show me the grey

the anti-carbon tax rally made me angry. not because it happened – power to anyone who wants to protest – but because the leader of the opposition, tony abbott, took part. he has every right to of course, but the rally appeared to have more than its fair share of extremists groups sporting placards that were cruel and sexist.

it’s easy – and pretty unimaginative – to criticise politicians. it’s even easier – and even more unimaginative – to say things are getting worse. but the rally really worried me as it seemed to justify both these statements. federal  australian politics has always been feisty but at the moment it appears to be sliding downwards, becoming unacceptably divisive.

i can’t pretend to like tony abbott.  his machiavellian approach to things like the rally appears to be underpinned by a belief that his world view is completely and morally right. i worry that he just doesn’t see, feel or experience the grey. the problem with this is that it’s the ability to see the grey and let it influence you that stops extremism, prevents us from forcing our views onto others and opens our hearts to real compassion.

there are many things i would like our politicians to do but top of the list for me is for the opposition to have the courage to elect a leader who sees the grey.

feeling smug

as part of the we-live-in-a-kick-arse-community stage we’re in, piero and i decided to brave our local theatre, darlinghurst theatre, for a double showing.  

the first show was gorgeous bastard! – three gay blokes attend the heterosexual wedding of their ex. while there was some witty dialogue, all up it was a bit disappointing as it wasn't cast well and the script wasn’t particularly adventurous (is anyone really surprised that gay guys marry women when homophobia is still rife in society) or insightful (money, kids and making the jump to the other side were all possible reasons given for the wedding). the most interesting plot theme - one of the blokes was the brother of the wife - was brushed over but if i was at a wedding and a guy told me he’d shagged his sister’s husband-to-be, i think that would be the focus of my play rather than a gay guy playing straight.

fortunately, the second show - jane austen’s guide to pornography -  was much better. jane austen and a modern author help each other out - jane helps him add real romance to his novels while he helps her add sex. the due-worldly-element was reminiscent of the hours and hearing romance-obsessed-jane describe sex and the sex-obsessed-author describe romance was entertaining. add some drag, ridiculous piss-take-18^th-century -dancing and a pertinent point about whether you can have romance without sacrifice, the second play was much more to my liking.

and the best bit: feeling smug that we’ve supported local theatre on our short walk home.