An Inconvenient Truth
My letters from America aren’t as frequent or as colourful as America. And of course by America I mean New York. Get yourselves a cuppa.
Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth would be the perfect platform for him to wrest back the leadership of a country he won the first time around, though he swears he’s not interested in running again. I’d rather he did it than Hillary. I think the world’s desperately in need of some female energy, but I’m not sure having this woman in the White House would provide it. She may have a vagina but she’s slowly but surely taken the middle seat on just about every issue worth backsliding for. Dissenting voices are already being heard in the democrat ranks and the republicans don’t need any help to brand her brittle. I like Gore’s face and I like what he represents, penis notwithstanding. The documentary’s a powerpoint presentation on legs and utterly compelling.
At the Guggenheim Jackson Pollock and Zaha Hadid are sharing the space, Zaha with the lioness’ share. Wonder what they’d have made of each other. His work is shown under the title ‘No Limits, Just Edges’. Zaha is the only woman in a man’s world of architecture, and despite her middle eastern curves she’s most known for her aggressively angular work, edges up the wazoo. At id:ology we talk about swallowing metaphorical whales as a means to growing confidence (all the real Free Willies are our friends, honest guv). Feels to me like Zaha’s swallowing leviathans publicly, he swallowed the sauce till it drowned his. The Guggenheim’s the perfect space for both.
Then, two things happened.
First, Warren Buffet gave away $37 billion.
He was interviewed by Charlie Rose that night and talked about it. He sat alongside Bill and Melinda Gates, who’s foundation he’s asked to distribute the money. That in itself struck me as an incredible act of magnanimity. No ego demanding his name above the foundation’s door. If you’d seen him that night you would have seen a child. He was interrupting, he couldn’t sit still, giggling.
He’d famously said that he’d give away his fortune when he died, so when Charlie asked him ‘how’s your health?’, he said something like “I can’t believe how healthy I am. I don’t get enough sleep, my diet is terrible, I don’t get any exercise, but for some reason my health is great.” Like Karma had washed away this 74 year old body and left in its place a 6 year old boy.
He was so happy. He said “it doesn’t get any better than this.”
A week later, the day after the fireworks, Kenneth Lay died.
Due to be sentenced in September for conspiring to perpetuate one of the biggest frauds in US history, his heart exploded. Probably fear. It just couldn’t take the stress. His lavish lifestyle came under intense scrutiny, not least the fact that he withdrew $70 million dollars personally in the year that Enron slid into bankruptcy, the year that thousands of his employees watched their retirement funds disappear.
Such a jarring comparison between one wealthy individual and another. One who’s lived an impersonal life, a universal life, who believes that you only truly own what you give away.
The other suffering from affluenza, his focus on amassing, acquisition.
And if what I believe is true, that life writes itself on your face, take a long hard look at both.
Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth would be the perfect platform for him to wrest back the leadership of a country he won the first time around, though he swears he’s not interested in running again. I’d rather he did it than Hillary. I think the world’s desperately in need of some female energy, but I’m not sure having this woman in the White House would provide it. She may have a vagina but she’s slowly but surely taken the middle seat on just about every issue worth backsliding for. Dissenting voices are already being heard in the democrat ranks and the republicans don’t need any help to brand her brittle. I like Gore’s face and I like what he represents, penis notwithstanding. The documentary’s a powerpoint presentation on legs and utterly compelling.
At the Guggenheim Jackson Pollock and Zaha Hadid are sharing the space, Zaha with the lioness’ share. Wonder what they’d have made of each other. His work is shown under the title ‘No Limits, Just Edges’. Zaha is the only woman in a man’s world of architecture, and despite her middle eastern curves she’s most known for her aggressively angular work, edges up the wazoo. At id:ology we talk about swallowing metaphorical whales as a means to growing confidence (all the real Free Willies are our friends, honest guv). Feels to me like Zaha’s swallowing leviathans publicly, he swallowed the sauce till it drowned his. The Guggenheim’s the perfect space for both.
Then, two things happened.
First, Warren Buffet gave away $37 billion.
He was interviewed by Charlie Rose that night and talked about it. He sat alongside Bill and Melinda Gates, who’s foundation he’s asked to distribute the money. That in itself struck me as an incredible act of magnanimity. No ego demanding his name above the foundation’s door. If you’d seen him that night you would have seen a child. He was interrupting, he couldn’t sit still, giggling.
He’d famously said that he’d give away his fortune when he died, so when Charlie asked him ‘how’s your health?’, he said something like “I can’t believe how healthy I am. I don’t get enough sleep, my diet is terrible, I don’t get any exercise, but for some reason my health is great.” Like Karma had washed away this 74 year old body and left in its place a 6 year old boy.
He was so happy. He said “it doesn’t get any better than this.”
A week later, the day after the fireworks, Kenneth Lay died.
Due to be sentenced in September for conspiring to perpetuate one of the biggest frauds in US history, his heart exploded. Probably fear. It just couldn’t take the stress. His lavish lifestyle came under intense scrutiny, not least the fact that he withdrew $70 million dollars personally in the year that Enron slid into bankruptcy, the year that thousands of his employees watched their retirement funds disappear.
Such a jarring comparison between one wealthy individual and another. One who’s lived an impersonal life, a universal life, who believes that you only truly own what you give away.
The other suffering from affluenza, his focus on amassing, acquisition.
And if what I believe is true, that life writes itself on your face, take a long hard look at both.
posted by Caroline at 7:12 AM
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