notes & news, November 2024

dailies special: Waking up

6 November 2024

Over the next weeks, I will publish scenes from the books I am presently working on: book 3/1 & 3/2, shaping. These scenes will only appear on the front page for a day or two until the next scene gets some airing.

In a few cases, a scene might get a spot on the notes & news page, like this one.

‘Welcome back to our livestream,’ Mudiwa said into the camera, smiling. ‘We are in the courtyard of the Front House just as the international team get ready for their concert. The crowds are buzzing, and with us now is Bülent Hamdi, author and husband, as he told us. Bülent, thank you so much for your time.’
‘It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me.’
(…) Facing the camera, Mudiwa said: ‘While Bülent is not a member of the town project team, he contributes as an author, and this afternoon, his new play: Waking up, will premiere in our theatre, here in the Front House. Bülent, what can you tell us about the play?’
Bülent knitted his dark bushy brows. ‘Our planet is in trouble. It’s dying and with it we die. But even though scientists have substantiated this trajectory with their research, many are still in denial, many still live in their personal bubbles and look away. Waking up, the play, is about gently nudging people to see their bubble and to dare leave it. What will they see? How will they feel when the whole disaster we and our ancestors have inflicted upon our planet and upon ourselves overwhelms them? Hope enters the stage when the pain, frustration and anger about the state of our world turns into determination to reshape and restore it. And somewhere on that road we begin to understand that everything is connected, and that we can save ourselves if we all wake up, if we connect to each other and to our planet.’
‘Strong words,’ Mudiwa said. ‘But how can someone who is in denial wake up?’
Bülent smiled a little. ‘By knowing that it’s safe to wake up. By knowing that waking up is not about blaming or about telling someone what a fool they have been but about coming together. By knowing that our actions can make a difference. By knowing that we are not the only ones who leave the bubble, but that waking up is something we do together.’

6 November 2024

Reaction – US election

I had a pleasant morning, completing another editing round for book 3/1, shaping, deliberately staying offline.

But then it was time for a look at the news, and when I saw the results of the US election, I thought: OK, now that the show is over, we can focus on the important issues again. Actually, to be honest, my first thought was: Who doesn’t like a good challenge?

It is tempting to give room to frustration, anger, anxiety, desperation. And I’m not entirely sure why I feel so calm about all of this. Maybe I’m in shock and just don’t know it, yet. Though, there is so much absurdity in what’s happening across the pond, I find it difficult to take it seriously. But I will.

Here is the thing: As far as I know, there is not a single government on this planet who does a good job or who is prepared to take the steps we urgently need to take to stop ourselves and our planet from collapsing completely.

For me that means, we can’t wait for a government to take steps anyway. It is for us to explore every possible way of making a difference, of getting the necessary discussions more widely going, of bridging divides, of understanding the urgency of our situation and acting accordingly, of creating the kind of visions, stories and narratives which inspire us, of addressing our fears and finding our courage.

Saying this, I also don’t know of a single human we don’t need to do their bit in rethinking, reshaping and restoring our planet – including all governments, all billionaires, all thugs.

We are way past the point where we can afford sides, pointing fingers, national interests, divides, bickering, bragging, dominance, competition, superiority complexes, inferiority complexes, arrogance, condescension and the like. Actually none of these attitudes ever served us.

And that’s the good news: humans are amazing creatures, we can come together, we are naturally curious, we like to create together, we like to get things moving and done.

There is not a single good reason why we should exploit or demean each other. There is every reason to get to know each other, to recognise each other’s talents and to reshape our world in every respect: how we deal with each other, how we build, how we do business, how we restore our planet, what we accept and what we don’t accept and in all other respects.

Charlie Alice Raya, 6 November 2024

Featured – We need trust

We need trust is part of the collection The end of all wars. I wrote in at a time when I was trying to get to terms with someone’s response. I thought, maybe the response was what it was because we don’t trust each other enough to express what needs to be said. And the more I thought about it the more I wondered whether that isn’t one of the big points which keep us from reshaping our world. We don’t trust each other. But we need trust to get anything done.

We need trust, video & download

Featured – The big clean-up

Is a fitting short story draft published on the website: The end of all wars >

You might have missed

US election specials

‘True power — if you think about God — true power is in creation, not in destruction, oppression or tyranny. A true and powerful leader will create not destroy.’

You came to conquer.
I came to create.

You came to rule, oppress, dictate.

I came to unearth and empower.

You came to profit, exploit, degrade.

I came to see humans
and nature
thrive.

I am a creator of worlds.
I make them alive.

You only know destruction.

The human is a creative creature. Take that away,
and you take away an essential part of being human.

With every narrative, we can ask: What is this narrative’s record? Does this narrative serve us? Is there a more beneficial narrative?

‘I thought politicians were stuck in kindergarten. Turns out they’re still in the nursery.’

This was just a last trick, something to make Alice understand that the world wasn’t ready for the simple solutions. The world didn’t do simple. It had its pride.

The watcher is a reminder that humans will only progress if and when they strive to understand what it is they are doing, and when they ask themselves why they are doing it.

book 2/2, travelling, Otaon

‘For fucks sake,’ Alice yelled over the hubbub of agitated voices, inwardly recoiling from the strange sound of her yelling voice. But she kept going, trying to keep a tiny part of her listening to Lee: You can be the master of your anger. You can will it to do what you need it to do.
Her yell got her a few seconds of attention, but then the shouts threatened to start again, and Alice continued with an angry yet clear voice: ‘For fucks sake. Don’t you see that this is not about you? This is not about what you believe, or fear, or want. This is not about politics, interests, religions, nations, economies or any other narrative we have created. This is about the people of planet Earth. AND WE FUCKED UP. WE FAILED. WE MESSED OURSELVES, OUR FELLOW HUMANS AND OUR HABITAT UP. And it’s time that we faced that and stopped bickering about ideologies, philosophies, politics, us and them, women and men, traditions and progress, technology and freedom, good and evil, gods and devils. None of these are going to help us. We can only help ourselves and work together to sort out the mess we and our ancestors inflicted upon each other and upon this planet. And we don’t have fifty years to get there. We failed to take action when action would have been a piece of cake compared to how much we need to redo and rethink now. We can’t afford divides, we can’t afford interests, we can’t afford screwing each other. But we can — for once get our priorities right, get rid of destructive narratives, and start over.’

A lot of the human mess can be traced back to humans who have answers. Answers keep people from asking questions, from exploring. Answers bring about divides. Answers make people judge and patronise others. The only thing answers are good for is to serve as a bridge between one question and the next. Though, sometimes an answer has to serve for a while, in which case it becomes something like a waiting room. But if someone insists on an answer being infinite, then the waiting room turns into a prison.

book 3/3, shaping, where do we go from here & decisions

‘Profit?’ Tom sneered. ‘Do you even know the meaning of the word?’
‘Yes!’ Alice shot back. ‘It means earning more than you need. And we use that money to build local communities and more business networks to create ripple effects which empower the people of this planet. YES, we share our profits instead of speculating with them on the stock markets or hoarding them so we can feel important.’

The world doesn’t want to be saved. It loves fantasies about superheroes and alien invasions, but it refuses to accept its own power.

Does a leader really have to be a loud and corrupt schemer who dreams of being the coolest kid on the world stage? Does a leader have to be a bully or a warmonger? Does a leader have to be an autocrat or a peacock? Does a leader really need a platform and be elevated? Or are there alternatives? Should leadership be about power at all? Or could leadership be about actual leading, the kind of leading that is based on searching for solutions with experts and on testing ideas before implementing them?’

There is no sense in destruction.
There is no sense in dominance.
Dominance is a form of destruction.

‘I take a very simple attitude towards the so-called elite. If they were great and clever people, we wouldn’t be in all this mess.’

‘Perhaps children need a certain degree of conflict to learn how to relate to each other, how to bond, how to sense and respect the other’s boundaries.’
‘Oh, my! Maybe that’s where conflict has its natural root — and its place: in childhood where we need conflicts to learn about ourselves and about others.’
Several of us began to chuckle and one of us said: ‘Are we really suggesting that our people, our nations, are trapped in their childhoods? That we go to war because we never grew up?’

US election specials

Views from around the universe

Strictly fictional statements by the people of the planets of the universe on the following topics:

leader, a

These entries are back home on the website: The end of all wars, leader, a >

human, the

These entries are back home on the website The end of all wars, human, The >

strongman, the

These entries are back home on the website The end of all wars, strongman, The >

You can still watch watch the strongman video on this website >

news & notes

2 November 2024

Today’s notes

By the bloody rivers of my veins, I can’t believe that I forgot to celebrate my 1 year breastless anniversary, which was on 27 October 2024.

There is still some muscle to be built, but I am very happy with my new chest which is now more than a year old and doesn’t feel new at all. (Insert a broad smile.) Maybe I’ll do a little dance tonight.

Yoga, cold shower, Nordic Walking

Since October was a bit wobbly, I decided to give my health a bigger priority again. At home my go-to yoga videos are Yoga with Adrienne. She offers ten 30 days practices, and I just restarted the one from last year. I like that I can just go day by day and that the practices build on each other. And I like to start and close the day with a 20-30 min practice.

Cold shower is something I discovered last year. For me, the trick was to build up the cold exposure slowly and to make breathing part of the process to calm my body and to will it not to flinch. There are other people who can explain this much better than me.

Nordic Walking is another pillar for most days. I remember swearing to myself that I would never walk around with those silly sticks. But then I learned in rehab that you can train up to 90% of you muscles with Nordic Walking – and that got me to break my oath. Also, I actually enjoy it, and it makes sure I get some fresh air.

Veggie month

My eating habits have improved vastly since May 2023, but as I slipped back into overwork last month, I also slipped back into some unhealthy eating habits.

My theory is that I am still not used enough to whole foods to stick with them even in times of intense work. That’s why I decided to have a veggie month and take the time to explore vegetables and all the meals I can create with them. I hope that by getting more used to all sorts of different vegetables, it will become a habit to choose them over processed foods.

By the bloody rivers in my veins

Some years ago, I began to wonder about swearwords and the deeper I dug the more I realised that while I don’t want to forgo swearing, I really don’t want to swear with sex-related, religion-related, stinking-body-fluids-related or offensive words. But it was only in the book: The end of all wars, that I finally used some new swearwords: By the bloody rivers in (or of) my veins and my new favourite Bloody abyss!

There might be a discussion about swearwords and more new words in book 4/2 and/or 4/3.

Book 3/1, shaping, publication

For those of you who missed the announcement, I changed the publication dates for book 3 and book 4/1.

The new publication dates

28 November 2024 – book 3/1, shaping
16 December 2024 – book 3/2, shaping
15 February 2024 – book 3/3, shaping
17 February 2024 – book 4/1, building

My main objective for publishing parts of book 3, shaping, this year is to make the Christmas chapter in book 3/2 available this Christmas for everyone who struggle with that day.

Since book 3/1, shaping, ends on Halloween, I wanted to publish it on that day. But at some point, I had to concede that I was running myself back into overwork and that I had to slow down. That’s why book 3/1, shaping, will now be published at the end of November. This will also allow me to give it a final read after I have completed an updated draft for book 3/2.

Halloween fun

For those of you who missed the Halloween fun, you can find a variation of it in the October notes & news.

This is all from me for today. Have a great day.

If you have any comments, requests, suggestion or questions or if you’d like to join me for one of the projects, please, get in touch: contact@charlie-alice-raya.org.

Charlie Alice Raya, 2 November 2024

PS: Tonight’s evening sky, and, yes, I danced!

The first day of a new month

1 November 2024

Today’s notes

In Berlin, November started with a grey sky and tonight it’s raining. Is it strange that humans tend to be influenced by the weather, by the sun, or its absence?

In book 3/3, shaping, Alice asks: ‘Kahu, is there a story about why some people feel such a hunger for sunshine and bathe in it for the pure sensation of being touched by its beams?’ You can read the answers on the website: The end of all wars.

After the Halloween fun, yesterday, where I used red as background colour, I decided to lighten November, a little, by occasionally using different background colours.

This November I want to focus on several things: getting stronger, being disciplined about wrapping my days at 21:21, at the latest (yes, I like funny numbers), inventing more vegetable dishes, completing book 3/1 and preparing a final draft for book 3/2, choosing my steps for December and preparing them, and when the weather allows, adding more videos. In the videos I will pick up ideas from the books and discuss them, and also give introductions to the easy town projects, to campaign ideas and to my offers for talks, sessions and workshops. Plus, I might tape my first challenges.

It’s a handful. But I hope that my excitement about my plans for December, and all the different background colours on this website, will see me through this months with smiles and progress to report.

I wish you a good start into November and a month which brings you pleasant surprises, courage and joy.

Charlie Alice Raya, 1 November 2024

October 2024

Presently, I publish notes and news on two websites, most of them here and some more on the website: The end of all wars.

For October notes & news, see these links:

news & notes October 2024, Charlie Alice Raya.org >

news & notes October 2024, The end of all wars >