thought ! of course the inclination can very easily be the opposite .. to loose your shit and kick a door off the hinges and go ranting and raving around the place like some nut ! ( and I confess to be guilty of both behavioural attributes )many years later I took to the commercial application of this tendency ( as I have said before people will buy fucking beanie babies for Christ sake ,... so it only made sense that I should supplement my income at the time through the process ) of course then this unending recession took place and we have pretty much been living with this austerity crap ever since …. as a result many of the companies I used to work for went out of business ! and so my income supplement became my main income ….

and it was during a little gallery stint during this burgeoning economic downturn that a veteran friend of mine said something quite profound … he suggested that ' you can always work your way out of the shit '

just by doing that which comes natural … the engaging in that simple meditative process renders product ! over time , given suitable application that products quality will improve ! so you are quite literally investing in yourself when times are hard … in the Knowledge that market cycles fluctuate …so even if times are tough … keep painting ! keep writing … keep gardening, keep it going!! and you will end up with at the very least an amassed store of commodity!!!

the losing your shit option does always have an immediate release appeal !!but after more broken meta tarsals than I can re-call the rational mind says breath deeply , eat an orange , smoke a joint and drink a coffee … and plough your head into the creative process ….

now THRILLS … Thrills are as much a part of the stimuli process as any thing else, Thrills are a good thing , indeed if and when they are genuinely garnered !

Now I used to enjoy Roller Coasters .. and indeed if I find myself in the proximity I can still be inclined to find a little childlike thrill in the engagement of such whimsey! some people like booze , cocaine , sex … even shopping , and I read a study that indicated that with the scale of online interactions that we do these days that even seeing the little red notification or message icon releases the same neuro chemicals as any artificially imposed thrill !!…. me well I like to spend a Monday morning languishing !! naked with company as and when its pertinent ! casting a mental image of all the assholes in Charring Cross pouring into the city to spend hours and hours convicted in the treasonous ' business as always ' bullshit that has effectively rendered the last 30 years worth of nonsense …. other than that all I really need is a blank medium and a means of making a mark on it …. simple wants I guess ! to stand back and look at a 'completed' rendering … well that is a pleasurable thrill … and well selling ( or indeed trading a yacht for )a piece that you have laboured over …. that would be a very ratifying thrill ! …

Happiness … Happiness , well now that to me is a bit of an ethereal notion … a nice idea !! but in real terms its not very practical .. if you think of the old adage ' the devil makes work for idle hands ' ( indeed everytime that Sinbad the Sailor became ' Happy ' or ' Content ' he would lapse into periods of extreme indulgence and laziness )

I think that there is such a thing as Happiness … although its overall principle has become a little rash ( lets compare the humble seaside holiday to the garish hideousness of las vegas of walt Disney world ) and like the thrill of a roller coaster or hearing your favourite human express sentiments of love

a genuine conversation with  someone willing to listen or a gaudy semi reassuring text or tweet from some Fairweather acquaintance

there are real experiences in this world … some of them run you a little close to the bone , you can run a boat aground ! you can fall in and out of love ! climb and or fall out of a tree …. you can find the trills they would sell you for a disproportionate percentage of your labours ! in the humble .. the warm morning embrace of your lover , the walks through untainted landscapes and deserted beaches and coastlines

you could take all of that .. and instead of trying to market it on Instagram as some vague way of ratifying an otherwise completely predictable life … you could write some music about it .. write a poem … draw a picture or do a painting … design a piece of the landscape that needs improving ( and god knows if you look up from your phone for just like two minutes on a bus commute you will see what I mean )

its all in the doing .. that's where I think that Happiness lives … through comfortable and reassuring pleasures against the unpredictable ness of life   ….ratifying thrills of substance ….. and the genuine living of a very finite life !

' Space Force ' ……..!!!!!!????? so we seem to have just traded the doing , for the mere buying- ( I think if we could we would even forgo the element of choice) … I think that humanity has become so confused that we would simply consume( Pleasurable ) ( Thrills ) in Lieu of the pursuit of a genuine yet periodical ' Happiness '

but I really hope that there is still hope x