Black Dot Diary

Hi every­one, the fol­low­ing is an excerpt from my first blog post last week at Life As A Human, the excit­ing new web­site I’m edit­ing. I hope you’ll fol­low my link below. The story explores the ques­tion: How do I know I’m human? Sounds sim­ple, doesn’t it? Hmmm.

Excerpt from “Oh So Human” by Kerry Slavens, posted Feb­ru­ary 1^st on Life As A Human.

“As far as I know, I am a human. Last time I had an MRI, nobody saw any­thing alien in my body — or at least noth­ing that wor­ried them. My blood tests don’t raise eye­brows. It appears my human-​ness is valid. 

Today a new baby was born. It’s name is Life As A Human.

Life As A Human is an excit­ing new web venue that com­ments on and cel­e­brates the human expe­ri­ence. The site fea­tures writ­ing across a wide range of top­ics. Our goal is not to pro­mote sen­sa­tion­al­ism, but to always strive to be sen­sa­tional. As well, we hope to make our con­tri­bu­tion to the world through phil­an­thropic efforts that ben­e­fit humans from all walks of life.

The Eter­nal Clock. Photo by Rob­bert van der Steeg, cour­tesy of Cre­ative Commons

I hate New Year’s Eve. Just think­ing about it puts me in a bad mood. All this build up just to watch the dig­i­tal clock click into a new twelve-​month cycle. All the TV sta­tions show­ing the year in review, with inane sum­maries deliv­ered by bob­ble heads. All the drunk kisses at mid­night from peo­ple you wouldn’t think of kiss­ing at any other time.

Just got back from see­ing Avatar, the lat­est movie from direc­tor James Cameron. Now, Cameron is known for the great effects and plenty of action. Think of Ter­mi­na­tor and The Abyss. I wasn’t expect­ing pro­fun­dity, but that’s what I found tonight.

On one level Avatar is typ­i­cal block­buster, super­sized with amaz­ing ani­ma­tion. But it’s sub­text is pure shamanic jour­ney, from the world tree to the rev­er­ence for the uni­ver­sal mother, to rites of pas­sage and ani­mal guides.

One of the best things about hav­ing a blog is that I get to rave about the peo­ple I think are remark­able. One of these peo­ple is jew­elry artist Anne M. Kelly who will debut two excit­ing new lines at the upcom­ing Out of Hand Craft Fair on Novem­ber 20 — 22 at The Crys­tal Gar­den in Vic­to­ria BC.

Anne, who truly is one of the West Coast’s best kept secrets, cre­ates high-​demand orig­i­nal pieces of jew­elry, each with its own unique story. Because Anne is a pub­lished poet, the sto­ries that come with the jew­elry are works of art in them­selves. Her two newest col­lec­tions include a Native Species line fea­tur­ing Shibuichi Rough­skin Newts, and a Tim­o­r­phic line cre­ated from pure repur­posed aero­space titanium.

Lilla Cabot Perry, “The Black Hat”

Johnny Cash once sang, “I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, /​Livin’ in the hope­less, hun­gry side of town…” I love Johnny Cash but that’s not why I wear black. I don’t wear black because I’m depressed either. Or to look thin. Or to look mysterious.

I wear black because when I’m wrapped in it, I feel authen­tic. I love its inky mys­tery, its sub­tlety, its rebel­lion con­trasted with its chaste dark­ness, its time­less­ness. When I wear black, I feel ener­gized, per­haps because this non-​colour absorbs all light in the color spec­trum. It’s all there.