Green Spaces

(Howick- Suburb of Auckland, NZ)

“True freedom lies in the ability a person has to react appropriately to any given circumstance”

Life Outside of Learning

(Kohu Kohu kids, The Far North New Zealand)

By now I’m sure you are all aware- bugs are very much a part of living in Julia’s house.

This morning a spider was crawling on my face and bit my lip. Jetting up from mid dream I slapped my face, squishing the (fortunately) little baby spider into my chin. Now that’s awake. What was this spider doing on my face? Starting a turf war? Maybe the spider was sick of my presence. I’m sure his/her ancestors were here first, oh well.

Living with Julia is like living with history. Long conversations I’ve had in my heart with God always seem to find their way out into Julia’s house, thoughts roam freely here. Dinners past have been filled with stories- of parachute drops on the grassy airstrip of Raoul Island (located in the Kermadecs), elderly Pacific Islanders waiting on the rims of the reef for the tide to come in, Coops taking over time and space in the matter of a few guns and words, the altruism gene her “cousin bill” was onto before he died of some unspeakable disease found only in Africa. Whatever it was it took a scientist in search for proof of goodness!

Something about the visitors, Julia’s family and Julia herself tells me she is a gift to New Zealand. Julia’s mother passed away several years ago, leaving behind a lovely body of poetry. I keep her work by my bedside as a reminder of all things Wellington, of newness, of chance and of change. Jeanette Stance writes of kakas, bugs and the in-between places of existence. The Stance family will always be New Zealand to me, true and true kiwi blood.

On my way to once again procrastinate by prodding through Julia’s small library of New Zealand botany and craft, a cockroach made a desperate leap for my forehead mid-descending of staircase. Squirming and fighting off this strange interloping insect I said, COCKROACH!! Julia, sitting at her computer a meter away, contemplated aloud “Hmmm, yes- at least it’s a native cockroach”

Yes Julia, at least it is a native cockroach.

Results are in!

Emperor Ed. Professor Diener.

Behold, the modern male academic in his natural habitat, tree.

This man dominates subjective well-being (SWB), it is his empire, and he is the ruler of all the current SWB methodologies. I read him. He is one of the most cited professors, ever-

YEAH!!! Did a significant amount of coding (yes, statistical software coding!) this past week and found some significant results. They are being picked over by my professor at the moment.

And so the writing process is underway, and rather than going from one chapter to the next I will be continually writing my whole thesis, at all times. I finally feel like I got my gradate student wings. Yikes, I have an unbelievable amount of work to do.

Read on to see the ground I have covered...

My difficulties:

Psychology- happiness is biologically determined.

Economists- base their theory on the fact that happiness is biologically determined, therefore what we purchase is based on internal real needs, rather than addiction or wants.

Sociologists- disagree that happiness is biologically determined, rather happiness is relative to your society. All theory is based largely on assumption and qualitative coding, which cannot prove there is a large extensive pattern (not the sociologist goal in the first place, they “locate”, keeping their distance from making generalizations).

Geographers- say that that society is shaped by who and what you are surrounded by…completely disproving the psychological idea that happiness is biologically determined, further disproving the economic theorem that what we purchase is based on internal needs, and finally geographers strive to make and more importantly question broad generalizations about social interactions, basing them on environmental dispositions- pissing off all the particular and wordy sociologists.

Take that world, geographers are the world! My school of thought, human geography, RULES…in theory…

Unknown Woman

Unknown Woman

She used her dress to

wipe the seat clean.

And if the others knew just how much

thought went into cleaning it,

there might have been more peace.

For just once, she wished someone

would smile and thank her.

But no one ever notices a woman

and an empty seat

as something different.

-Anne-Marie

Eating with Heart and Mind

The shopping needs to be done, food is running low.

This is a picture of what I bought two weeks ago:

1. Brush- Becuase I didn't have one (therefore I did not brush my hair for almost 4 months)

2. Toothpaste- Teeth yellowed from massive amounts of tea

3. Fair trade Whittakers Chocolate- NZ brand- I am trying them all (about 15 or so options)

4. Lotion- Wind!

5. Vogel loaf of bread- I am almost a fully converted kiwi

6. Heaps of fruit- Julia and I are very serious about the 5-a-day rule

7. Naked Soups- For lunch at school, fair trade, some proceeds go to Oxfam

Most of the food I buy is shared between Julia and I. We cook and eat dinner together most nights, on weekends I typically fend for myself. Lunch is always prepared before I leave. I hate buying lunch. Porridge every morning with brown sugar. We try as much as possible to buy local, and fair trade products. In New Zealand it's actually not that hard or expensive be a very conscience grocery shopper.

Wonder what to pick up for the next two weeks...fruit and soup.

Cold Nights

Aro at Night

The buildings are quite in Aro Valley this Monday.

Of course, what man has made is cold!

Sweet little Moreporks bring warmth to the dark,

it is their composition that remind us

of life in the night, calls to each-other,

calls that we claim just say their name.

The bush is Wellington, the hills, the sea,

what is alive is beyond the time of buildings.

We are merely creating spaces for things to die comfortably,

we should be taking notes from the life in darkness.

We should be in awe.

- Anne-Marie Snider