I ran into a friend today, on her way home from a conference on the subject of Leadership.
She was inspired!
It was held at a local university, starting early on a Saturday morning.
"It was ridiculous," she yawned. "At least they had coffee for us when we got there."
They had to don white jumpsuits, of the kind one would wear if they were painting a house. Their morning keynote was psyched out at first, cracking jokes about Heaven's Gate.
She said that her mind kept wandering, and she was having trouble focusing. The guy was amusing, and had some knowledge to share, but she was somewhat thrown off by the scene.
"Costumes," she said. "...are meant for parties."
So, after the speaker let out for breakfast break, she stepped outside for a walk.
A man letting his dog out by the park was startled at the briskly walking bodysuit, joint puffing away, her ridiculous orange hair bobbing on top.
"I think he thought I was a huge joint, I was afraid I'd be followed..."
So she returned to the conference and sat down to a talk on Group Dynamics.
"Did you notice any patterns of behaviour? Any...stages?"
She explained the five stages of group development (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning), and the nine types of roles one finds blended into groups.
"My favorite is the Gatekeeper, " she said, by now sipping steamy chai with me, out of the rain.
The Gatekeeper set up boundaries, inviting people and getting things started.
"I like that. It inspires me."
She wants to conduct an experiment.
"The instructors told us about some personality tests, like True Colours, or the Myers-Briggs test, that would provide, you know, insight," into our personalities. She wanted to get people to check out what they're look stone sober, and then get them baked and do it all over again.
"We could all meet and do it one day, break to the park and have a Critical Sesh!, and then go back and check-ourselves out! Like, doesn't it just make you want to know if there's a difference?"
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Emperor Wears No Clothes
Attention!
If you are interested in learning the REAL TRUTH about POT, the Wilfrid Laurier chapter of the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) would like to offer a STUDY CIRCLE reading Jack Herer’s “The Emperor Wears No Clothes!”
This book is FREE ONLINE, and we will meet every Friday at 7 o’clock PM for an hour of discussion.
OCTOBER 1st will be chapter one, and ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY IS WELCOME!
Contact synesthesia507@hotmail.com for location information, and visit
http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html
If you are interested in learning the REAL TRUTH about POT, the Wilfrid Laurier chapter of the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) would like to offer a STUDY CIRCLE reading Jack Herer’s “The Emperor Wears No Clothes!”
This book is FREE ONLINE, and we will meet every Friday at 7 o’clock PM for an hour of discussion.
OCTOBER 1st will be chapter one, and ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY IS WELCOME!
Contact synesthesia507@hotmail.com for location information, and visit
http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html
Friday, September 18, 2009
K-DOOB - another session
So, I read and then rethought what I had written, in hopes of producing a better draft for the first edition of the 'zine. Here it is, new content shall emerge over the future. Hahaha! Cheers!
This is hard to say.
Actually, this is hard to say well. The bare-bones point has been expressed by many people for years, and I think the fundamental truth of the matter manifests everyday in popular television, radio, and film.
We are a culture tolerant, exploitive, and encouraging of marijuana users, yet we accept the political maneuvers of our elected officials to demonize and criminalize marijuana (amongst other drug use) use(rs) as a method of demonstrating how ‘tough on crime’ they are. This official stance does not match social practice. It seems to me that every other corner store sells psychedelically colored glass pipes and accessories with the notorious potleaf upon it. Kitchener-Waterloo supports at least three dedicated ‘head shops’, and there are rumblings of other sites for pot-culture to emerge. In practice, as long as people don’t walk down our ‘main streets’ tokin’ a joint then, as some have said, the police won’t even care.
Yet, on the books, all this is criminal activity and needs to be persecuted by the apparatus of the law. People have fought for our ability to be free to discuss whatever we want, including marijuana literature. Marc Emery, a Canadian hero being sent to American prison at US request, fought for the right to read and distribute this information in the early 90’s and went on to actively fight for legalization and decriminalization world-wide. Thanks to people like him, we can organize and speak and write on the subject, but when it comes to being free to enjoy the growth and use of the marijuana plant, we are still impeded by the law.
We are still used by our authorities.
We are still threatened by them.
Families are broken up and people’s lives destroyed because we live in a society which employs a double-standard: We can toke and revel in it if you’re young, or a minority, or poor, or an ‘artist’, but as soon as you want to join the ‘professional’ world, you cannot toke or grow, ever, period. Despite the fact that everyone does it, or that making marijuana use as a ‘poor-thing’ or ‘black-thing’ or ‘criminal-thing’ is incredibly discriminatory, we are indoctrinated with this information all our lives! This message is reflected to us through music and media, and is accepted by everyone INCLUDING POTHEADS.
Now, I recognize one of the results of being super relaxed (or stoned, as some people call it) means becoming sedentary and lazy, but this is a dangerous state of affairs. By doing so we are leaving the possibility of our arrest and ruination, not to mention the exploitation of our persons by those with political agendas, as a perpetual reality. As a pothead, it’s only a matter of time before you have an interaction with the police.
So, we need to ask ourselves: Is apathy worth it, or should we get down to business and ensure that no one needs to suffer marijuana-related injustices again? Are we okay with allowing our marijuana use to be a segregating tool used by racists in all positions of society? Are we okay allowing ourselves to be used to push a jail-filling agenda, where those who are potsmokers are ‘not normal’, likely crazy or criminal? No!!!!
No, no, no, NO!!!
I will not stand to be exploited and stigmatized, and no one else should either.
Therefore, I have begun putting some resources together, and hope to become involved with others in our community interested in developing a decriminalization movement, and finding out where they have been before. I have a few projects in mind, but recognize that in my naiveté I may be wasting our time. Regardless, here they are:
· POTSECRETS!!! Like the PostSecret’s Project, where individuals sent an anonymous confession illustrated in image and script on the back of postcard, Pot Secrets also wants your anonymous confessions. That is your admission that you, whoever you are, smoke pot and LOVE IT!!! This isn’t to ‘out’ anyone, but to help our community realize how many of our citizens are avid users and still exemplary members of society.
Please, send your postcards to
Potsecrets! C/O Graham
115 Moore Ave.
Waterloo, Ontario
N2J 1X3
· ‘ENDPROHIBITIONWATERLOO!’ is a blog that I recently started to act as an electronic forum to accompany the print materials. It can be found at http://endprohibitionwaterloo.blogspot.com/
· ‘K_DOOB’ itself is a publication open to anyone who has an open, for and against, marijuana and its decriminalization. I’m hoping that this becomes a community conversation that everyone can participate in because, as it stands, the law affects everyone.
Thus, with that being said, I hope that we can connect and engage the problem dynamically. Let us work towards a common future, where we no longer need hide in the dark.
This is hard to say.
Actually, this is hard to say well. The bare-bones point has been expressed by many people for years, and I think the fundamental truth of the matter manifests everyday in popular television, radio, and film.
We are a culture tolerant, exploitive, and encouraging of marijuana users, yet we accept the political maneuvers of our elected officials to demonize and criminalize marijuana (amongst other drug use) use(rs) as a method of demonstrating how ‘tough on crime’ they are. This official stance does not match social practice. It seems to me that every other corner store sells psychedelically colored glass pipes and accessories with the notorious potleaf upon it. Kitchener-Waterloo supports at least three dedicated ‘head shops’, and there are rumblings of other sites for pot-culture to emerge. In practice, as long as people don’t walk down our ‘main streets’ tokin’ a joint then, as some have said, the police won’t even care.
Yet, on the books, all this is criminal activity and needs to be persecuted by the apparatus of the law. People have fought for our ability to be free to discuss whatever we want, including marijuana literature. Marc Emery, a Canadian hero being sent to American prison at US request, fought for the right to read and distribute this information in the early 90’s and went on to actively fight for legalization and decriminalization world-wide. Thanks to people like him, we can organize and speak and write on the subject, but when it comes to being free to enjoy the growth and use of the marijuana plant, we are still impeded by the law.
We are still used by our authorities.
We are still threatened by them.
Families are broken up and people’s lives destroyed because we live in a society which employs a double-standard: We can toke and revel in it if you’re young, or a minority, or poor, or an ‘artist’, but as soon as you want to join the ‘professional’ world, you cannot toke or grow, ever, period. Despite the fact that everyone does it, or that making marijuana use as a ‘poor-thing’ or ‘black-thing’ or ‘criminal-thing’ is incredibly discriminatory, we are indoctrinated with this information all our lives! This message is reflected to us through music and media, and is accepted by everyone INCLUDING POTHEADS.
Now, I recognize one of the results of being super relaxed (or stoned, as some people call it) means becoming sedentary and lazy, but this is a dangerous state of affairs. By doing so we are leaving the possibility of our arrest and ruination, not to mention the exploitation of our persons by those with political agendas, as a perpetual reality. As a pothead, it’s only a matter of time before you have an interaction with the police.
So, we need to ask ourselves: Is apathy worth it, or should we get down to business and ensure that no one needs to suffer marijuana-related injustices again? Are we okay with allowing our marijuana use to be a segregating tool used by racists in all positions of society? Are we okay allowing ourselves to be used to push a jail-filling agenda, where those who are potsmokers are ‘not normal’, likely crazy or criminal? No!!!!
No, no, no, NO!!!
I will not stand to be exploited and stigmatized, and no one else should either.
Therefore, I have begun putting some resources together, and hope to become involved with others in our community interested in developing a decriminalization movement, and finding out where they have been before. I have a few projects in mind, but recognize that in my naiveté I may be wasting our time. Regardless, here they are:
· POTSECRETS!!! Like the PostSecret’s Project, where individuals sent an anonymous confession illustrated in image and script on the back of postcard, Pot Secrets also wants your anonymous confessions. That is your admission that you, whoever you are, smoke pot and LOVE IT!!! This isn’t to ‘out’ anyone, but to help our community realize how many of our citizens are avid users and still exemplary members of society.
Please, send your postcards to
Potsecrets! C/O Graham
115 Moore Ave.
Waterloo, Ontario
N2J 1X3
· ‘ENDPROHIBITIONWATERLOO!’ is a blog that I recently started to act as an electronic forum to accompany the print materials. It can be found at http://endprohibitionwaterloo.blogspot.com/
· ‘K_DOOB’ itself is a publication open to anyone who has an open, for and against, marijuana and its decriminalization. I’m hoping that this becomes a community conversation that everyone can participate in because, as it stands, the law affects everyone.
Thus, with that being said, I hope that we can connect and engage the problem dynamically. Let us work towards a common future, where we no longer need hide in the dark.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
K_DOOB
Hello. here you will find an electronic copy of some roughly made work to be printed and distributed. Thanks for reading.
What was I thinking when writing this? Well, I don't know. I was fairly high.
Think you can do better? Have any pointers? Help me escape my prison of convulsion.
Otherwise, enjoy!
My being is fucked(!), because I got high.
Let me explain.
My friend Paul and I just enjoyed a notorious fatty, basking in the sunshine of a late summer. We talked with our neighbour Mike while doing push-ups, about dogs and his days as a delivery guy. We asked how our days were, and chilled out.
So, the problem with this equation is that it’s the first day of school (the last days of summer???) and I have another class at seven, and as I’m smiling to myself while making pBNJ –zenwhiches, I realize.
I can’t do this. This is Fourth Year. I need to behave myself.
The breakup is emotional.
“Paul, I can’t keep doing this.”
“I know…”
The silence was unbearable.
“…”
“…we just…can’t.”
“…I know…”
“Well…,” I mounted the stair. “We’ll always have August.”
Massively baked as such, I realize that something is fucked up about this situation.
I have to give up something pivotal to my life, maybe not as a foreverthing, maybe more a ‘shufflin’-the-deck-o’-life, m’boy’-thing and I am encountering one of our societies great hypocrisy.
This cleavage is because the life I want to live is not supported by the world around me, is one which seems to require the surrendering of my Chronic.
Smoking with the frequency I have this summer, I am not surprised that I have not done a pot ‘zine.
Long have I told people that I would write something and begin an infamous publication, known as….
K_DOOB!!!
Yes, K_DOOB.
The name would echo through time.
It would probe deeply into the dark conifers of our collective mythology, challenging every backhanded villain and clamorous hero to enter the realm of drug lore.
Then I found out about the 10-day-free-trial World of Warcraft (WOW) was having, and then was introduced to Magic: The Gathering (M:TG), and (gasp!) Dungeons and Dragons (the flippin’ D&D yo!), and before you knew it, it was August.
So, rejuvenated and relaxed, I resumed my mission. I got some old pot magazines, saw Marc Emery speak and watched his movie.
I started a blog and told people about it.
The first day it was up, I got really ripped and wrote of all the fabulous ideas I’ve had so far, but now know that it is up to me to go and find out what has already been done.
I was really earnest and still am – this is meant to tell you about it, in a way.
Thus, this publication.
I need to do something about the current state of marijuana in my community because we are experiencing a culture fraught with coercion and stupidity; stupidity on behalf of our social institutions maintaining this fraud, and stupidity on behalf of myself, for I am woefully ignorant of the realities behind my magical herb. Pot is potent, and can affect your state quite strongly, but can be a valued plant-teacher, or be used for its medicinal qualities. It is demonized more than it deserves, and its users are demonized along with it. On top of seeking legal reform and institutional honesty, I am also grappling with the idea that it has negative effects on my life, thus the need to take some distance.
This publication is a project that I don’t want to maintain alone, and I know I’m not alone. There are a diversity of people on-board with this movement, and many resources in our community to help us live a better life with and without the ganja.
We need to be frank. Pot isn’t for everybody; lots of substances aren’t for everybody, but are accepted and celebrated everyday as part of a normal social system. The poison alcohol is touted as social lubricant; fast food is the way to stay fueled on the go; we can rend and tear our bodies into whichever shape we want but what we are able to put into our bodies is being increasingly controlled by forces outside ourselves.
Marijuana comes from the earth, a plant, and while we may sing about it, joke of it and, most definitely, financially profit off of it, we are not allowed to be someone who is a smoker of marijuana.
This issue needs examination, and I would like to do this in conjunction with whatever resources I have available. Thus, here are the resources I have available. Please, I would love for this to be a collective effort, and as allies come forth, I would like to do what is possible to further this cause.
Let us work towards a common future, where we no longer need hide in the dark.
What was I thinking when writing this? Well, I don't know. I was fairly high.
Think you can do better? Have any pointers? Help me escape my prison of convulsion.
Otherwise, enjoy!
My being is fucked(!), because I got high.
Let me explain.
My friend Paul and I just enjoyed a notorious fatty, basking in the sunshine of a late summer. We talked with our neighbour Mike while doing push-ups, about dogs and his days as a delivery guy. We asked how our days were, and chilled out.
So, the problem with this equation is that it’s the first day of school (the last days of summer???) and I have another class at seven, and as I’m smiling to myself while making pBNJ –zenwhiches, I realize.
I can’t do this. This is Fourth Year. I need to behave myself.
The breakup is emotional.
“Paul, I can’t keep doing this.”
“I know…”
The silence was unbearable.
“…”
“…we just…can’t.”
“…I know…”
“Well…,” I mounted the stair. “We’ll always have August.”
Massively baked as such, I realize that something is fucked up about this situation.
I have to give up something pivotal to my life, maybe not as a foreverthing, maybe more a ‘shufflin’-the-deck-o’-life, m’boy’-thing and I am encountering one of our societies great hypocrisy.
This cleavage is because the life I want to live is not supported by the world around me, is one which seems to require the surrendering of my Chronic.
Smoking with the frequency I have this summer, I am not surprised that I have not done a pot ‘zine.
Long have I told people that I would write something and begin an infamous publication, known as….
K_DOOB!!!
Yes, K_DOOB.
The name would echo through time.
It would probe deeply into the dark conifers of our collective mythology, challenging every backhanded villain and clamorous hero to enter the realm of drug lore.
Then I found out about the 10-day-free-trial World of Warcraft (WOW) was having, and then was introduced to Magic: The Gathering (M:TG), and (gasp!) Dungeons and Dragons (the flippin’ D&D yo!), and before you knew it, it was August.
So, rejuvenated and relaxed, I resumed my mission. I got some old pot magazines, saw Marc Emery speak and watched his movie.
I started a blog and told people about it.
The first day it was up, I got really ripped and wrote of all the fabulous ideas I’ve had so far, but now know that it is up to me to go and find out what has already been done.
I was really earnest and still am – this is meant to tell you about it, in a way.
Thus, this publication.
I need to do something about the current state of marijuana in my community because we are experiencing a culture fraught with coercion and stupidity; stupidity on behalf of our social institutions maintaining this fraud, and stupidity on behalf of myself, for I am woefully ignorant of the realities behind my magical herb. Pot is potent, and can affect your state quite strongly, but can be a valued plant-teacher, or be used for its medicinal qualities. It is demonized more than it deserves, and its users are demonized along with it. On top of seeking legal reform and institutional honesty, I am also grappling with the idea that it has negative effects on my life, thus the need to take some distance.
This publication is a project that I don’t want to maintain alone, and I know I’m not alone. There are a diversity of people on-board with this movement, and many resources in our community to help us live a better life with and without the ganja.
We need to be frank. Pot isn’t for everybody; lots of substances aren’t for everybody, but are accepted and celebrated everyday as part of a normal social system. The poison alcohol is touted as social lubricant; fast food is the way to stay fueled on the go; we can rend and tear our bodies into whichever shape we want but what we are able to put into our bodies is being increasingly controlled by forces outside ourselves.
Marijuana comes from the earth, a plant, and while we may sing about it, joke of it and, most definitely, financially profit off of it, we are not allowed to be someone who is a smoker of marijuana.
This issue needs examination, and I would like to do this in conjunction with whatever resources I have available. Thus, here are the resources I have available. Please, I would love for this to be a collective effort, and as allies come forth, I would like to do what is possible to further this cause.
Let us work towards a common future, where we no longer need hide in the dark.
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