For Us

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I got in close touch with a topic these days that moves me very much and weighs me down - bullying. Nothing really new, I know. But it's always different if this kind of abuse affects someone you know and like.

This has happened to me just the other day, and I felt a deep need to do something, to raise attention and awareness, and to offer a boost of courage and self-esteem.

Bullying concerns us all. Either as being a victim - all too often without any one knowing, even the closest of friends or family. Or as being someone who becomes aware of abuse, of brutality, of violence and grief that a child has to suffer.

FOR KEL, the first video I made, is as a present for someone special, but also as an attempt of a beacon for every child that is in a situation where it has to fear every day for his physical health - and mental sanity.

FOR US, the video you are watching now, is first and foremost for grown-ups.

Everyone of us has been a child once, everyone has maybe been maltreated once in a while. And some of us experienced the same form of physical and mental abuse that many, so many of our children have to suffer from today. This is nothing to be ashamed of. But it should make us wary, and ready to help.

Bullying is no joke.

Bullying is no peccadillo.

Bullying is a serious form of abuse,

and the victims need our help:

The help of teachers, of educators,

of friends and family.

And even if you become witness to a child being bullied that is not your own, and none whatsoever related to you ... This child needs your help anyway. With all you can do, how little it may be.

I'm making these videos for just that exact reason. I'm far away from where the things I refer to are happening, and yet I do what little I can with that.

If you are close to someone in need - then don't close your eyes.

Reach out a hand.

Offer a friendly word.

Dry some tears.

You are needed.

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Thanks for helping me producing this video:

Harry (BANGITSHarry)

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Song info credited in the end of the video.

The Song is taken from the album

"Snow Borne Sorrow"
by Nine Horses

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For Kel

Stay strong. You will make it. I have faith in you.


Think about the following - what is a bully?

bully = someone who tyrannizes, mistreats
and beats up others
that are weaker than he himself.

Pathetic.


But there's another meaning to the word ...

bully = corned beef

So, "bully" stands for a kind of
sad excuse for regular beef meat.


And it also stands for ... a sad excuse for a human being.


Don't stay alone.
Seek help.

Stand your ground.

And breathe freely again.

A bully is Corned Beef on legs.


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One more thing: Todd is NOT right!

When I was a boy

And things moved too slow
And universes revolved around
Things I didn't know

When I was a boy
And I made mistakes
I was humiliated
Til I knew my place

And I fear that it isn't enough

Ignorance hurts
Injustice inflames
I remember the feelings
But forgotten their names

When I was a boy
I saw through their lies
I swore I wouldn't become
The thing I despised

And I fear that it isn't enough

Nine Horses, A HISTORY OF HOLES

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Francis Bernier, PRINCE D'AZUR

Buy Francis Bernier's album
"Prince d'Azur"
here!
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Duet by Francis Bernier and Serge Lama

Words by Serge Lama

Music by Michael Sylvain

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Album:
Francis Bernier
PRINCE D'AZUR
(2007)

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Francis Bernier, TANT QUE L'ON S'AIME

Watch a new video for

Francis Bernier's song "Prince d*Azur"

(made by me, incl. lyrics in French and English)

here!

Buy Francis Bernier's album
"Prince d'Azur"here!

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 Francis Bernier
TANT QUE L'ON S'AIME

Si je pouvais parler au monde
Je lui parlerais de ses rivières
Qui coulent au fil des saisons
Et rejoignent mes prières

Si je pouvais parler aux hommes
Je leur parlerais du bonheur
Sans artifice, tout simplement
Qu'il prend sa source dans nos cœurs

Je leur parlerais des étés
Et d'un grand fleuve de liberté

Tout simplemant
Je leur dirais
Tout ce que j'espère
Tout simplement
Je leur dirais
Tout ce que j'aime

Tout simplement
Je leur ranconterais
Que le printemps viendra toujours
Tant que l'on s'aime

Si je pouvais changer les choses
Je prendrais toujours mon temps
À l'humanité j'offrirais une rose
Et à la nature un pansement

Si je pouvais parler aux hommes
Je leur apprendrais que la joie
Sans artifice, tout simplement
Fleurit au plus profond de soi

Je leur parlerais des hivers
Des grands espaces et de la lumière

Tout simplement
Je leur dirais
tout ce que j'espère
Tout simplement
Je leur dirais
Tout ce que j'aime

Tout simplement
Je leur ranconterais
Que le printemps viendra toujours
Tant que l'on s'aime

Si je pouvais parler au monde
Avant que la nuit ne tombe
Je lui dirais que l'espoir demeure
Tant que l'on s'aime

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Paroles:
Sophie Nault et Paule Tremblay


Album:
Prince D'Azur
(2007)

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Nine Horses, A HISTORY OF HOLES

I'm having my day
My place in the sun
Ill grow to resemble
The man I've become

There'll be time for reflection
When I reach that plateau
When the war has been won
No farther to go

And I fear that it isn't enough

I'm making a fortune
I swore to enjoy
These things I promised myself
When I was a boy

When I was a boy
And things moved too slow
And universes revolved around
Things I didn't know

When I was a boy
And I made mistakes
I was humiliated
Til I knew my place

And I fear that it isn't enough

Ignorance hurts
Injustice inflames
I remember the feelings
But forgotten their names

When I was a boy
I saw through their lies
I swore I wouldn't become
The thing I despised

But events overtake you
While you set your sights
On bigger game
On greater heights

God bless amnesia
And the things Ive suppressed
I can reframe the image
I can discard the rest

A history of holes
Where the pieces that wont fit
With the story you told yourself
And your place in it

And I fear that it isn't enough

So put on a brave face
Straighten that tie
And speak like you mean it
Give truth to the lie

And I fear that it isn't enough

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Average time per day being awake ... "OMG, how do you DO that??"

"OMG, how do you DO that??"

If someone asks me how long I usually am awake per day, I'd have to say:

"Between 20 and 24 hours a day, and sometimes more!"

And if I say so (telling the mere truth with that!), I usually get some kind of reaction as shown in the picture here. Followed by sentences like "I could NEVER do that!" or "I would be DEAD within one week!" etc.

Well, the "sometimes more" part is more felt than proven (the clocks here at my house resists to display this hidden truth), but indeed I am on an extreme course, and at times, even I stop for a minute to ponder and wonder about that.

To sleep is, indeed, really precious for me. Basically the best moment of the day, considering the effort invested compared to the effect achieved, is the very moment I lay down in my bed. I heave a small and really contented sigh then, just releasing the feeling I have of getting an additional reward now, for those many wake hours before, and it really feels good. And I need sleep like any other being, too. But: It's only part of the deal.

The things that keep me busy until times each day when my neighbors get up again to start their day (while mine still hasn't ended) are nothing of global importance.

I do not guard any Red Telephones in order to save World Peace (or to push the Red Button in time, meaning a split second before the other one does ... although this has hardly to do with peace).

I do not achieve scientific results that will catapult mankind into a new era. I do not help out on building structures and things that will alter the face of the world, like bridges, or, let alone, walls.

I watch and share and rejoice in the creative output of people I know and like, sometimes also from people I have only just discovered. I write comments and give feedback. I receive messages and answer them. I talk with (not "to", I said that deliberately) people from many places over the phone, over Skype, and to the most part via YouTube messages or e-mail.

And I write stuff that, in one way or another, is important to me, and sometimes also for other people. Plus I produce my share of the amount of typos that is needed in the world every day, obviously (well you might call me a major supplier there, I guess), making texts involuntarily funny or questionable in so many ways, yet without disintegrating them. Can you call that a form of art? Not yet. But I'm working on it.

All these things are time consuming. Even writing this blog about this topic is. But I love investing ... No, wait.

And I love investing the amount of time needed for each and every single of these "things".

In the economical branch, you'd say "Money well spent". Well, the currency here, in this area of life I'm referring to at the moment, is, for sure, not being measured in Euros and Cents, or any other name for the bling-bling kaa-tchinggg stuff we use for making us happy (as well as terribly sad).

No.

So much that happens during my wake hours (and especially in the dead of night here at my place) is of unique and precious nature that goes far beyond any clumsy attempt to label it or, let alone, put a price tag to it / embed it into a profit and loss account.

All these things are much too heavy and bulky to handle, and yet, by far, too insubstantial to ever grasp them ... You can't see them, and yet they open your eyes .. They have no weight, and yet they can weigh you down and crush you ... They have no wings, and yet they can lift your spirits higher than the sun!

It's the energy of the soul, that pulses and flows in these hours, by doing all the stuff I do.

It rushes through the heart and rewinds it, so it gets the power it needs to bring me through yet another day. It streams through each and every fiber of my body and enables the bones and muscles in me to take and bring me to the places I need to be.

It fires up my brain and keeps the  Spark of Sanity  (no offense, Jeff: I need it that way around) from being extinguished.

Sleep does have its part in replenishing this energy, that is needed to keep me alive; just like eating, drinking and breathing. But the contribution that sleeping can make for that is small. And it is not leading me into a state of mutuality that is needed (at least for me) to activate and enable an act and process of sharing with other human beings, with those of my kin - sharing the energy of the soul, and, by doing that, not cutting in half the amount that I have at my disposal ...

... but multiplying and intensifying it.

And this is what I need.

To come back to matter-of-factly wordings and nomenclature ...

In economical terms again, it is Anticyclical Investment. In terms of physics, it is the Counterweight. The more I lose, the more I invest. The more weighs me down, the more I muster to equal the balance somehow.

It is what is needed to bring me through yet another day. It's a vital need. It keeps me alive, and sane. Well, mostly. And I am grateful for everyone who is there and allows me to share the energy of the soul.

It's Give and Take. Every time. Always.

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Misfit

Messages ran all over town

Words without sound
Condemned me
And left me for dead

All over again
It wasn't the first time, but this time
Things will never be the same

Time and again
You may go charging at windmills

In these days
Absurdities never change

In the thick of the woods
The word is taboo

In the darkest of continents
Light can deceive you



David Sylvian, RIDE

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