How We Survived the Last Fifty Years

This is how it was before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

When we were kids there were no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitch-hiking. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank home-made lemonade with LOTS of sugar, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have PlayStations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms … WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Sports teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

Original and full version at lyndonantcliff.com

Help Save Heritage Architecture

As an advocate for the preservation of heritage architecture, I openly oppose the idea of demolition of the Windsor Hotel (Melbourne, Victoria)!

This lovely old building is the finest piece of architectural history that Melbourne has on show. Any architectural firm that proposes the destruction of heritage architecture seriously needs to re-read its mandate and principles. AFAIK, There is nothing wrong with the hotel, it holds no faults and its interior fittings are amazing to view and behold.

I heavily insist that the building be allowed to remain standing so that tourists and residents of Victoria can enjoy viewing and visiting. Help keep this piece of history alive!

(Photo above is not the Windsor Hotel. This is another building here in Adelaide, South Australia that may suffer the same fate. Currently it stands alone amongst glass monoliths!)

In Excess

The value of the internet-age! We can now see well-in-advance what is showing on television before it happens: From 1am-5am tomorrow morning, nothing but INXS. Loving it!

If you could listen to just one band or musician for four hours, who would it be?

Having a Response

I often read through the various forum-entry’s around Redbubble.com and many blogs around the WWW: Sometimes I feel the need to respond, but invariably my comments end up quite lengthy. Thus, I often convert my thoughts to prose or short stories for publication here.

Here are three separate yet entwined written pieces that I didn’t want to be a statement for one situation, but an idea for for a few.

1. Perpetuate the evil, and life will remain as is. Finding solution through education and compromise, and your answers will help make a difference. Neither your religion nor ballot makes the country, it’s who YOU are that makes the people the country.

2. While many seem to think that burning flags, raising effigies and vandalising for the sake of revenge is the only way to retaliate, I prefer to dwell on what I do have. I have free speech, but I don’t have to use it all the time. I could march in the street, but I prefer to shoot photographs of such events. I have food, water and a roof over my head, yet somehow I represent the minority. Civilisation needs to be built by the people, not the geography nor the state.

3. According to wikipedia , ‘enlightenment’ is the acquisition of new wisdom or understanding enabling clarity of perception .

In Zen it is the state of being with no mind, the disappearance of the ego, the loss of all identification with the body and the mind, and the freedom from beliefs, opinions, ideals and concepts. Not to be confused with escapism, enlightenment is attained by those who don’t feel the need to pass opinion nor judgement on everything. Rather, they listen, learn and apply.

Ok, so it’s a little rhetoric that may seem a tad naive, but the concept is amazingly simple. We should all try it sometime.

PS. When I was a teenager, yes, my views were narrow-minded and uneducated. Twenty five years later I now have a more ‘enlightened’ view of religion, civilisation, communication and many other subjects. I’m not an expert in any one thing, but I do have an opinion on most. When I don’t know enough about a subject to make an informed opinion, I do enough research to play ‘devils advocate’.

Thanks to the internet, subjects such as education and enlightenment is free.

Yes, this piece was previously in my ‘Writing’ within Redbubble.