CURRENT MISSION

World domination ;)...to learn to laugh at life through my living to learn. to work everyday at becoming a more kind, compassionate and beautiful person; and to walk the whole width of this wonderful world :) :) :)

ABOUT ME

Work aside, in the time that is totally my own, I seem to be dominated by one of two persona’s who I’ve affectionately dubbed “Melly Merry” and “Melly Meek”.

Melly Merry is the extrovert, the fun-loving go-getter who – though decidedly average at both – dances like no one’s watching and at any given moment, might spontaneously burst into song. A lover of people and socialising, you’re likely to bump into her at promotions else painting the town a ruby red on a night out – Lady Carpe diem. She’s the motivator, the leader and laugh-a-minute friend.

Incomplete without her other half, Melly Meek is the more sensible, grounded sometime recluse. A day with a good book, a poignant film, 30 seconds or trivial pursuit; a long walk, an exhibition; one spent dancing and singing to the soundtrack of her own life – that’s a day well-spent. Meek’s in awe of nature; enchanted by the old world – especially where it harmoniously meets, merges with, and modifies the new. As one from a family of eight, she’s come to develop patience, tolerance and a general love of people – this backdrop of a real-life Brady Bunch is also often a theme of her private written works.

Fluid complements – each balances the other out. Together they make for a living-to-let-live, adaptable and curious Jack of all trades – together thinking, together feeling, together ready to “explore”...together, “Mel in a nutshell”.

PHILOSOPHY

i want to strip you down to the core
take off you shirt, hat, shoes and trousers
erase my head all the books that i've read
the language i speak, the customs you keep,
keep on going right down to the heart
to the pain that is yours and the pain that is ours,
tell you it's all gonna be alright
is it going to be alright?
say we're both the same
we share the same heart
we're made of the same parts
- Dear Reader

the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return
- moulin rouge

judge not for by what judgement you judge you will be judged and in what measure you measure you will be measured
- the bible featuring melissa mukaiwa :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I live.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I'm a newbie... :) :) :)

Interests

I love travelling. The countless books I’ve read and hundreds of films I’ve seen have left me an insatiable appetite to skip along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, explore Sao Paulo’s Catedral da Sé and Paris’ the Leonardo Da Vinci tour. I’d like to put my five years of high school French to work, discovering the “joie de vivre” through the “je ne se quoi” of different music, art, people, places, the great outdoors and indoors too, which this planet has to offer. The girl guide in me wants to walk the ancient lands owned, else feared, by Genghis and Kublai Khan, before being hugged by a real live teddy bear. What I want is to see my imagination juxtaposed with the waking world as it’s sometimes misty landscapes come into focus, into real life.

I’m wired to live a buffet kind of life, in both the literal and figurative sense. Sampling a little bit of this while flavouring a little bit of that and then being surprised by what excites me – I’ll admit that my curiosity is such that it’s not enough for me to live off even first-hand accounts; that as an opti-realist I crave direct enchantment.

When watching a baby, a toddler, any small child for a minute; you’ll see that – critical as it is to our survival – it’s true that people are born with inherent curiosities. As time passes we grow older and are taught certain things, in certain ways, and so we think certain things, in certain ways. We then – for the most part – become too distracted, too busy and too “smart” to be curious. I count myself fortunate in that over the years my child-like enthusiasm hasn’t diminished. Though more sensitive to my environment, more directed in my interests and goals; my peter pan complex still plays a very active role in my day-to-day life. As such I can honestly say that I’m more excited by experimenting and learning things that I didn’t know, than by being praised for things that I (supposedly) do.

• arts
• books
• singing
• dancing
• environment
• movies
• traveling
• eating out
• painting
• survival
• music
• outdoor activities
• tourism

Music, Movies, and Books

"Too many...several" - Spanglish (2004)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Every little moment. Every little thing. More of the same please :) :) :)

Teach, Learn, Share

"What is it that you fantasize about?

World peace?

I thought so.

Do you fantasize about international fame?
Do you fantasize about winning a Pulitzer Prize?
Or a Nobel Peace Prize?
An MTV Music Award?
Do you fantasize about meeting some genius hunk, ostensibly bad...but secretly simmering
with noble passion...and willing to sleep on the wet spot?

You get Lacan's point:

Fantasies have to be unrealistic because the moment, the second, that you get what you seek,
you don't...
you can't want it anymore.

In order to continue to exist desire must have its objects perpetually absent.

It's not the "it" that you want.
It's the fantasy of "it."

So, desire supports crazy fantasies.
Sorry.

This is what Pascal means when he says that we are only truly happy when daydreaming about future happiness.
Or why we say the hunt is sweeter than the kill.
Or be careful what you wish for,
not because you'll get it but because you're doomed not to want it once you do.

So the lesson of Lacan is,
LIVING BY YOUR WANTS WILL NEVER MAKE YOU HAPPY.

What it means to be fully human is to strive to live by ideas and ideals

and not to measure your life by what you've attained in terms of your desires...
but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality; even self-sacrifice.

Because in the end, the only way that we can measure the significance of our own lives...
is by valuing the lives of others"
- The Life of David Gale(2003)