Interview with a friend

My dear friend Donna gave me the idea of taking some time out, and doing some interviews on my blog. Divine timing as always. Gentleness is Leonie's key word lately. Chris pulled a card of Keri Smith's 100 Things to Do a few days ago. The answer: Do Nothing. Good advice.

I'm flying off to be with my family for a few days. Feel free to read the below interview over and over again. You'll get something different out of it each time.

My first "interview with a friend" is with my dear friend Dave.
Someone asked me to describe him and my response was this ~
He is a nordic prince on a journey of self discovery.





* What is your understanding of "joy is an option"?

You don't actually need any external conditions to be happy. Some people take this to an extreme by maintaining an ascetic lifestyle to prove their happiness is not attached to their material conditions. I don't believe this is necessary; you can be happy as a millionaire or a pauper, with many friends or with none, it all depends on YOU. Money can corrupt, poverty can lead to despair, friends can become enemies and loneliness can cause misery, but just because they CAN doesn't mean they MUST. No matter what your conditions, you are capable of joy. It is a decision each person makes, and masked beneath their concious impediments - "I will be happy once " - is an understanding of the all-encompassing and divine nature of our minds. If these concious impediments are allowed to melt away, joy radiates through. It is not a fire we need to stoke, it is an inner radiance from which we only need remove the clouds shrouding it.

* Startrooper Dave, what is your mission here on earth?

To inform the universe's internal discource by experiencing that which is unique to the David Jorm perspective. I guess, put another way, it is to improve the conditions of the whole world by being me. The world is a better place for me being here. My mission is to make it as much better as I possibly can.

* Your life is infinitely creative. Tell me how...

My biggest creative outlet is writing software. To most people this is not a creative process, but it really can be. Sometimes I like to reflect on the world as a gigantic interconnected set of cogs, and a few of those cogs are ones I created at the keyboard. It is like being able to create something which influences the physical world without being a part of it; some ephemeral and inconstituent force which acts upon things but is invisible to them. Maybe I have a god complex :)

* What is your understanding of a "tummy smile"?

When you smile so deeply and earnestly it radiates out every pore of your body. It's like you're a little model made up of spherical smiley faces and your tummy is one of those spheres.

* What is your BIGGEST dream you dare to dream?

That I can do and be absolutely anything. That is the ultimate dream I suppose, to realise that whatever mental barriers I setup to what I want to do or be are entirely illusory. It is easier said than done, but if you mock your own barriers frequently enough, they start to stop coming back for punishment.

* Tell me five reasons you love you...

1. I never cease to amaze myself with what I can do, no matter how much I doubt myself.
2. I like to do good deeds in secret and if something unpleasant needs to be done, do it openly to someone's face. I think that is totally cool.
3. I have no fear of speaking to a crowd. If anything, the crowd feeds me. I don't know why I love that about me, but I do. Meekness is overrated.
4. I have forged my own path in the world and I have no fear to be me, no matter what anyone else says or thinks.
5. My cat loves me. There is no higher endorsement.

* What always makes you laugh?

Bubbles, realising something unfortunately befalling me is so miniscule in the scheme of things it is hilarious, witty satire and someone blowing milk out their nose. This made me think of a time I went camping with a borrowed tent. We tried to pitch the tent only to realise we were given the wrong poles - half the required length. The tent formed a dome about 20cms off the ground. My companion was very upset, but I didn't stop laughing all night.