Chris Gill

Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Living in London in 2012

In Personal, Politics on December 16, 2012 at 5:40 pm

London Sunrise

From the Olympic Games to my own career, I look back at the highs and lows of London life in 2012

2012 has truly been a year to remember for London. Whether it was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in the spring or the Olympic Games over the summer, there have been many reasons to celebrate this year.

After the London riots that took place in 2011, the city was undoubtedly in need of a good year to follow. Many feared that the scenes of destruction would put tourists off visiting for the Olympic Games, however this definitely didn’t turn out to be the case.

2012 has been my second full year living in England’s capital, and it’s definitely been my best to date. It’s been the first year since moving here back in the summer of 2010 that I’ve really started to understand how the whole place works. I guess it’s finally starting to feel like a home.

Perhaps the general mood of the city this year has played a big part in this adjustment. Although I would hardly consider myself a royalist, the atmosphere in London during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in spring was certainly uplifting.

That community feeling I had yet to experience in London occurred yet again when the much-anticipated Olympic Games finally arrived. I am in no way a fan of sport or competiveness, but always of unity and togetherness. Thankfully this feeling is exactly what London 2012 managed to achieve.

Finally, it was announced at the beginning of this month that the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton is pregnant with her first child. The news, which came just over a year and a half after her wedding, excited people all across the world.

Low points

Of course, with the highs there must always come the lows; and London has definitely had its fair share this year. The coalition government has continued to receive mass scrutiny for its decisions, while the country’s economy seems to have gone from bad to worse.

Meanwhile, Australian activist, journalist and founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange has been living inside the Ecuadorian embassy since June, with UK police waiting outside to arrest him.

He was granted political asylum by the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patiño. Patiño stated his concern that Assange might be extradited to the US, which could lead to his execution following the leaking of many confidential diplomatic cables.

I find it sad that someone who has fought so hard to expose corruption and lies has basically been imprisoned for fear of his own life. I also find it sad that it is here in London that he is trapped; a city that is meant to stand for diversity and freedom.

Even the year’s final piece of good news has sadly been laced with negativity, following Kate Middleton being rushed into hospital with morning sickness. The nurse who answered the phone to two Australian DJs playing a prank call was found hanged three days later, leaving her husband and two children behind.

Professional rollercoaster

2012 has also been a year filled with ups and downs on a personal scale. For the first half of the year I continued to work at the fashion company that had given me my first editorial break. I had such high hopes for my development within this company, as well as the direction it was moving in.

Early in the year our CEO, a woman highly established within the fashion industry who I respect immensely, presented us with her three-year vision for the company during an “away morning” at the top of the skyscraper we worked in.

Once we had heard the speech, we all went back down to our desks feeling incredibly motivated and inspired. I remember thinking how rare it must be to have such a clear goal laid ahead, and how enjoyable it would be trying to reach it.

However on that very same day, the huge high was followed by a hard-hitting low. By the afternoon, everyone was called into a room where a corporate-looking man stood in a formal grey suit clasping a single sheet of paper. He had a stern look on his face and his words were cold.

The man read out a message from the company’s owner, stating that our current CEO would no longer be working at the company from that moment forward. He gave no explanation, but said that from tomorrow it would be “business as usual.”

Everybody walked back to their desks in complete shock. Not even the team leaders, like my editor or the art director, had been made aware that this would be happening. We had gone from a morning feeling on top of the world, to being in the gutter by the afternoon.

After this, my time at this particular company was never the same again. Rumours began circling, and one by one several other team leaders in the business either jumped or were pushed.

Looking ahead

Thankfully by September I landed myself a similar role in an ecommerce team for an established fashion brand, which I am thoroughly enjoying. I feel like I have finally received recognition for all the hard work I have put in.

Strangely enough my previous CEO, who had been so insolently discarded from the company, is also now working at this brand. It’s funny how things turn out in the world of business.

Meanwhile I released my debut book of poetry Verses on Kindle, relaunched this website which has now reached over 40,000 views and am coming to the end of my next exciting project that I am planning to release next year.

As we bid farewell to another year and get ready to welcome the next, as always it’s essential that we learn from our experiences both on a personal and wider social scale.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and hopeful 2013.

Home

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Holidays are Coming

In Arts & Culture, Personal on November 18, 2012 at 5:05 pm

With retailers pulling on our heartstrings more than ever this Christmas, will we forget what really matters and max out our credit cards instead?

It’s that time of year again. The Coca-Cola ad has been shown and the High Street has become a war zone; the countdown to another Christmas has begun.

Now I really don’t want to come across as Scrooge, I love the idea of family and friends getting together as much as the next person, but we all know that’s not what it’s really about. Christmas is the time for businesses to launch colossal campaigns that urge us all to spend our hard-earned cash.

And oh, how they pull on our heart-strings to do this. Every television advertisement by every High Street retailer plays like a mini movie, packed full of drama and emotion.

According to Marketing Week, etailers are steering away from traditional advertising this year, concentrating “purely on price and product… and opting for high impact campaigns to convey the emotion of the festive season…” This might sound joyous, but surely we can see through their trickery?

Consumption countdown

As a copywriter by day, I know all about these campaigns. In my industry, the build up to Christmas actually starts as soon as summer ends, meaning I’m completely exasperated with the concept by the time the real countdown begins.

These campaigns consist of developing a “hook”, and ultimately figuring out the easiest and most effective way to get consumers to part with their cash.

So I guess it begs the question, what does Christmas actually mean to you? Of course we all know what Christmas is really about, whether we grew up in a religious household or not. But how many of us even believe in God, let alone consider the festive season as Jesus Christ’s birthday?

The fact is, the vast majority of people that I know or have known are not Christians, but would always celebrate Christmas. Like many other holidays throughout the year, the meaning is insignificant and they are almost celebrated out of habit.

But that’s not to say Christmas is a completely negative thing. Looking back at my own childhood, Christmas was always a special time filled with happiness, despite not having a huge family or particularly religious one.

Picture-perfect Christmas

Of course what my sister and I looked forward to on a superficial level, like so many other children, was waking up on Christmas morning with a pile of presents sitting under the tree. I remember writing my list to Santa year after year like nothing else mattered in the world. And at that point, it didn’t.

Of course looking back now, the moments that really stand out in my mind are the ones where I shared happy moments with my family. Going to pick the tree up with my dad, sitting round the table for Christmas dinner and then going for a walk in the snow with our dog.

At this stage, marketing campaigns crafted by big corporations would have meant nothing to me. At least on a conscious level anyway.

But what pains me now as an adult, as I watch the emotional advertisements each retailer has created, is that that pretty picture of a happy nuclear family is exploited and used thoughtlessly. Not simply because my own family live far enough away for us not to spend every festive season together, but for the friends I now have who have never even experienced this picture-perfect Christmas.

See, the ads that John Lewis and Debenhams spew out each year don’t seem to consider those who grew up in broken homes, or even no homes at all. Let alone all the people who don’t even celebrate Christmas due to their religion.

This is why as each year goes by, I think less and less about those happy childhood memories I have at Christmas, and more about how alienating and corporate it is.

Then there are all those people shopping with the same blank stare. It’s like a virus, where once someone is infected their eyes glaze over like a zombie and they need to get their shopping fix for survival.

Of course, with the economy being as it has been these last few years, companies are even more desperate to get us to spend. This is why it was hardly surprising to hear Christmas music playing in shops as far back as Halloween.

So what can we do to avoid being brainwashed? The country needs us to spend and we all need to buy for friends and family who celebrate Christmas like it’s a lifelong routine.

My advice would be to tune out of all the advertisements, stop buying the Starbucks red cups and focus on spending time with the people that really matter.

After all, we all come to realise sooner or later that time is the greatest gift of all.

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Return of the Gentleman

In Arts & Culture, Fashion on October 21, 2012 at 2:17 pm

Menswear Gentleman Trend AW12

Menswear has paid tribute to its past in recent seasons, but can the same be said for men’s values?

Over the past year or so, I have really begun to notice a shift in the way men are dressing. Guys are trading their standard jeans and t-shirts for sharp tailoring, even in casual environments. Could this be the start of a resurgence of the gentleman?

Of course, working in the fashion industry allowed me to see signs of this sartorial restoration quite a few seasons ago. However as we all know, what’s being sent down the runways doesn’t always translate to the high street; this is particularly the case when it comes to menswear.

This trend is different from many others though, in the sense that it goes beyond being just a trend altogether. The dandy approach to dressing harks back to simpler days gone by when men were well-mannered, witty, intelligent, well groomed and culturally aware.

I’m not saying that I fully support the whole “when men were men” notion. I would always consider myself a feminist, and feel that chivalry is something that should work both ways. However, there are definitely situations where we could learn a lot from our history.

What seemed to happen, both in and outside of fashion, is men lost sight of how far they had evolved as a gender. Whether it’s through primitive aggression, ignorant view points or taking no interest in their appearance, men are often stereotyped in society for all the wrong reasons.

So how did this happen? How is it that our forefathers often overshadow our generation of men when it comes to being well-respected members of society? Perhaps we’ve got so caught up in desperately trying to prove ourselves and our masculinity to one another that all these values have been made redundant. Surely a gentleman knows himself well enough to not care what other people think?

Fearing the Femme Fatale

Around the same time the gentleman disappeared from society, women experienced a revolution. No longer just the objects of their husbands, the feminist movement in all its many shapes and forms allowed women to fight against the hands of patriarchy so they could finally have their voices heard.

This process, although incredibly overdue and necessary, undoubtedly had a huge affect on the male ego. Perhaps the entire lad culture is a form of retaliation against the liberation women have continued to experience throughout the years.

Although patriarchy is still more than present in modern day society, one area in which women have always managed to enjoy freedom is fashion. Looking back in time, men once donned everything from top hats to tail coats, as well as all sorts of accessories. Today, the limitations seem to only allow a shirt and tie for formal occasions and a hoodie and jeans for the weekend.

Metro Man

In November 1994, the term metrosexual was coined in an article by English journalist Mark Simpson, who wrote:

“In the Eighties he [the metrosexual man] was only to be found inside fashion magazines such as GQ, in television advertisements for Levi’s jeans or in gay bars. In the Nineties, he’s everywhere and he’s going shopping.”

And so was born the metrosexual, a straight man with gay attributes who normally lives in an urban environment and who cares a lot about his grooming and appearance. The description seemed to portray a type of man who was defying the lad culture that went on to become popularised throughout the 90s.

More recently in 2011, Simpson spoke again about metrosexuality in his eBook Metrosexy – A 21st Century Self-Love Story. In this he argues the enormous impact of metrosexuality on our ideas of masculinity and femininity:

“Contrary to what you have been told, metrosexuality is not about flip-flops and facials, man-bags or manscara. Or about men becoming ‘girlie’ or ‘gay’. It’s about men becoming everything. To themselves. In much the way that women have been for some time. It’s the end of the sexual division of bathroom and bedroom labour. It’s the end of sexuality as we’ve known it.”

Although this concept might sound liberating to many, there’s no denying that metrosexuality has negative connotations within society. With everyone from footballers such as David Beckham to the male cast of reality TV show The Only Way is Essex falling into the metrosexual stereotype, the look seems a million light-years away from the classic gentleman.

Suave Spirit

Whether you allow yourself to be pigeonholed or not, the way we act and present ourselves at any age has a huge effect on the other people that surround us in society. Perhaps a return to the classic gentleman look, and some of his values with contemporary updates, can only be a good thing.

We need to reach a point in society where no matter your sex or sexuality, anyone can hold the door open for anyone else. Label it dandyism or metrosexuality; I just call it good manners.

So whether you apply the tailoring trend to your wardrobe or not, the spirit of the gentleman (or gentlewoman) can be channelled by us all; and will never go out of style.

, , , , , , , ,

Singin’ ’bout a Revolution

In News, Personal, Politics on September 17, 2012 at 8:53 pm

Russian punk group Pussy Riot reignites the flame for protest music, despite Putin’s attempts to extinguish it

Last week’s news that Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev has called for the three imprisoned members of punk band Pussy Riot to be freed from their sentence is an enormous leap in a positive direction. However, it could be argued that there is still a long way to go before Russia will be free.

Medvedev’s comments, amongst which that further time in prison for the young women would be “unproductive”, could potentially signal the approaching release of the band members, whose case comes up for appeal on October 1st.

Unless you followed the Curiosity rover to Mars over the summer, you were most probably made aware of Pussy Riot’s controversial case that had everyone from Madonna to the Red Hot Chili Peppers expressing their disapproval.

However in case you didn’t hear, here’s a reminder of the notorious story.

Three members of the Russian feminist punk band, Pussy Riot were arrested after performing a rebellious prayer inside Moscow’s main cathedral, asking the Virgin Mary to rescue Russia from its president, Vladimir Putin.

The courageous young activists spent more than five months in jail before they were convicted last month of “hooliganism driven by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison.

The imprisonment of the women provoked global uproar, leading to the ever-growing concerns over Putin’s supposed power-hungry ways.

“I love Russia, but I hate Putin,” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova from the band told a German weekly magazine in a handwritten answer to questions submitted to her through her lawyer.

Tolokonnikova, who is considered the leader of the group, also added that she wants to see a revolution in Russia.

“The Putin system… does not belong in the 21st century,” she wrote, “it is much more reminiscent of primitive societies or the dictatorial regimes of the past.”

Which Side are You On?

What’s interesting about this story is that the majority of Russians express support for their leader when speaking online. They believe Putin has changed the country for the better, especially when compared to his predecessors and contemporaries.

However, searching the web for this sort of information is of course not always the most reliable source – particularly in an age when many of the world’s countries push for mass censorship when it comes to the internet.

When I was in Portugal earlier this month, I got talking to a young Russian journalist/film director, who was visiting the country to explore potential shoot locations. Infectiously funny and extremely interesting, the woman spoke with me for hours about everything from favourite independent films to the state of the planet’s environment and economies.

Before we got to all of that however, one of the first things I brought up was Pussy Riot. Although keen to discuss the topic, the woman looked almost embarrassed that this is one of the first things someone from another country would think of when talking about her homeland.

I felt bad and instantly apologised, but she assured me that my reaction wasn’t unique. According to her, this is all anyone from the outside world wants to talk about right now regarding Russia.

I explained to her that if anything, she should feel extremely proud that this passionate group of women has managed to capture the world’s attention, despite the controversial way that they achieved it.

As much as I agree that a church should be respected and that there are other, less offensive ways to get a point across, we are sadly living in desperate times. If this is what it takes for such a poignant message to be heard by the rest of the world – then so be it.

Songs of Freedom

Aside from the fact that it’s great to see young women defending and honouring feminism, particularly in a country many would argue is still governed by patriarchy, it is also refreshing to see a return of protest music.

We first saw signs of this a few years back when Rage Against the Machine’s anthemic track Killing in the Name beat one of Simon Cowell’s manufactured popstars to the Christmas number one spot, following an enormous online campaign. This thirst for change and rebellion was both encouraging and unexpected.

Whatever your view on Pussy Riot’s controversial actions, there’s no denying the fact that sentencing these young women to two years of imprisonment is an extreme reaction that comes across both injudicious and defensive.

It puts into perspective simple privileges we take for granted, that certain areas of the world are still fighting for – such as freedom of speech. But as always, no matter how it sounds, music proves to be the universal language that unites us all together.

And seeing as Pussy Riot’s chorus is one that speaks of freedom and liberation, it’s one that we should all be singing along to.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

They Came from the Sky

In Science, Technology on August 12, 2012 at 5:14 pm

Ancient Aliens

NASA’s Curiosity reignites hope for extraterrestrial life, but does age-old evidence suggest that we have been visited already?

Recent news that NASA’s Curiosity rover had successfully landed on Mars sparked over-night global interest in the possibilities of space discovery.

The car-sized vehicle landed on the red planet last Monday after an epic nine-month voyage across 350,000,000 miles, and has since sent high-resolution colour images from the planet’s Gale crater back to earth.

Curiosity’s objectives include determining any evidence that could prove whether life has existed – or still does exist – on Mars.

So what better time to discuss and debate the potentials of life outside of our own planet?

Ancient Aliens

One theory I have been fascinated with for some time now is the suggestion that extraterrestrial beings once visited the Earth and influenced the development of human cultures, religions and technologies.

Absurd as it initially sounds, there is actually an enormous amount of potential evidence that supports the ancient astronauts theory, most of which comes from studying archaeological artefacts and looking at how religious teachings might have been misinterpreted throughout history.

Swiss author Erich von Däniken was a pioneering advocate of this theory in the late 60s and early 70s, causing mass controversy through the release of his best-selling book, Chariots of the Gods?

In this book von Däniken argues that many artifacts and monumental constructions, such as Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza, would have required far more sophisticated technologies to be created than what actually existed at the time.

The book also claims that much of the ancient art and iconography that has been discovered in different parts of the world displays these otherworldly beings coming down from the sky, whether in chariots, flying boats or on dragons.

Von Däniken, and many modern day supporters of the ancient astronauts theory, suggest that ancient civilisations depicted real events that were occurring in a way that they could comprehend at the time.

Therefore, a spaceship that projected fire could have easily been recorded in ancient China as a fire-breathing dragon. Or extraterrestrials making contact from other galaxies could have been interpreted as angels from heaven in Christian societies.

Von Däniken interprets many religions as reactions to encounters with an alien race that, according to him, helped humans move from primitive cavemen to a more sophisticated species.

Sound like nonsense to you? You’re not alone, as many critics have argued that von Däniken’s theories are based on misrepresented data and pseudoscience.

However the author is not alone with his theories, and there have been many others put forward that could be considered as far more extreme.

Shape of the Spirits

Many ancient cultures, particularly in Egyptian and Mayan societies, performed acts of cranial deformation that led to humans having an elongated skull shape. Significant historical figures such as King Tutankhamen and Queen Nefertiti are often depicted with these elongated heads.

It is argued that this bizarre occurrence could have been aimed at creating a skull shape that was more aesthetically pleasing at the time. For instance in the Nahai-speaking area of Tomman Island, a person with an elongated head was thought to be more intelligent and “closer to the world of the spirits.”

Some advocates of the ancient astronauts theory believe that many of these civilisations were actually imitating beings from another world. Some even believe that the elongated skulls that have been found belonged to these extraterrestrials.

So what if there was some truth behind these controversial theories? We would then be faced with countless other questions like, why did they come? Will they return? Have they returned already?

Going around in Circles

Many supporters of the ancient aliens theory believe we are still being contacted today, for instance in the form of crop formation.

There have been many sightings throughout history of what could today be described as crop circles, however the most documented cases have been occurring since the 1970s.

Two hoaxers claimed authorship of crop circles found throughout England in 1991, and since then many others have come forward to say the same thing. However many still believe that crop formation is either linked to communication from other beings, or even other realms.

Another suggestion from advocates of the ancient astronauts theory, is that earth was actually visited from beings from another time. Therefore, these beings might actually be humans from the future travelling back in time.

Although this concept sounds far-fetched, one interesting piece of potential evidence is that most of the ancient art and iconography found across the world presents us with humanoids that came down from the sky.

These beings usually have two arms, two legs and a head, although with slight physical differences that could be put down to future evolution.

The argument that we are ancestors of our own future selves is almost too much to comprehend, although infinitely thought-provoking.

When it comes to the concept of ancient astronauts, the most important thing is to keep an open mind. I’m not saying that I’m a firm believer of the theory, however I also think stranger ideas have been put forward and are still perceived to be true in modern society.

Sadly, it is often humanity’s arrogance that suggests we must be the only life in our universe, or simply mankind’s fear of the unknown and things that we cannot understand.

However in honour of NASA’s Curiosity rover, that was given its name by a 12 year old girl from Kansas who wrote “curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives,” we should all allow our minds to boldly go where no man has gone before.

But perhaps where something else once has…

, , , , , , ,

Beyond the Blue

In Environmental, Personal on July 15, 2012 at 1:01 pm

Living further away from the ocean has opened my eyes to the extent it needs protecting

One thing I really miss now that I live in the inner city is the sea. I’ve had a deep fascination with the ocean for as long as I can remember and have pretty much managed to always live close to it until I moved to London just over two years ago.  Although my experience living in the capital has been inspiring in many other ways, that yearning to be close to the water is left forever unfulfilled (a polluted river doesn’t count).

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is I love about the ocean. Maybe it’s the smell of the salty air, or the sight and sound of the crashing waves. Perhaps it’s the mysteries left untold about the corners of the ocean that remain undiscovered, or simply the incomparable feeling of peace, serenity and freedom that the ocean brings.

A more scientific argument could be that the total water surface area of the planet is 70.8%, in the same way that human beings are made up of 78% water. The link is undeniable and inescapable, so it’s no wonder why I and so many others feel such a connection to our oceans.

Whatever the reason, the chilling truth of the matter is that we are totally dependent on our oceans, but we are destroying them on an inconceivable scale. From polluting industries and climate change, to detrimental fishing and global whaling, the survival of entire marine ecosystems is being put under enormous threat as species and their habitats are being pushed towards extinction.

Polluting industries and detrimental fishing… that all sounds pretty out of our hands. So what difference can you and I make? Without wanting to sound patronising or preachy – I am in fact speaking to myself here as much as anybody else – we need to start making some small and simple yet extremely effective changes.

Relearn to Reuse

I am of course talking about sustainability. We need to break this modern day consumerist habit of using something once and throwing it away. Every day at work I see people throwing those incandescent orange Sainsbury’s bags into the bin without a second thought. Bringing your rucksack or tote bag to the supermarket is a simple solution to this.

I’m guilty of buying shiny new bottles of water whenever I’m on the go when I could quite easily refill the last once I bought with water from the tap. I’m a firm believer that the so called ‘mineral’ water we buy comes from the exact same place (just because an industry is producing something natural doesn’t make it any less corrupt than a fast-food outlet).

These are two simple changes to our lifestyles we can all make that will end up making an enormous difference. Learning to reuse plastic is something that should be drilled into our minds at a young age, like the importance of learning how to read or tie up our shoe laces.

We need to take a second before throwing that toxic plastic bag into the bin to think about where it will end up, which will most likely be drifting into the ocean.

The Next Step

Of course these are only the first steps to making changes that will have larger environmental impact. Once you get started it becomes addictive, and as far as addictions go – environmentalism is a great one to have.

So the next step is to start asking yourself questions like “what did I do today?”, “Did I leave my TV on standby all night?”, “Did I make unnecessary journeys in my car?”, “Did I stay in the shower a few minutes longer than I really needed to?”

Nearly every little thing we do effects our environment on a larger and more long-term scale. From the amount of packaging the products we buy come with, to the amount of time we spend brushing our teeth in the morning, it is our responsibility and ultimate destiny to look after this big beautiful rock that we all have to share.

Of course, from arrogant decisions the government make to overfishing carried out by greedy corporations, there are bigger issues and influences that are mostly out of control. The sad truth is that when money and power is involved, nature is not always considered first.

However, I believe that politics starts at home and you truly do have to be the change you want to see in the world. These might sound like tired old clichés, but they should be spoken and remembered until people finally act on them.

What I love the most about the ocean is how it appears never-ending. From the largest whale to the tiniest microörganism, its vast and endless appeal makes me feel like anything is possible. It represents the hope and ambition we all have for a better world, whether we realise and act on it or not.

The unfortunate truth is we are running out of time to prevent irreversible damage to our seas, and the rest of the planet, so we need to start making dramatic changes to the way we live.

Starting right now.

If you want to learn more about how you can make a bigger difference to the problems our oceans are facing, visit Greenpeace or Save our Seas. Don’t forget to spread the word.

, , , , , ,

Spirituality and the City

In Personal, Spirituality on June 5, 2012 at 6:03 pm

An inner shift of consciousness has left me pondering the place for spirituality within our fast-paced city lives

Back in February of 2011, I wrote a piece titled Revolution of the Youth and Mind. Here I wrote not only about the Egyptian revolution that was taking place at the time, but also about an inner shift of consciousness that I was experiencing and trying to understand.

A lot has happened since then, and somewhere in the midst of working in the fashion industry and living in one of the busiest cities in the world, I feel like I’ve lost sight of this inner shifting.

However, like a ceiling patched in with a temporary filling, the leaks of spiritual awareness have once again come pouring through the cracks.

I first started seriously thinking about spirituality when I was about fourteen years old. Between my mother and aunt there were always dozens of books on crystals, Reiki, alternative remedies, yoga and Buddhism around the house. I would devour them one by one, intrigued by this supposed road to enlightenment.

As time went on, I guess you could say I got a little distracted. The youthful search for identity kicked in and before long I was lost in a material maze, just like everybody else.

Flash forward a decade and although the need for acceptance by peers has weakened, the way it does when you grow up, that yearning desire we all have for more things is both infinite and unfulfilling.

So instead of ignoring this feeling the way I did last year, I’m engaging with it face on and embracing this spiritual reawakening that obviously needs to happen.

If only it was this easy.

The Consumerist Curve

Trouble is, the Western world we live in is so bombarded with advertising slogans, must-have technological devices, quick-fix diets and flashy vehicles polluting the air, that it’s so hard to see through the smoke and figure out what’s real and what is important.

I remember the countless times I watched the American sitcom, Sex and the City throughout university with my friends. We would laugh our heads off over glasses of wine, imagining moving to a big city like New York, working in our dream jobs that would pay for our never-ending wardrobes.

It’s funny how much you can learn in a couple of years. I moved to London exactly two years ago this week and have found my way into a copywriting role for a fashion e-tailer.

Ok, it’s a long way off from living in Manhattan and writing my own column, but you see my point. I have accidently-on-purpose worked my way into the capitalist machine. I throw back my Starbucks and waste my money on clothes, all the while waiting for that bottomless inner-vacuole to be filled.

Right now I’m reading a book that sums up my current mind-set perfectly. Written by Oliver James, Affluenza takes on the world’s consumerist plague, focusing on how our obsessive, envious, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses ways have resulted in “huge increases in depression and anxiety among millions.”

I would thoroughly recommend the book to anyone, as it really is a brutal eye-opener to how a large percentage of the world (predominately the parts that have been affected by Americanisation) now operates. It has also made me look at my city and myself far more closely.

Meditation on the Move

Moving through the hot crowds throughout central London in the last couple of weeks, I feel like I’ve started to see things in a completely different light. And in perfect Carrie Bradshaw style, have been asking a lot of questions.

Questions like, “who am I really? What is my purpose? What is it that I really want?” But the latest one I’m pondering is, “does spirituality really have a place in a Westernised city?”

I was debating this with a colleague last week. “Do you meditate?” she asked me.

“Well, I used to,” I replied, seriously trying to remember the last time I had had the time to, “but I really should get back into it again.”

“I once knew someone who would meditate on the bus,” she said back to me with complete sincerity, “it was the only time he found the time.”

The notion of searching for enlightenment on a number 29 couldn’t help but amuse me. However the more I got to thinking about it, the more it made sense.

Although I might still be a long way off from finding answers to all of my questions, some things are starting to become a lot clearer.

I’m realising that no matter where you live or what you do for a living, spirituality can still be adopted into your everyday life. After all, opposites do attract.

The truth is, we’re all on our own paths with different views on how to reach our destinations. What’s important is that we treat each other with dignity and respect along the way.

That way whether we’re looking for Nirvana in Nepal, or peace on public transport, we can all travel alongside one another in harmony.

, , , , , , ,

Virtual Growing Pains

In Personal, Technology on May 17, 2012 at 8:16 pm

As this website reaches its two year anniversary, I explore how online communication has allowed me to progress personally and professionally 

This week marks the two year anniversary of this website’s launch, which is a true milestone for me. During this time, I have gone from a career-hungry yet self-doubtful graduate, to an employed writer with almost a year’s experience under my belt.

Throughout this journey, in which there have been many highs and lows, this site has been a platform for me to express myself. In many ways it’s also been a form of cathartic creative release when I’ve needed it to be.

So this week I got to thinking about how fortunate I am to not only live in an age where technology allows such accessible communication, but to live in a part of the world where free speech (to a certain degree) is entirely permitted.

I’ve grown up in an age where using a computer comes as naturally to me as tying a shoe lace. I went through my adolescence while social media began its infancy through websites such as Friendster and MySpace. Technology has very much been a part of my own evolution from child to young adult.

This contemplation was not only aided by my website’s second birthday, but also by spending time with my 92-year-old grandmother over the last couple of weekends.

Speaking to her baffled me to think of an era where people socialised without updating their “status” and responding to “friend requests”.  A time when people discovered each other’s interests through conversation and not just noticing what they have “liked” on each other’s “timelines.”

Although I envy this age, to an extent I was a part of it. I feel fortunate to have enjoyed a childhood and early adolescence free from an online presence or identity. Today they are as important as qualifications or experience.

On the flipside, there are so many things to thank this age of scalable interaction for, including the transmission of my work. I remember the first time I published my poetry online at the age of about 13 on a website called MyPoetry.com.

I wrote anonymously, of course, as like many teenagers I was extremely unsure of myself and my work at the time. Still, I remember so clearly the feeling of validation when other poets, or “users”, would comment on my prose, pointing out the parts they liked and analysing the hidden symbolism. This was something I had never experienced, which beat any praise a school teacher could have provided, hands down.

Next came picture comments on MySpace. Anyone from the “MTV Generation” knows what these are and whether they admit it or not, how they made them feel. What could have been more self-gratifying than having complementary comments left by friends (or often slight acquaintances) boosting your self-confidence at a time when it was so needed.

As “Generation Y” has grown older, we’ve begun to look for this same validation in the steps our careers take. MySpace became Facebook and our biggest concern now is how many “likes” the companies we work for have. It seems that whether we like it or not, the online social revolution is here to stay and it will be interesting to see what its next phase will be.

The other online phenomena we have seen emerge throughout the late 90s and early 00s is of course, blogging. A portmanteau of the term “web log”, the phrase “blog” was first used by founding partner and president of Adaptive Path, Peter Merholz, in 1999. “To blog” means “to edit one’s weblog or to post to one’s weblog”, which is essentially a personal journal published online.

When I was studying Journalism at university, the idea of blogging never appealed to me as the market seemed so oversaturated. We were encouraged to do so by our tutors, which is how this website was originally created. I published it for a project, but vowed to never continue it as I did not want to follow the cyber-crowd.

I wasn’t wrong about the oversaturated market. As of February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence, a number that made my feeble blog seem like a needle in a thousand haystacks. However it wasn’t until I had a conversation with a good friend over coffee one day that something sparked inside my mind.

“What I look for in a blog is a writer’s personal touch,” she explained to me over her skinny cappuccino, “not just your usual cut-and-paste job.” It was then I realised what had really put me off about the “blogosphere.” It was its lack of credibility through the increase of “Churnalists” putting their work online. I vowed to never become one of them, but instead to make my site my own.

I therefore dropped the term “blog” and now simply refer to this creative platform as a website. Instead of posting daily posts to please, I produce a monthly feature that I dedicate a lot of time and thought to, researching my topic widely before even reaching for my keyboard.

As of today, CWGill.com has had 33,066 unique views, 69 comments and this is my 89th post. Thank you to everyone who has supported its growth, from teething to the (not so) Terrible twos.

I can’t wait to see what its next year will bring.

, , , , , ,

An Inner Resurrection

In Arts & Culture, Personal on April 8, 2012 at 12:18 pm

The Resurrection of Christ by Paolo Veronese

Whether you’re religious or not, Easter should be a time of rebirth and reassessment

Unless you’re a dedicated Christian, you would most probably argue that the only significance Easter has to you is the long weekend off work. Just like Christmas, religious holidays in the Western world are rarely now thought of for their traditional meanings.

Following on from my piece last month on marriage in the modern world, I got to thinking about tradition again this weekend, but more specifically about religion and its place in our hectic lives. In a world full of war, natural disasters and economic crisis, religion is often ignored or blamed for our problems.

I was fortunate enough to be raised in a home where I was given the choice to decide what I wanted to believe in, which I think ultimately has led to me being far more open-minded to religious and spiritual possibilities.

My experience through others I’ve known is that the more forced religion is upon you as a child, the more you will rebel against it down the line. I think it’s natural to question anything that is put in front of you and labelled ‘the truth.’

As a teenager I became extremely interested in the teachings of Buddhism. I liked, and still like, how Buddhism is as much a philosophy as it is a religion and in comparison to Christianity, is far more geared towards worshipping life than death. What I mean by this is it teaches us to see nature and our planet as sacred, and it doesn’t obsess about celebrating everything that will happen after we die.

It’s this sort of ideal that I think we should all learn from and translate into the way we live our lives, whether this is influenced by a God or not. Without sounding too clichéd, I believe finding God is all about finding yourself and your own inner strength. Whatever you see this ‘light’ or ‘All’ as, it should be what guides you through the dark place that our world so often is.

As I’ve grown older, I still apply aspects of Buddhism to my life but avoid being defined or labelled by any specific or singular belief. I would like to say that nature is my religion, as I honestly feel that through the cold and corporate framework that is city life, the environment is my ‘light’ that guides me through and keeps me grounded and connected to what is real.

So this Easter weekend, despite how much I’m in need of a long weekend off work, I am also giving the true meaning of the holiday a lot of thought and figuring out what it should mean to us today.

We all know how the Christian story goes: the son of God, Jesus Christ, was crucified for the sins of humanity. He then rose again on the third day after his execution, viewed by many Christians as part of God’s plan of salvation and redemption.

I got to thinking about this mindboggling event and what it would mean if the same thing happened today. We still have martyrs and executions in many parts of the world, but this story would never be believed in our modern society. What it makes you realise however is how much the human race still longs to believe in miracles.

So if anything, I see Christianity and its teachings as a metaphor. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can be applied to many things that we see happen in our every day culture. We all want to believe in superheroes, whether it is a president or a celebrity. We want someone to have the answers so we can build them up just to watch them fall, then watch them get back up again.

So what Easter will now represent to me, is this grand notion of rebirth that I have such a life-long obsession with. You can feel this reawakening in the spring air and see it in the natural world where plants and flowers are being reborn, furthering my belief in nature as a religion.

If Christ really did die for our sins and remerge from the ashes, then why can’t all of us find this strength within ourselves? Whatever the ‘light’ is to you, make sure that you never let it go out as this is what will lead you to your very own inner Promised Land.

To celebrate this Easter weekend I have given my website its very own spring awakening. With a clean and fresh new look that represents this brand new era; I look forward to all the future thoughts and discoveries that have yet to be expressed.

This is my alternate vision that I can’t wait to share with you all.

, , , , , , ,

Rewriting the Vows

In Arts & Culture, Personal on March 25, 2012 at 4:11 pm

In a world where divorce rates are at an all-time high, does anyone ever really live happily ever after? 

Last weekend I accompanied one of my oldest and closest friends to a meeting with her wedding planner. There we sat, sipping cups of tea in the quaint old-English venue, as questions were fired over about how far she had got with planning her big day.

“Have you thought about having a receiving line?”

“How about the menu?”

“And what about the material for the chair covers?”

Natalie, being one of the most relaxed people I know, flicked through her wedding notepad and answered as best she could. Just seeing how organised she was opened up not only a whole new side to her I hadn’t seen before, but new sides to the concept of marriage that I had barely even considered in the past.

As I reached for the teapot and continued to listen to the wedding planner, the idea of values and tradition began to surface.

“Will you be having a toastmaster?” she asked, to which Natalie speedily declined.

“And who will be making the speeches? Traditionally it’s the father of the bride, the father of the groom and then the best man…”

“They’re all men,” Natalie responded blankly. This is one of the things I admire about my friend most. She has never been afraid to speak out about something she believes in, like women’s rights.

“Well my bridesmaid’s making one,” she continued, “and perhaps I will too.” The wedding planner scribbled this down hesitantly.

Later that day I got to thinking about marriage and the role it now plays in the modern world. Our trip to the wedding planner had happened less than 24 hours after news broke that gay marriage would most probably be legalised in the UK by 2015, a decision being backed by our current government.

As a gay man, this should be fantastic news, and in many ways I think it is. It’s exciting in the sense that I believe everyone should have the right to choose whether they want to get married or not (civil partnership has always felt like a second-rate option to me). Personally however, the idea of marriage has never really had that much appeal.

Perhaps this is because I associate marriage with religion, and although I am in no way an atheist, I have always considered myself as far more spiritual than God-worshipping. However, although the definition of marriage varies from culture to culture, the underlining message remains the same: public recognition that two people are in love and have decided to spend their lives together.

The trouble is, it doesn’t often turn out this way. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, divorce rates have continued to rise since the 1930s, raising many questions about marriage’s worth in the modern age. The evolution of gender roles has obviously played a big part in this, with women matching and often exceeding the career heights and salaries of men.

Despite the changes in our busy modern world there are still many people who believe, or really want to believe, in marriage and its values. All you have to do is look at the world’s fascination with last year’s marriage between a prince and a young middle class woman to realise how many adults still need to believe in fairy tales.

Perhaps this nostalgic feeling to the ideals of marriage stems back to childhood; from the Disney films we watch and the fairy tales we are told, to simply looking up at our parents. Of course, the reality is that most people don’t have this nuclear family vision surrounding them, devaluing the worth of marriage from day one.

I guess when it boils down to it; we all want to believe in fairy tales. We live in a confusing world that often lacks light or clarity, so the idea that two people in love can make an oath to the world that they will (or at least try to) stay together forever, has to be a positive thing.

Whether it’s in a church in front of a God, or in a park simply in front of your friends, it should always have the same meaning. Whether you’re the same sex or different races, whether you’re a prince or penniless, it should still be about love.

So this summer when I watch one of my oldest friends walk down the aisle, I will be full of joy and pride that she has found the man she loves. She may not have a toastmaster, but she will have her family and friends. She might make her own speech, but then when has tradition ever been able to silence her?

Our weddings might not look the way we had imagined them as children. Many of us won’t want to get married at all. However if you allow yourself to love and be loved, even if it’s within yourself, then the world will always be filled with light and we will all live happily ever after.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

%d bloggers like this: