Conversing unrehearsed

Quote of the week

Curtis Love — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:08:34 +0000

“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody. What values you represent”
-Parker J Palmer

Homeward Bound

Curtis Love — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:54:05 +0000

The swirl and texture of bleeding life

Shades the unaffected stability

Perspective holes a home in its middle

I am homeward bound to somewhere silence

-Curtis love

Information is beautiful

Curtis Love — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:12:12 +0000

Check out this great graphic, its really profound. Pay particular notice to African Debt in relation to bribes taken by russian officials. The rest of the site is pretty sweet too.

http://www.danpink.com/archives/2009/09/carl-sagan-meets-everett-dirksen

Quote of the Day

Curtis Love — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:02:35 +0000

“All the truly great persons I have ever met are characterised by what I call radical humility…They are deeply convinced that they are drawing from another source; they are an instrument. Their genius is not their own; it is borrowed. So they end up doing great things and expansive things precisely because they do not take first or final responsibility for their gift. … Their life is not their own, yet at some level they know that it has been given to them as a sacred trust. Someone has taken them seriously.”

-Fr Richard Rohr

Sms Etiquette: How polite are you?

Curtis Love — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:25:17 +0000

In the past couple of weeks I have found myself (rather amusingly) growing indignant at the way in which people send what seem to me rather impolite sms’s. The problem is not that the sms’s are impolite but rather that the people who send them are not impolite people. In their day to day dealings they are pleasant, considerate and caring people yet (it seems to me) that the pleasantness or politeness doesn’t translate into their sms etiquette! Is to too much to ask for a greeting at the begining of the text (heya) , an equiry into ones well being (you well?), a little encouragement (hope the day is/was good) and any appropriate ending (peace…cheers…thanks)? Am i just been a friendliness glutton, wanting more from a simple text message than what it can give.

Whatever the case is, there is one detail that I haven’t mentioned so far which could shed some much needed light on the dark, sordid world of poor sms etiquette. As many of you know I live mainly with American’s and many of the said messages in question have been received from ‘them’ This beg’s the question, ‘are American’s texto-rudae, or worse so cheap that they want to make sure the text is trimmed of all relational excess to ensure the demanding 144 character quota is met? My heart and experience of my friends tells me that neither of these things are true. What alternative explanations are there? A few things began to emerge on my fact finding mission.

South Africa has an sms culture: According to my rigorous research, which included a few casual conversations and a concentrated time of refelction,we send texts far more frequently than American’s. I even encountered American’s who themselves or someone they knew had deactivated their ability to receive texts. Can you imagine a South African who is unable to receive texts? Woe to you, blasphemer! Part of American’s aversion to texts is because their service providers charge them to receive sms’s. My friends told me they were much more likely to make a phone call than to send a text.
Text’s are a functional form of communication: It would seem that this is the assumption of some of the people who sent me those ‘trimmed’ messages. A text is simply functional: to get information, make a request or confirm an arrangement. If it achieves that end the text is ‘successful’ and any other communication in the text is unnessecary. This is of course very different from my own usage of texts. For example about 70% of my communication with my girlfriend in JHB throughout the week is through text’s. Text’s in my world (South Africa in general?) go beyond a functional form of communication.

Within my two above-mentioned discoveries there are some hints as to why I would perceive an sms as being impolite while my friends would see it as completely normal.

I feel much better after taking the time to share these thoughts with you and let you into the complex world of sms etiquette.All thats left to ask is what do you think? Should an sms include things like a greating and an ending or is it only a functional form of communication? Is my indignation culturally conditioned or down right misguided? Is there something I haven’t seen?

Quote of the week

Curtis Love — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:40:54 +0000

The roots of lonliness find their food in the suspicion that there is no one who cares and offers love without conditions, and no place where we can be vulnerable without been used

-Henri Nouwen

Quote of the Week

Curtis Love — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:41:48 +0000

You can take it as a general rule that when you don’t transform your pain you will always transmit it

-Richard Rohr

Quote of the week

Curtis Love — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:35:41 +0000

“Love all God’s creation, the hole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it you will begin to comprehend it better every day”

- Dostoevski

A loosened tongue

Curtis Love — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:08:06 +0000

Sorry been so quiet. I have been travelling around Cape Town for the past 10 days on my week off for this year. It was really good and I got to see a part of the country I don’t know very well. Some highlights included a hike up table mountain with my cousin Jon, going to Robben Island, travelling to Simon’s Town, Spending a night with my good friends in Stellenbosch and a killer butter fudge milkshake @ mr Pickwicks on Long Street. Sometime during this week I will be sending out a newsletter about the last few weeks, if you not on my mailing list and would like to be then drop me a mail @ curtisluv@gmail.com. I took the train down to Cape Town which was a really beautiful trip. I had plenty of time for reading and was able to devour some of Anjie Krog’s a change of tongue. To me Antjie is one of the best writers in South Africa , and the world for that matter. She (and the beautiful countryside) inspired me to write some poetry. So here is a poem called soil. Its not really finished but here is the first draft. Enjoy.

The sun kissed grasslands ,carpet.

curiously questioning the possible

Guarded by imposing mountains ,immovable,sheer in their silence

Bitter rivers well up,dividing,decomunning

Bespeckeled with threats of anti-hope and bush-fire fierce love

Soil of the ancestors, blood rich and benevolent accept these weary bones

Quote of the week

Curtis Love — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:16:59 +0000

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. God beholds all”

-Author unknown