Eight years and counting. I should look it up, actually. See how long I’ve been at this Omphalos Cafe thing. 

  Whereas it hasn’t engendered the conversation I thought it would it has succeeded on one front, probably the most important one when I come to think of it. 

  At the outset I thought the things I had to say, based on decades of reading off the well-beaten track, would sort of fire up imaginative, inquisitive types. I imagined the Cafe as a quiet place where curious souls could share their passion for learning and discovery. However, with the passing of years I’m increasingly confronted with the reality that people in general, whether involved in schooling or not, are not very curious and although perhaps passionate about certain nebulous things such as social equality and justice are simply not passionate about learning. They’ll read what is assigned in school but little to nothing more. Is there any wonder people’s thoughts and opinions are half baked at best? 

  But that being said, the Omphalos Cafe has been tremendously beneficial in another respect. One, it’s been a great deal of fun, and two, having and continuing to have my say I’ve come to the magical place where I no longer give a rat’s rear what anybody thinks about the things I put down, mainly on account of the fact that I believe in my heart most to just shy of all people are more or less fucked in the head. 

  There, I wrote it. 

  And let me tell you, what a liberating thing that is to put down!

  Granted, it’s a tad harsh. But not far off the mark. The world, led or playing catch up to the technological marvel that is the West, is undeniably off kilter. We live in a mechanistic digital age and our collective psycho-spiritual centring dates back centuries if not millennia. How is that not a recipe for disaster?

  So maybe this marks a new chapter for the Omphalos Cafe. A break from the past and busting down of the walls.

  The world is my Cafe now. It might not be your’s, stuck as you are in the notion that things are out of whack and in need of ‘fixing.’ However, for me things are perfect just as they are. Granted, people are out of balance, or like I said, “fucked in the head,” but who’s fault is that? Nature’s? Life’s? 

  Hardly.

  Anyway, do challenges lie ahead? Of course, but when hasn’t there been challenges? That’s how we discover the measure of ourselves and whether or not we are up to the challenges. 

  At any rate, as I write this Christmas approaches. I confess, I don’t like Christmas. It’s become little more than a middle class orgiastic celebration of materialism and gluttony. It bores the shit out of me. 

  Lost is the sense of new beginnings, the transition through the shortest day of the year towards the birth of a new day. 

  Oh well,

  Welcome to the Omphalos Cafe….