Author: Evan Shapiro

I don’t want to be alarmist, but as an author of pre-apocalyptic, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction I’m finding it difficult to see the difference between reality and conjecture, especially when viewed through the recent smoke haze that has descended upon my city and the fires raging across my nation. Devastation is upon us, however, as the rain falls, I like to remind myself that with all disasters there is recovery.

My mind is often occupied by scenarios of destruction, but my fiction is a result of being an eternal optimist rather than a naysayer. I really do feel, despite the current turmoil, that we can turn things around. I’m hopeful that those that have tried so desperately to bury their heads in the sand will finally join the chorus singing for change and realise there are many things we can and must do collectively and independently to better our situation.

As a species, we are very stupid, but we are also very clever. We face our current set of obstacles due to that toxic mix of dumb smartness. We are great at creating and for centuries human history has been driven by an insatiable desire to learn, grow and change. At the same time, our developments have been crippled by ignorance, corruption, selfishness and greed. It could be argued these obstacles have also provided the touchstone for creative solutions.

People are clearly angry and expressing their anger through social media. Angry at the current devastation, the lack of leadership but also the years of political dysfunction, subjugation of scientific fact and propagation of misinformation. I urge those posting not to stop but I also offer the following idea. As satisfying as it may feel, clicking a ‘like’ button on a post is not the same as writing to your local member, going to a rally or donating money to ­help survivors, the environment or to fund campaigns towards real change.

Here are some links to help get you started 

Climate Information

Great info from the Climate Council with some very practical ways to deal with short and long term issues related to climate change.

Don’t believe in climate change? Let Dr Karl explain things.

My thoughts are with all those directly affected by the fires and I’m grateful to the many people and organisations that are raising funds, providing support and assistance.  

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere
A near-future pre-apocalyptic novel set 30 years after a climate crisis

I love time manipulation stories, from H.G. Wells to Doctor Who and everything in between (or perhaps it’s more scattered and nonlinear with no in between). Anyway, it’s no wonder that when my workload became a little unrealistic recently my mind turned to a fictional way of dealing with it. Much to the chagrin of those around me, I find practical solutions often appear to me once I’ve first eliminated flights of fancy. I wasn’t thinking of the Hermione Granger approach so much, jumping in time so I could get everything done. Being at work and home at the same time sounds efficient but it could get confusing. No, I simply wanted a way to stop time for everyone else, so that I could complete all the tasks on my list, then restart time again and miraculously be on top of everything.  

Alas, I’m not a scientist. Popular science and how it weaves into speculative fiction in a way that appears true but probably isn’t, is much more my bag. As such I’m not going to build a time machine. It’s also unlikely that I’ll find a magical wardrobe, or a hidden doorway, a secret window or uncover a magical incantation. Looking around my humble surroundings there is seriously nothing available to me to pause time.

Then again, when I looked a little closer, it dawned on me that I was in fact, surrounded by time machines. Firstly, my alarm clock. When I set it an hour earlier, I remarkably have more time in the morning. I can get so much more done with that extra hour. Conversely, I realised my phone and laptop were time-sucking machines. If I combined ignoring them with the extra hour the alarm clock gives me, then it turns into even more time. The laptop, of course, is a mixed bag. Allowing work but ignoring social media and other online distractions is a tricky balance. Both take time, but only one provides income. With increasing work deadlines, it made the work option an easier choice to make. Looking at social media or reading the news doesn’t feed my family, nor does it nourish them with my company. It takes time away from them. Occasionally they may be grateful for that, but not always.

Filtering my surrounds through the prism of time I discover there are a bunch of other time machines at my fingertips. My dishwasher, clothes washer, vacuum cleaner. They all save me time while appearing to take it away. It can get confusing.

The most obvious time machine of all, the one that is constantly ticking away and tracking everything, is the one sitting in my head. Are we not, by our very nature, walking talking time machines? Our whole construct is based on time passing, from the cradle to the grave. It could be that our ability to conceive of time travel arose from a subconscious awareness of the fact that we can’t time travel. Or perhaps the idea is born from the understanding that we can only travel in one direction and at a set pace. We are locked in a body with a clock ticking away every day. We don’t know when that clock is going to stop, but we do know it’s ticking.

The mind is a very powerful time machine that directly affects how we perceive time passing. We can slow it down and speed it up. We can use tools to moderate our perception of time like meditation, relaxation and doing things we enjoy. We can speed it up using adrenaline and stress. And yes, we can waste it on things that seem important but on reflection were just distraction. Then there is reflection on distraction that compounds the waste of time but let’s not get stuck in that time loop. There’s a difference to being in the moment and letting moments pass without awareness.

Having explored the unrealistic, I’ve arrived at a rationalisation of time and that helps me get things done in a way that wastes less of it. It’s all relative but perhaps not in the way Einstein explained. One person’s waste of time can be another’s pleasure. Still, to be more in control of how I feel about what I do with my time, given I can’t control time itself or how much of it I have, feels anchoring. What more can we want when we are adrift in a sea of time on a journey of unknown length and destination? 

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere
A near-future pre-apocalyptic novel set 30 years after a climate crisis

I feel terrible about Notre-Dame. It’s a unique architectural wonder that deserves to be preserved. Its place, at the centre of Paris, is more than merely physical. It holds ground in hearts and minds, in literature, in cultural and historical spirituality. Not only valued by those that live in Paris, but by all those around the world that have been drawn to and affected by its qualities.

But it’s a building. It wasn’t always there; it won’t always be there. As money pours in to preserve it, I can’t help but think of the calamities ahead that could be avoided if people could only see that the world is burning also. Just like the spire of Notre-Dame, the Earth is in a precarious state. Yet we continue to fail to act effectively, collectively, globally.

If we can come together to save a cathedral, because many believe it has world value, why then can’t we do the same for the planet we live on? It may seem obvious to point out, but here it is, the world has world value too and you’d really miss it if it weren’t there to underpin everything you do.

By all means, save Notre-Dame. Enjoy it for all the reasons it holds significance. But while we’re at it let’s also save our world, and the many natural and ancient wonders being lost daily, so this wonderful building, and we too, have something lasting to stand on.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

Venturing out for some culture on Sunday afternoon, my partner and I found ourselves at the Nick Cave (artist, not singer) exhibition, ‘Until’, currently being staged at Carriage Works in Everly, Sydney. A fine example of immersive work that raises questions, peaks emotions and disturbs sensibilities.

More disturbing than the artwork however was the intrusion of the mobile phone. We couldn’t walk more than a few steps without running into someone trying to take a selfie, without seeing a tourist tilting head forward, shoulder back with hand on hip or a young couple capturing their happiness to the artistic backdrop.

The exhibition has four different immersive experiences and many patrons seemed to be missing the point by trying to insert themselves into the surroundings, smiling and posting on social media.

Not only was it increasingly frustrating to walk through having to avoid being an accidental photo bomber while people persistently set about recording themselves, but I started to get annoyed on behalf of the artist, his work was, after all, being reduced to a mere backdrop. The point of the exhibition is lost on the vain creatures who fail to observe and are preoccupied with their own image. Ironic given the dark undertones of the exhibition that explores racism and cultural misappropriation. If felt to me that work is being misunderstood and misappropriated as a tool for self-promotion. I guess the benefit to the artist is the inadvertent promotion but is that a fair trade? Is it a given for any artwork to be used in this way if publicly displayed?

One section of the exhibition is a room with multiple projections. The floor an ocean of waves moving over rocks, the walls change from large all-seeing eyes to a questioning of historically inappropriate racial symbols. Yet one young woman seemed to think this was a good place to take sexy videos, contorting her body as best she could with arm reaching out at full extension, faithful camera phone in hand. No shame in the fact that others were in the room wanting to appreciate the artwork, it was suddenly her private backdrop to an array of lurid poses. I’m no prude. I don’t mind a little lurid pose every now and then, but it felt a little yuck seeing an artwork used out of context. 

I walked away muttering a deep discontent for fellow visitors and a little broken hearted for the artist and the organisers of the exhibition, disturbed by the fundamental selfishness of the selfie. I was angry at my fellow humans for their shallowness and lack of consideration, collectively displaying an inability to act with regard for others, not just the artist but other patrons like myself that actually wanted to appreciate the art work and not feel like it’s an intrusion on a photoshoot.

The mobile phone has brought many advantages, but it’s hard not to judge it as a major culprit in the degradation of manners and appropriate social behavior. Perhaps I’m just a cranky middle-aged man looking for things to get annoyed with, but frankly, I wonder if the mobile phone should be prohibited in certain situations where their presence is an intrusion or where my fellow humans are unable to regulate their use.

What do you think? Am I just a cranky misanthrope or do I have a valid point?

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

On this day 35 years ago my grandfather, Sid Sperling, departed this earth. He left behind a loving family, many great memories and an indelible mark on those that knew and loved him. He lived a full and happy life. Along with my grandmother, Essie, a strong bond was created with each of their 11 grandchildren. My life has been underpinned by the strong sense of love, community, compassion and care modelled by these two wonderful people. I don’t just think of Grandpa on this day, the day he left us, I think of Sid and Essie often and feel grateful they were a big part of my childhood. But this time of year inevitably brings these memories to the fore and also makes me think of others who have lost people they held dear. It’s not a sadness I feel, though I miss Sid and I miss Essie. I miss others too, who are no longer here. These precious people who helped build my life, now live with me like characters in a book. Sometimes I see them in dreams, sometimes they are just thoughts that drift across my mind. One day I will be like them, existing as a memory in other people’s minds. No, it’s not sadness I feel. It’s a weird determination that at some future point, when I’m not here to do it in person, that the thought of me will make someone smile. That’s what Sid and Essie have given me. That’s how I remember them. What more could they have hoped to give?

18 December 2018

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

Spoiler Alert: If you have never seen the matrix, be warned the following piece describes pivotal scenes.

There is a moment towards the end of the Matrix that I find compelling to contemplate.

Inside the Matrix, Neo collapses after being showered in bullets. His body in the real world flatlines and it appears that he is dead. Trinity leans in close, her lips to his ear, she tells him to get the hell up. Well, first she tells him that he must be ‘The One’ because the Oracle told her that she would fall in love with ‘The One’ and since she had fallen in love with him then he must be ‘The One’, so he had better get the hell up! She kisses him in the real world and inside the matrix, his avatar (residual self-image) gets the hell up.

The first time I saw ‘The Matrix’ this part really annoyed me. It felt forced and cheesy. On subsequent viewings, I softened as a deeper meaning emerged. What follows when Neo gets up is another wave of bullets, only this time Neo believes he is ‘The One’. He’s taken Trinity’s belief in him, communicated either through her forcefully whispered words or her kiss, and he has converted that into belief in himself. As for the bullets, well they just keep coming. Now Neo[1], sees that he can’t stop the bullets from being fired but he can stop them from harming him. Remember this is a metaphor, real bullets actually kill, but metaphorical ones can drop to the ground. Bullets will keep coming but what Neo is doing is choosing how they affect him.

I entreat you to contemplate this moment by choosing your own metaphor. The bullets could be anxiety, financial stress, a problem relationship, frustrations or other complications in your life. The fact is once you learn to control your response to them that won’t actually stop them coming at you. But their impact on you can and will change.

Buddha described the same idea as arrows turning into flowers. Your mind chooses how you see things and how they will affect you. To me, the film-makers are telling us that we and only we are ‘The One’ in our own lives. It’s only ourselves that can determine how the bullets that life fires at us will impact. Will you be mortally wounded, or will you put up your hand and say ‘No’. There is always a choice to do things differently. We just have to find awareness of the moment and realise our own control of it.

I’m grateful to both the film-makers and my meditation practice for offering the opportunity to look from a different perspective.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

[1] Anagram of One

I like a morning walk. Most days I get up with the sunrise or just before and start the day with a brisk walk. My regular walking track is along parts of the Cooks River. It’s not the cleanest of systems but there’s something to be gained from walking along its paths, listening to the wind blow through the trees, nodding hello to fellow walkers and generally doing something mentally and physically out in the real world, before the digital demands of the day start. It never involves whales.

Recently I ran a blog workshop that happened to be near the coast. Rather than battle peak hour traffic that would take me across various road work and contentious public transport constructions I dashed out early to take my morning walk along the Maroubra headland.

It was bracing at first, surprisingly cold given the recent heat wave, but the freshness of the air and the cool temperature was a welcome relief my body gladly accepted.

As I walked along the headland, down the hill and onto the promenade I began to notice a few groups of people engaged in intense exercise. Strangely their harsh body movements jarred with their intense stares out to sea. Rather than focusing on their exercise, they were entranced in a collective mass distraction.

Naturally, their stares out to sea piqued my interest and I turned to the ocean to see a whale fin breakwater.

A sense of wonder and joy took over me, and I too was now a gawking spectator, disregarding my original purpose, for the sake of spotting a giant sea mammal.

What is it about spotting whales or other sea creatures that so fascinates us? Is it no more than their majestic beauty? They are so fundamentally different to us, yet we share biological systems and life patterns inherent to all mammals. Regardless of how much I might try, that whale will never understand my perspective.

There is both frustration and freedom in that idea. If I were to try and read my blog to him or her, I wouldn’t get too far in communicating my perspective. Conversely, the whale is in no way concerned about what fills my head, what makes my world tick. While enjoying the spectacle and filtering my thoughts through my own narrow view, I realise it places no demands on me.

I breathe in the fresh sea air and feel grateful for this unexpected whale of a time. Simply by swimming by and flipping a tail through the air, this beautiful creature, knowing or unknowingly, has reminded me that there is much in the world that is beyond our understanding and control. Sometimes the best thing to do is just watch and appreciate how lucky we are to be in the right place at the right time.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

I’m a regular listener to podcast ‘This American Life’. This week featured three acts about loneliness and while all three have great merit for very different reasons, I want to tell you about the first one by producer David Kestenbaum. You see Kestenbaum was feeling sad, I mean really sad, because of Fermi’s Paradox. The paradox concerns the high probability of the existence of alien life compared to the fact that we haven’t actually seen any. The paradox evolved from a casual conversation physicist Enrico Fermi had with colleagues while working on the hydrogen bomb in Los Alamos in 1950. When discussing the probability and extreme likelihood of alien life existing, Fermi stated ‘Where is everybody?’.

Kestenbaum become sad, truly sad, because he felt we were alone in the universe. Before turning to journalism Kestenbaum was a Nuclear Physicist. This might explain why Fermi’s Paradox resonated with him, why when he crunched the numbers the great uncertainty made him feel sad. When he raised what he’d been going through at a story meeting all his colleagues laughed. I understood that reaction, I laughed too, but I also really felt for Kestenbaum. He was looking outside the everyday existence of our reality and what he saw was a lonely lonely planet in the vastness of space. In the podcast, he turns to other physicists to discuss the issue and help with his feelings.

What Kestenbaum’s journey made me feel was not so much a sense of loneliness but a strange glimmer of hope. It seems terribly strange to me that our species, locked on this small blue ball, continues to be so horrible to each other and to the other living creatures we share this world with. Of course, on top of that, we are also extremely hostile to the very planet that makes our lives possible. I’m getting to the glimmer of hope, trust me, but first…

Is there other life in the universe?

In exploring all the possible options around the existence of alien life my mind was led to one question. First here are some of the options;

  • There are alien civilisations, but they are too far away
  • They are inherently like us i.e. self-destructive
  • They are so much smarter than us that they simply choose to stay away because we are dangerous
  • They are only microbes
  • They existed in the past
  • They will exist in the future
  • It’s just a matter of time until worlds collide (not literally)
  • Over the vastness of time and the distance of the universe all the above possibilities are also realities.

Glimmer of hope

Finally, here is my glimmer of hope. Will it take alien life, be it aggressive or benevolent, breathtakingly advanced or microscopic in nature, to make us finally realise we are all on the same side? Will proof of the existence of life on other planets pull us out of our collective funk, make us celebrate our diversity and our commonality? Not in a way that means we have to defend ourselves but perhaps more in a way that we like to project when we send probes into space that celebrate humanity. If only we could take on our ‘greatest hits’ that play on the Voyager probe’s golden record and drop all the other crap, we might just be a species that other life in the universe would want to get to know.

Perhaps Fermi’s right, but who really knows…certainly not us at this point in time.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

 

PS. The other two stories featuring Ester Perel and an equally amazing young girl who attempts to connect with her father are both compelling. They give me hope we are aliens worthy of knowing.
Here is a link to the show.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/617/fermis-paradox

One of my earliest memories is of the thought of my own mortality. The pink tiles in the upstairs bathroom, glistening from the steam of the bath, breathing in the hot air, feeling the warm water on my skin. Then goosebumps rising quickly as I’m lifted from the water and covered in a towel. Patted down and dried then left to stand in front of the bar heater. Its searing coils radiating warmth through the room. Then the thoughts. What will happen to me when I die. Will I remember being me? Will I continue in some way forever or will I simply cease to be?

Someone must have said something to me, one of my pragmatic, matter of fact parents. ‘You’ll live, then you’ll die. You’ll grow old first, so don’t worry.’ They were brought up by parents ensconced in faith. My grandparents may or may not have believed in the faith they were raised in, but tradition held great sway in their lives. It structured their activities, with a sense of obligation, community and natural compassion that was beyond faith. They truly cared for people and that is what drove them. My parents abandoned the religion and the tradition, but not the compassion. They favoured logic and rational thought which also gave rise to a fundamental respect for others.

So, when my 3-year-old self, asked about death I was told about death. I wasn’t pampered into thinking there was some kind of paradise waiting for me beyond this life and neither was I told that if I was bad I would spend an eternity being tortured in a fiery pit. Nevertheless, those ideas crept into my worldview by nature of the broader culture I grew up in, through TV, movies, school and my friendships with people from different backgrounds.

Fear sits at the heart of ignorance. When you are young, and you don’t know any better it’s easy to be scared of what you don’t know. For some, faith assuages fear and for others, it inflames it. Despite my parents’ pragmatism, I felt fearful of what I did not know. And rather than scaring me into belief, ideas of purgatory ultimately inflamed my sense of injustice. Armed with rational thought I gained the confidence to not fear unknowns outside my own experience. Rational thinking instilled by my parents told me that no one really knows anything. They only profess to know. They may declare their theory as fact, with heartfelt conviction, but uncertainty lies at the heart of all supposition.

Uncertainty might create fear for some but it helps me define what is truly important. Faith may be a driver of good deeds and bring fulfilment to many, but rational thought can also lead an individual to realise fundamental truths. For me, compassion is at the core of my outlook and my decision making. Doing no harm is logical to me. I can see it’s derived from a moment in my past where I knew nothing, where all I felt was the warmth of the room around me and the love of my parents. Enveloped in a snug towel, after a warm bath, I’m not entirely sure why my young mind leapt to the idea of mortality. Perhaps because it was such a beautiful moment and I didn’t want it to end and at some level sensed how transient and therefore how very precious it was.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

I woke to find the shimmering light of Artemis dancing into my room. My brain constructing complicated scenarios in a wistfully precise language I know I’ll never capture, the only audience will be my half-conscious mind.

I realise the foundation of this dream was a game. Fearing my son’s addiction to a new first-person shooter I investigated and got myself addicted too. Now I battle it out nightly, collecting weapons, fending off attacks and aiming to survive. The dream scenario would appeal to other gamers. It’s layered with pathos, understanding and steeped in visual and metaphoric references.

In dreaming about the game I realise the level of my addiction and come to an impasse. I must accept that the game has a place in my life for the moment and make appropriate time for it. Shape it into a useful and fun exploit that gives relief from my daily concerns. Much the same way I’ve incorporated a love of movies, reading and chocolate. Or I could opt for the alternative, cold turkey.

Perhaps yet a third option exists, the ability to extract the fundamentals of my dream and shape it into something gamers such as my son might appreciate. If only it were not held within the constraints of my Luna induced dreams.

It’s after 3 am and the influence of Artemis may well have peaked. My mind is turning to the consequences of insomnia. I hear a cat outside. Perhaps two. Are they wailing at the moon in their own way as I am by committing these words to electrons? Perhaps one option is to take a feline approach. Embrace the early hours of the day and find a nice sunny spot later and curl up to recover. If only my human life permitted such indulgences. Artemis, casting her presence with her silvery light through my window is telling me it can.

Who am I to argue?

3:44 am
28 February 2018

 

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

P.S. Forgive if this post makes no sense in sunlight. It was meant for moonbeams.

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