Life As Performance Art 65

I woke up at 12:35 this morning from a very powerful dream that I cannot remember at all, but I was talking to someone who seemed very important. This often happens in my dreams. Knowing that I would be awake for a while, I read for a bit, finishing the final pages of a mystery novella written by a Swedish author but in Spanish translation. Then, I got up after resting a bit, had my shower, etc., I cleaned my place, and now I am drinking a blend of Cuban dark roast and French Colombian decaf, which means it will be a bit easier to get back to sleep after breakfast. I am listening again to all these cool docs from BBC, Germany and Australia that CBC plays on the radio in the small hours in the morning: so far about genetic splicing in utero, the therapeutic effects of singing and of engaging in the arts and creativity, and now about some of the challenges facing the Christian Azizi community in exile after fleeing from ISIS. Apparently the Azizis are very culturally insular and conservative and will not marry or accept marriage outside of their community. A few minutes ago there was a gaggle of noisy and somewhat drunken young middle class folk having a little social gathering outside my window. I simply told them "it's past your bedtime", and now they are gone. Easy-peasy. So many problems get solved when you are assertive. Not all of them. And maybe not always right away, but I think being assertive leaves us with a lot fewer headaches. Right now it is 3:22 de la madrugada, or in the very early morning. Those young privileged folk I just chased from my neighbourhood remind me of exactly what is wrong with this obsession about curing Vancouver of being a No-Fun city. Never mind about young people's God-given right and entitlement to have fun. I was also young once. I had fun. And I still needed older folk to kick my ass for being such an inconsiderate idiot. If living in a city that is not No-Fun means having to put up with loud and hollering late night losers like them, and other noise and racket, then please relocate me to the boonies. I don't care about this city that never sleeps nonsense. We need to sleep if we are going to perform and function well, and drinking and drunken idiots having a good time at my expense is not even worth considering. I have never sat well with this nonsense about integrating neighbourhoods, increasing residencies downtown and everyone is going to get along peachy-keen. Neither am I sold on the wisdom of building low cost housing in the downtown core for people with fragile mental health, seniors and persons on low incomes. That they tend to build for low income tenants like me in undesirable neighbourhoods really says something about the contempt that they still have towards us, and of course, none of the wealthy burghers are going to want us in their leafy and tony neighbourhoods. I suspect that, especially with some of the money laundered trash living now in those wealthy climes, that a lot of them would love to turn Shaughnessy into a gated neighbourhood protected by armed guards. Why not? They do it in the countries they come from. And our own barmy politicians, masking their self-serving greed with a feigned love for diversity have all but convinced us that we have to let wealthy foreigners take over our country. Or we will be called racists. Only now that the horse is out of the barn are they screaming and shrilling about foreign money laundering. I really prefer the old concept of immigration, with an emphasis placed on welcoming refugees and immigrants regardless of their financial wealth or holdings. They have always done well and made some of the best new citizens in this country. But now greed is the ruling ethos and we are paying dearly for it.