We all need a run-away bag. A small duffelbag or backpack or a little suitcase, filled with clothes and some money...and a few of your prized possessions. You never really know when you'll have to up and go do you?
Not saying that we NEED one per say, but it's always wise to have one. A good planner always keeps one of these around keeping in mind that you really can't tell when things get rough, and you have to go. There's a lot that something like that can do for you, and from all the benefits there are very few that are materialistic. Think about it; what would you pack? Two weeks worth of clothes: rugged clothes, some of your favorite most comfortable pairs of shorts. A few pairs of denims that you know would last you the next 5 years and a few t-shirts along with a couple of nice polo shirts: you never know what you'd have to dress up for. A nice pair of sneakers for the long long walks you may have to endure along with a pair of flip-flops/sandals for the hot days...a towel, boxers and socks. Oh, don't forget a solar re-chargeable flashlight - you never know when you'll run out of batteries and you really need some light. A pocket-knife, preferably "Swiss Army" or a nice "Leather-Man": you might have to cut something down, screw something, fix something. A "Zippo", a couple notebooks with a few pens..you can always pick up more on the way, right? And, money. One thing that you won't even get off the street corner without...a valuable commodity that a lack of in todays time means grave trouble. It's not as easy to come by as it used to be, but that's a story for another post.
With a little bit of space left for your one or two other personal sentiments, a few cherished memories or items that you've collected and saved....what more could you really take with you? What more could you really want? This thought is one that has always bounced around in the back of my mind...wouldn't that be enough? It tells us a lot about the things we own and the things that we hoard, and the things we don't need. We realize that all we ever really needed was just that little bag, and it would really be enough. Give up your standards, give up your "wants" and desires, and just stick to the needs. Get rid of your reservations and throw your pretentiousness away, destroy your ostentations and you will find that everything you will ever need will be in that bag. Everything you will ever need to just GO..will be neatly tucked away, waiting for you to walk out the door.
This would do something else for you that you would really appreciate. It would almost entirely cut you off from technology. These days we have become so entwined into the digital aura that almost envelops us that we forget what it's like to live without it. When's the last time you looked up at the sky to look at the stars as compared to the last time you checked your phone for yet another notification or flipped the TV to yet another channel full of endless blabber and spatter? One of the greatest advantages of the go-bag philosophy is the absolute isolation from technology. Why lug around wires when you have no where to plug them in? Why carry so much technology with you when the point of all this is to be able to re-locate at will without consequence? It makes no sense, and points out no point. After a week without blips, boops, clicks and pings - you will never miss it. All of a sudden you have so much attention to channel; and what better investment of it than getting to know yourself and your surroundings...to sit down and write about what you see on your travels. About good people you meet on your way; about the hard times that you might go through on your journey.
We can learn a lot from something like this. We would always have in mind that there is always an option. We realize that at the end of the day, it gives you a certain release that no other kind of school of thought will ever give you; a feeling of absolute freedom. You will always know that worse come to worse, you can become a nomad. A wanderer of sorts, with everything you need right beside you and no one or nothing to slow you down. A person of few worldly belongings but a knowledge of a certain kind; that you are a person with almost no strings attached. A person who has almost nothing to lose, hence almost everything to gain. You will have a certain edge to you; you'll always push a little harder, hope a bit more, think a bit more dangerously and live a little bit wilder. Why? Because you know in the back of your mind, about a little bag in the back of your closet...with everything you need to go underground..or maybe to another country for a few years. Now don't get me wrong...this will not always mean that you have done something bad and have to run. This could mean that you could come home one day, get your bag...and just go to Amsterdam. Just pick up and fly to the Maldives. Just decide on a last minute month-long vacation to Belize: the possibilites would be endless.
The only other thing you would need, is the courage to let go.
---
ray
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Friday, 19 November 2010
About the little thoughts
there is something here.
something inside...something about us. Something about us, that little piece of something that makes the whole world go round. It's the little things we are made of, those fragments of essence that make us who we are. they float like shards around us, so crystalline that even a diamond could not be cut in a more brilliant way. the little thoughts, about the little battles, and the little victories we win...with ourselves. if i understood myself, i would win, surely, against my enemy: myself. the little ways we learn, every step of the way, every single day. the beauty of the process never ceases to amaze me, sometimes it feels like we are awed by beauty itself. the steps we take, in solving any problem from the simplest dilemmas to the most unorthodox paradox. It's how we learn to win, and start to run faster...learn how to not trip and fall, how to pick ourselves up quickly to get around the enemy. every thought every line every breath we fight and we win, and many that we lose. there is always a way we find, a way to get one more, one last, one better. we have learned to know what to sacrifice, what to keep and what to take. we have learned to play with the enemy as much as it has learned to play with us. it's the only jungle that you will always remain in no matter how long you travel, how fast you drive, how far you fly..it's one battle you will never stop fighting. it's amazing how we have even found way to alter the course of this battle at times, with every sort of tactic and trap that could literally come to mind. moving out to a bigger picture, we see a field, and on that field do we see our soldiers defending their very honor and lives, knowing in their senses that each and every one of them had to win, because for everyone lost the enemy get stronger, wiser, faster, and more. the other side will fight well, almost as if they were an army of the same source, the same training..the same birth. there will always be a third army, made up of one soldier. a solder who will not fight this war, but will take many memories. he will be the quiet one this time..only an observer. He will be the only one left at the end of this, and he will take his memories with him. His war is fought somewhere they call the outside...and it is said that only one man has ever seen it himself, and of the millions that they had sent only one ever made it through, the same one who made it back. He is there always watching our war, our glorious victories and our gruesome losses, and he will take the winner with him, as his only ally, back with him to where there is light and our memories are kept...where they come from to aid us in our battles.
this is from just one person in a country in a continent in the water on this planet with over 7 billion people on it - with a simple thought, based on a simple question, asked to him by himself. can you imagine?
---
ray
something inside...something about us. Something about us, that little piece of something that makes the whole world go round. It's the little things we are made of, those fragments of essence that make us who we are. they float like shards around us, so crystalline that even a diamond could not be cut in a more brilliant way. the little thoughts, about the little battles, and the little victories we win...with ourselves. if i understood myself, i would win, surely, against my enemy: myself. the little ways we learn, every step of the way, every single day. the beauty of the process never ceases to amaze me, sometimes it feels like we are awed by beauty itself. the steps we take, in solving any problem from the simplest dilemmas to the most unorthodox paradox. It's how we learn to win, and start to run faster...learn how to not trip and fall, how to pick ourselves up quickly to get around the enemy. every thought every line every breath we fight and we win, and many that we lose. there is always a way we find, a way to get one more, one last, one better. we have learned to know what to sacrifice, what to keep and what to take. we have learned to play with the enemy as much as it has learned to play with us. it's the only jungle that you will always remain in no matter how long you travel, how fast you drive, how far you fly..it's one battle you will never stop fighting. it's amazing how we have even found way to alter the course of this battle at times, with every sort of tactic and trap that could literally come to mind. moving out to a bigger picture, we see a field, and on that field do we see our soldiers defending their very honor and lives, knowing in their senses that each and every one of them had to win, because for everyone lost the enemy get stronger, wiser, faster, and more. the other side will fight well, almost as if they were an army of the same source, the same training..the same birth. there will always be a third army, made up of one soldier. a solder who will not fight this war, but will take many memories. he will be the quiet one this time..only an observer. He will be the only one left at the end of this, and he will take his memories with him. His war is fought somewhere they call the outside...and it is said that only one man has ever seen it himself, and of the millions that they had sent only one ever made it through, the same one who made it back. He is there always watching our war, our glorious victories and our gruesome losses, and he will take the winner with him, as his only ally, back with him to where there is light and our memories are kept...where they come from to aid us in our battles.
this is from just one person in a country in a continent in the water on this planet with over 7 billion people on it - with a simple thought, based on a simple question, asked to him by himself. can you imagine?
---
ray
Sunday, 14 November 2010
About Small-Minded People
There are some people, who will never grow. That's because they are small minded. Stupid, mean and selfish people with too much attitude and severe narcissism. They are very dangerous people, only because their selfishness and lack of clarity and transparency will over shadow anything that you do with them. They are not dependable, irresponsible, disrespectful, and will only ever do anything because they want something from you or something for themselves. They will never have any problems in causing you financial, emotional, mental or even physical harm as long as they get what they want. Knock these people out of your life, because even if you are a sharp person, you will not be able to use them for your benefit, because they are just too dumb. They will never care about how long you have known them, or what you have done for them...they are unable to see the big picture.
Take the example of a security guard I met a while ago, when it was summer in the middle of the blistering heat. I came into an office building, for a business meeting. The security guard sitting comfortably on his chair behind his desk was staring at me, and he could see that I was dripping with sweat. I went over to him and asked him for some tissue to wipe my face, and he told me that there was no tissue. I COULD SEE THE BOX. When I pointed it out to him, he frowned and reluctantly gave me one sheet. ONE SHEET of tissue, from the box that his company paid for, and would never affect him no matter how many he gave away. I looked him in the eye and could see why he would never get past being a security guard, at the age of 45. Even with all the knowledge of lack of opportunity, and obligations on people..I still could see why he really would never go anywhere. Because he lacked any sort of respect for people, and didn't care about anyone else except himself, more concerned about him getting one less piece of tissue for his desk rather than helping someone who had just come out of the sun.
Another person I came across, was a Chinese restaurant owner in Toronto. I came in to ask for a glass of water, and he frowned and whined and bitched all the way to the tap (tap water is drinkable in Canada and is so cheap it's almost free). In fact, one can go anywhere in Toronto or even most of North America for that matter, and ask for a cup of water and get it. This guy had so much of a problem, that it pissed the hell out of me. I started yelling at the top of my lungs how water is FREE and why he had so much of an attitude. A lot of people in the restaurant agreed with me, and my friends had to pull me out of the restaurant before I drove his customers away. I hate these kind of selfish people and it's a shame that these kind of people exist.
The most devastating part is when you have a friend who's like that. It's really upsetting that he/she would not give a damn about you..so much that even after years of knowing them, they would still try to cheat you or hustle you or try to get an upper hand in some opportunity you are involved with, just because they are in a position of power or are the only connection between you and something or somebody else. No matter how much you do for these people, because they do not respect you or think they are smarter than you; they will never miss an opportunity to try to get whatever they want out of it, at any cost to you. This one goes out to you, you piece of shit. Don't think that I will forget. It's sad that you chose to treat me that way for something SO insignificant...something so small that if you would have just come out and told me I would have gladly done for you. You have lost a great friend and a strong ally..even though I was always there to help you with your problems. How could you do something so simple-minded...something SO cheap after everything I've done for you? It just makes me sad that I've tried so much to help you, and this is how you repay me for over 8 years of friendship. You know all you had to do was stick around and be a good friend, and you would have benefited from me. But you don't know anything about the long-run...do you?
I know that all of you reading this have or have had a friend like this, especially the girls out there (no offense to the good girls). I hope my readers take something from this post. Cut these people out of your life; it's better to chop off the finger rather than letting the cancer spread to your entire arm and the rest of your body. And always make sure that if there is someone you don't trust, don't do anything with them. No transactions, no trade, no friendship. Even if everything looks rosy now, there will always be a pending liability: an accident just waiting to happen. Try to avoid these kind of people, because if you are always caught up in calculating and trying to solve little problems here and there, and involved in little squabbles...you will never see the big picture. It's like being stuck in a bucket of crabs.. every time you get close to the top, another crab will always pull you down. And to the unfortunate people with these permanent selfish, mean and narcissistic minds: you will never grow, you will never be loved and worst of all....you will never be free.
---
ray
Take the example of a security guard I met a while ago, when it was summer in the middle of the blistering heat. I came into an office building, for a business meeting. The security guard sitting comfortably on his chair behind his desk was staring at me, and he could see that I was dripping with sweat. I went over to him and asked him for some tissue to wipe my face, and he told me that there was no tissue. I COULD SEE THE BOX. When I pointed it out to him, he frowned and reluctantly gave me one sheet. ONE SHEET of tissue, from the box that his company paid for, and would never affect him no matter how many he gave away. I looked him in the eye and could see why he would never get past being a security guard, at the age of 45. Even with all the knowledge of lack of opportunity, and obligations on people..I still could see why he really would never go anywhere. Because he lacked any sort of respect for people, and didn't care about anyone else except himself, more concerned about him getting one less piece of tissue for his desk rather than helping someone who had just come out of the sun.
Another person I came across, was a Chinese restaurant owner in Toronto. I came in to ask for a glass of water, and he frowned and whined and bitched all the way to the tap (tap water is drinkable in Canada and is so cheap it's almost free). In fact, one can go anywhere in Toronto or even most of North America for that matter, and ask for a cup of water and get it. This guy had so much of a problem, that it pissed the hell out of me. I started yelling at the top of my lungs how water is FREE and why he had so much of an attitude. A lot of people in the restaurant agreed with me, and my friends had to pull me out of the restaurant before I drove his customers away. I hate these kind of selfish people and it's a shame that these kind of people exist.
The most devastating part is when you have a friend who's like that. It's really upsetting that he/she would not give a damn about you..so much that even after years of knowing them, they would still try to cheat you or hustle you or try to get an upper hand in some opportunity you are involved with, just because they are in a position of power or are the only connection between you and something or somebody else. No matter how much you do for these people, because they do not respect you or think they are smarter than you; they will never miss an opportunity to try to get whatever they want out of it, at any cost to you. This one goes out to you, you piece of shit. Don't think that I will forget. It's sad that you chose to treat me that way for something SO insignificant...something so small that if you would have just come out and told me I would have gladly done for you. You have lost a great friend and a strong ally..even though I was always there to help you with your problems. How could you do something so simple-minded...something SO cheap after everything I've done for you? It just makes me sad that I've tried so much to help you, and this is how you repay me for over 8 years of friendship. You know all you had to do was stick around and be a good friend, and you would have benefited from me. But you don't know anything about the long-run...do you?
I know that all of you reading this have or have had a friend like this, especially the girls out there (no offense to the good girls). I hope my readers take something from this post. Cut these people out of your life; it's better to chop off the finger rather than letting the cancer spread to your entire arm and the rest of your body. And always make sure that if there is someone you don't trust, don't do anything with them. No transactions, no trade, no friendship. Even if everything looks rosy now, there will always be a pending liability: an accident just waiting to happen. Try to avoid these kind of people, because if you are always caught up in calculating and trying to solve little problems here and there, and involved in little squabbles...you will never see the big picture. It's like being stuck in a bucket of crabs.. every time you get close to the top, another crab will always pull you down. And to the unfortunate people with these permanent selfish, mean and narcissistic minds: you will never grow, you will never be loved and worst of all....you will never be free.
---
ray
About Photography
I always tell people about the importance of taking pictures. It's an ability that can be marveled at, an opportunity that one would never regret taking advantage of. Imagine, a way to stop everything- all movement and all activity, and all purpose...the only way to stop time and capture forever a moment in time, to be a moment in history. The ability to trap a series of thoughts and feelings; laughter, sadness, joy, disappointment, courage, confusion and confidence, communication and new experience. Why people do not have an inseparable attachment to taking millions of photographs through their lives I will never understand. Why would you miss the chance to remember something forever?
Pictures are something I value more than videos, more than written word even. Memories fade, stories change, times are forgotten, and people get old and leave this world for the next. But pictures? Pictures you can pass down for years, for generations. A photograph only ever takes once (pardon the pun), and then gives for the entire majority of it's lifetime. Have you ever seen the look of joy on someone's face when they see a picture of someone they once knew? Have you ever seen the look of sheer embarrassment on your face when your family breaks out the baby pictures in front of your friends? Trust me..it's a kind of joy that can never be replicated. Photographs are priceless, they can never be paid for. Losing even one feels like losing an entire fortune, for the amount of thoughts, emotions and feelings attached to even one are immense; secondly no amount of money will ever bring that moment back. It was never about the photograph itself, but about that second you captured...that split-second that you saved for the rest of your life, out of the millions of seconds you have spent and will spend.
Oh, and don't go around thinking that there are a lot of people that don't bother with pictures, and that it's not that important. "Facebook" holds more than 11 billion pictures uploaded by members, with hundreds of thousands being uploaded every week. 500 million members, and if everyone just takes one photograph a week, you can imagine how many new memories are created each day. With that in perspective, aren't you just a little bit concerned? I believe the youth of today have weaker memories than the youth of the past, and sometimes even the elderly struggle with memories, not being able to clearly imagine when they were on that boat for the first time in their lives, or what their brother looked like in grade 4. It gets tough when you start clearing the 30 and 40 year marks, then it becomes hard to recall anything more than just a few distinct moments. The best solution to this problem, is to snap away. And to those of you reading this that are photographers, I commend you. You have discovered long before the rest of us of the irreparable damage we have done to miss so many moments already. You have realized well before your time that treasures and mountains of gold would be worthless against a scrapbook full of photograph memories of our past. I just hope you tell your loved ones about what they are missing, and encourage them to start clicking away.
I met a little girl a few months ago, about 12 years old. Her father had just bought her a new digicam, something not too fancy, just the average point and shoot cams that you can get for about $100 dollars these days. She told me that her and her family were going to germany for a couple of days, and I thought that I would enlighten her with this knowledge, to take a bunch of pictures. According to her age, and attention span I told her "Don't forget to take lots of pictures sweetie, and make sure to come back with at least a 100 or 150 of them." She looked at me and said "I'm coming back with 600." It made me so proud, that she was so smart at such a young age..I mean I just can not stress to you how important something like this is. A couple months ago, when my grandma was visiting us, we were sitting together and browsing through some of the thousands of pictures I have basically hoarded of my entire family. Her father had recently passed away a week and a half ago, at the ripe old age of 107. Because there was too much of a gap between us, we never knew our great-grandfather too well. That never stopped me from taking a bunch of pictures of him though, and when my grandma saw a picture of him, she got tears in her eyes. Don't get it twisted, my grandma is one of the toughest women I know. She's a survivor, and still scares the shit outta my dad. But when she saw a picture of her late father, she cried. She said "No one in our entire extended family has any pictures of my father, could you print me this picture?" The joy it gave me to be able to do something like that for my grandma made it worth it. Friends, when you are a dealer of such precious commodities, the profit is immensely un-measurable.
I myself started just 3-4 years ago, and in these few years I have amassed a personal collection of almost 20,000 pictures of my family. So imagine, I have already collected enough photographs to change a picture frame once a day for the next 50 years. Even all the pictures you see as the headliners of this blog are taken myself; even all the artistic ones. Call me crazy, call me a fanatic, and call me whatever else you feel like you need to: I only call myself unfortunate that I have not clicked more and lucky that I have realized the value of this habit. Even when on a 5 hour stop in Amsterdam in June, I managed to get away with 225 pictures. There are many reasons for this, not just the sake of having them. Whenever I am on the move, I used to have this habit where I'd stop and stare at a passing scene - just pause and take a look, and appreciate what I see. Even if it's a busy street full of traffic somewhere in mid-day in Kuala Lumpur, the activity and the buzz always excited me. I then figured that if I stopped to stare at every chance I got, it would take me years to get away. So I started to click. Walk, click, walk, click, walk, click. This allowed me to get back to my room after my vacation, and then look at them one by one...and notice things that I wouldn't even have noticed if I would have stopped for a few minutes.
This gave me another thought...I could now completely retrace my steps. With all the pictures of buildings, streets, landmarks, trees, people, signs, etc I could almost fully retrace my steps through any city I have visited, allowing me to relive the entire experience again, as if I was almost there again. It's something that I can spend hours doing, and has always brought me the greatest joy. For all those of you who doubt this, please please PLEASE get your hands on a camera. For those of you who can't get/afford/find/borrow a digital one, go and get the old filmclick cameras, otherwise start using your phones. There's no excuse, to click.
Every occasion, is another golden chance in preserving something for the rest of your life, and even the life of your children if you are smart enough about it. With the digital age, we can now effortlessly store hundreds of thousands of pictures in something the size of a chocolate bar. This is future, and this is how our children will see what we have saved for them. There is no limit to the imaginations of young ones, when they see how their elders used to be, used to live, what they looked like. I'm glad my father took thousands of pictures of us, and he is so proud to have something to show his grandkids. I have taken a lot myself, and I plan to never stop. If you are someone close to me, I have some of you too...and I plan to keep them for as long as I breathe. This way we will never forget the good times, never be very far apart...and most importantly, this way we will always live forever.
---
ray
Pictures are something I value more than videos, more than written word even. Memories fade, stories change, times are forgotten, and people get old and leave this world for the next. But pictures? Pictures you can pass down for years, for generations. A photograph only ever takes once (pardon the pun), and then gives for the entire majority of it's lifetime. Have you ever seen the look of joy on someone's face when they see a picture of someone they once knew? Have you ever seen the look of sheer embarrassment on your face when your family breaks out the baby pictures in front of your friends? Trust me..it's a kind of joy that can never be replicated. Photographs are priceless, they can never be paid for. Losing even one feels like losing an entire fortune, for the amount of thoughts, emotions and feelings attached to even one are immense; secondly no amount of money will ever bring that moment back. It was never about the photograph itself, but about that second you captured...that split-second that you saved for the rest of your life, out of the millions of seconds you have spent and will spend.
Oh, and don't go around thinking that there are a lot of people that don't bother with pictures, and that it's not that important. "Facebook" holds more than 11 billion pictures uploaded by members, with hundreds of thousands being uploaded every week. 500 million members, and if everyone just takes one photograph a week, you can imagine how many new memories are created each day. With that in perspective, aren't you just a little bit concerned? I believe the youth of today have weaker memories than the youth of the past, and sometimes even the elderly struggle with memories, not being able to clearly imagine when they were on that boat for the first time in their lives, or what their brother looked like in grade 4. It gets tough when you start clearing the 30 and 40 year marks, then it becomes hard to recall anything more than just a few distinct moments. The best solution to this problem, is to snap away. And to those of you reading this that are photographers, I commend you. You have discovered long before the rest of us of the irreparable damage we have done to miss so many moments already. You have realized well before your time that treasures and mountains of gold would be worthless against a scrapbook full of photograph memories of our past. I just hope you tell your loved ones about what they are missing, and encourage them to start clicking away.
I met a little girl a few months ago, about 12 years old. Her father had just bought her a new digicam, something not too fancy, just the average point and shoot cams that you can get for about $100 dollars these days. She told me that her and her family were going to germany for a couple of days, and I thought that I would enlighten her with this knowledge, to take a bunch of pictures. According to her age, and attention span I told her "Don't forget to take lots of pictures sweetie, and make sure to come back with at least a 100 or 150 of them." She looked at me and said "I'm coming back with 600." It made me so proud, that she was so smart at such a young age..I mean I just can not stress to you how important something like this is. A couple months ago, when my grandma was visiting us, we were sitting together and browsing through some of the thousands of pictures I have basically hoarded of my entire family. Her father had recently passed away a week and a half ago, at the ripe old age of 107. Because there was too much of a gap between us, we never knew our great-grandfather too well. That never stopped me from taking a bunch of pictures of him though, and when my grandma saw a picture of him, she got tears in her eyes. Don't get it twisted, my grandma is one of the toughest women I know. She's a survivor, and still scares the shit outta my dad. But when she saw a picture of her late father, she cried. She said "No one in our entire extended family has any pictures of my father, could you print me this picture?" The joy it gave me to be able to do something like that for my grandma made it worth it. Friends, when you are a dealer of such precious commodities, the profit is immensely un-measurable.
I myself started just 3-4 years ago, and in these few years I have amassed a personal collection of almost 20,000 pictures of my family. So imagine, I have already collected enough photographs to change a picture frame once a day for the next 50 years. Even all the pictures you see as the headliners of this blog are taken myself; even all the artistic ones. Call me crazy, call me a fanatic, and call me whatever else you feel like you need to: I only call myself unfortunate that I have not clicked more and lucky that I have realized the value of this habit. Even when on a 5 hour stop in Amsterdam in June, I managed to get away with 225 pictures. There are many reasons for this, not just the sake of having them. Whenever I am on the move, I used to have this habit where I'd stop and stare at a passing scene - just pause and take a look, and appreciate what I see. Even if it's a busy street full of traffic somewhere in mid-day in Kuala Lumpur, the activity and the buzz always excited me. I then figured that if I stopped to stare at every chance I got, it would take me years to get away. So I started to click. Walk, click, walk, click, walk, click. This allowed me to get back to my room after my vacation, and then look at them one by one...and notice things that I wouldn't even have noticed if I would have stopped for a few minutes.
This gave me another thought...I could now completely retrace my steps. With all the pictures of buildings, streets, landmarks, trees, people, signs, etc I could almost fully retrace my steps through any city I have visited, allowing me to relive the entire experience again, as if I was almost there again. It's something that I can spend hours doing, and has always brought me the greatest joy. For all those of you who doubt this, please please PLEASE get your hands on a camera. For those of you who can't get/afford/find/borrow a digital one, go and get the old filmclick cameras, otherwise start using your phones. There's no excuse, to click.
Every occasion, is another golden chance in preserving something for the rest of your life, and even the life of your children if you are smart enough about it. With the digital age, we can now effortlessly store hundreds of thousands of pictures in something the size of a chocolate bar. This is future, and this is how our children will see what we have saved for them. There is no limit to the imaginations of young ones, when they see how their elders used to be, used to live, what they looked like. I'm glad my father took thousands of pictures of us, and he is so proud to have something to show his grandkids. I have taken a lot myself, and I plan to never stop. If you are someone close to me, I have some of you too...and I plan to keep them for as long as I breathe. This way we will never forget the good times, never be very far apart...and most importantly, this way we will always live forever.
---
ray
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
About Modern Humanity
This is the longest I've gone without a post. Guess a lot has happened since the last one. Makes you think about how much can happen in a day, how much can happen in a minute sometimes..So imagine what could be possible in 10 days between the last thought and this one? It could be possible that you could have become a whole other person...such life-changing experiences we have all been through at some point or the other. But it's not just all about instant changes.
The changes we never realize, are the changes we go through on an everyday basis. Think about it..you will never realize before, or even through the course of it...but instead long after it has already finished. Someone will tell you that you look different, have you been going to the gym? Or the way you used to do something is different than how you do it now...why do you think that is? Pick something like a habit you may have or have had. It's proven, that 7 day routine of any habit allows it to be instilled in your everyday methodology. A very common yet famous example would be the one where you wake up every morning, and bend over and touch your right toe. On the 8th day of this routine, it will seem natural, as if it was never strange or peculiar a thing to do, as if it was something that you felt you needed to do. In this context, if you go for a walk, and can keep the habit for the first 7 days, on the 8th day you will get this urge, this feeling to get up and go for a walk.
But pick something like changing the way you laugh. How is it possible..just put a thought to it for a second. How do you consciously change that? How do you actively examine your laugh, analyze it, and change it on purpose? I don't think it's possible, even seeming a bit on the freakishly unimaginable side of things right now as it is. Or something like the way you sleep, on which side. I want to know, or would love to discover, what part of the mind these are influenced by, and by which mechanism; most importantly 'Why". These change, through the course of our lives, and I can't help but think that they change for a reason. Public appearance? Self-consciousness? Extensive intrinsic analysis perhaps?
How the human mind has accepted the human body; appalling. Think about our bodies, our beings, our physical composition. How is it possible that the mind has learned to accept it as normal? Man, is the most advanced machine known to man. We are so cryptic, so encompassingly unimaginably complicated, that I don't think we would be able to stand the knowledge. Maybe that's why we don't worry about why we eat so much junk food, or churn out and breathe so much pollution. It seems we have something that we underestimate; faith. Now don't get me wrong, this doesn't have anything to do with religion. That's a whole other chapter of a very different story from a completely different book. I'm talking about faith in ourselves, our bodies, our minds and our existence. We believe everyday that we will wake up tomorrow, and so do not go to bed afraid of not waking up. We believe that we can eat whatever we want, it will be digested, and 3 meals a day is the norm, and it has become. I find it hard to accept that we have so fully accepted ourselves, when everyday is a wonder. People have become so detached to the sense of life that they have almost lost it. Material possessions, work, business, power struggles, politics, battles and wars, fights and disagreements, success ventures, competition: people, including the both of us, are losing sight of the ball - they are losing focus and mixing up their priorities.
We have forgotten that we are living to live, and we used to go to sleep so that we could dream. We forgot that we work so that we can have a means to live, eat, drink, be happy, and enjoy ourselves. It has become a race, and every one's running as fast as they can...we live in a norm where "stopping to smell the flowers" is frowned upon! Children are taught as soon as they can walk to go to school, study hard, cram, pass heavy and excruciatingly tough board exams, study, fear authority, work hard, listen and do as you're told, cram cram cram...who remembers when grade 1 was for playing, learning about shapes and nap-time...who remembers snack-time? I see kids these days who are literally too small to lift their backpacks, because there are too many books in them. Imagine that...academy schools where they teach you the photosynthesis cycle in KG-2. And yes, I did know that when I was in grade 2. But I can't imagine being a teacher, and failing a 5 year old KG-2 kid for not being able to spell "dyslexia minora". I would feel sick to my stomach.
It's become a strange world we live in. Life has become fast, and I would have become just another person of the billions that are running around out there. But I have learned, and I too have gone through subconscious changes, and exchanged states of mental normalities. I grew up not so well equipped for the great struggle, not as smart as many of the kids who already had a head start on me..not as bright or as fast or as tall, but later realized that not much of it mattered. I discovered hard work, and the value of money - and I was running along like everyone else, trying to win. Like everyone else, on the same track..like everyone else trying to "make it". I wore the same uniform and the same track shoes, running and running, wondering how far behind me the person behind me really was, and how far ahead the person in front of me had got. I became a part of the human machine, the global corporate mentality ladder, just another figure or number...never stopping once to look at myself, rather always looking to how I should behave in front of this person or how bad it would "look" if I did that, or who I was expected to be by whom, and that those expectations were so high but I had to fulfill them for some reason. I forgot what it was like to live for myself, like millions have forgotten. So many people concerned with self-image for other people, when those people were consumed with the same thing, and truthfully didn't care...people have forgotten how to have fun.
Think about it, and learn to look inside. Do you trust yourself with your own sound? It's not about them anymore, that's been blown out of proportion. Realistically thinking, there are some places we will never go, some people we will never beat, and some things we will never be able to do. That race has begun, and finishes, and will begin again to finish again. Break free from the repeat button's trance, and breathe with me. Try to think about where you come from, and where you go. What's the reason that keeps you in flow? What makes you tick, what makes you move, what is the source of that spark, what is the fuel that motivates your soul? Chase that dream, run for that truth, be greedy for that knowledge, and be thirsty for that idea...You will find self-improvement, self-health and self-consciousness. I always looked around me, about me, to other people, other things, and thought the thoughts of everyone around me...every one's except for my own. I always was the type who felt that I need to run that race, and that I was losing, because every time I would cross the person in front of me, instead of being motivated I would instantly realize that there is someone in front of me, and was another person I had to beat - another hurdle I had to jump, another obstacle I had to overcome. Then, one day I noticed my shoelace was untied, and I simply stopped to tie my shoe: everything changed.
From that angle, that point of view, and from that standstill; I was instantly plunged into a different light, a lime-light. When I stopped running, people started wondering why. The light was instantly on me, and in this light, I got a chance to see who I really was. I realized that I was running a race on a track which went in one large circle, and that the finish line was nothing more than the starting line. Then all of a sudden, I saw the flowers. And as I was looking at them, everyone started looking at me. They could see how I dressed, how I moved, how I talked, how I walked, and most importantly, that I didn't care about a silly race anymore, and that I knew it didn't matter. In their eyes, I was different, and in today's world, different is...well it's different isn't it? People started to realize that since it didn't matter to me what they thought anymore, it would be interesting for them to know what I thought. They started to realize that because I didn't care what their demands and expectations were anymore, that maybe MINE mattered all of a sudden...and thus began my journey; to the centre of my universe. And the whole time that they stood watching me, wondering and pondering about me, I didn't even realize. Why? Because the flowers smelled so damn good.
---
ray
The changes we never realize, are the changes we go through on an everyday basis. Think about it..you will never realize before, or even through the course of it...but instead long after it has already finished. Someone will tell you that you look different, have you been going to the gym? Or the way you used to do something is different than how you do it now...why do you think that is? Pick something like a habit you may have or have had. It's proven, that 7 day routine of any habit allows it to be instilled in your everyday methodology. A very common yet famous example would be the one where you wake up every morning, and bend over and touch your right toe. On the 8th day of this routine, it will seem natural, as if it was never strange or peculiar a thing to do, as if it was something that you felt you needed to do. In this context, if you go for a walk, and can keep the habit for the first 7 days, on the 8th day you will get this urge, this feeling to get up and go for a walk.
But pick something like changing the way you laugh. How is it possible..just put a thought to it for a second. How do you consciously change that? How do you actively examine your laugh, analyze it, and change it on purpose? I don't think it's possible, even seeming a bit on the freakishly unimaginable side of things right now as it is. Or something like the way you sleep, on which side. I want to know, or would love to discover, what part of the mind these are influenced by, and by which mechanism; most importantly 'Why". These change, through the course of our lives, and I can't help but think that they change for a reason. Public appearance? Self-consciousness? Extensive intrinsic analysis perhaps?
How the human mind has accepted the human body; appalling. Think about our bodies, our beings, our physical composition. How is it possible that the mind has learned to accept it as normal? Man, is the most advanced machine known to man. We are so cryptic, so encompassingly unimaginably complicated, that I don't think we would be able to stand the knowledge. Maybe that's why we don't worry about why we eat so much junk food, or churn out and breathe so much pollution. It seems we have something that we underestimate; faith. Now don't get me wrong, this doesn't have anything to do with religion. That's a whole other chapter of a very different story from a completely different book. I'm talking about faith in ourselves, our bodies, our minds and our existence. We believe everyday that we will wake up tomorrow, and so do not go to bed afraid of not waking up. We believe that we can eat whatever we want, it will be digested, and 3 meals a day is the norm, and it has become. I find it hard to accept that we have so fully accepted ourselves, when everyday is a wonder. People have become so detached to the sense of life that they have almost lost it. Material possessions, work, business, power struggles, politics, battles and wars, fights and disagreements, success ventures, competition: people, including the both of us, are losing sight of the ball - they are losing focus and mixing up their priorities.
We have forgotten that we are living to live, and we used to go to sleep so that we could dream. We forgot that we work so that we can have a means to live, eat, drink, be happy, and enjoy ourselves. It has become a race, and every one's running as fast as they can...we live in a norm where "stopping to smell the flowers" is frowned upon! Children are taught as soon as they can walk to go to school, study hard, cram, pass heavy and excruciatingly tough board exams, study, fear authority, work hard, listen and do as you're told, cram cram cram...who remembers when grade 1 was for playing, learning about shapes and nap-time...who remembers snack-time? I see kids these days who are literally too small to lift their backpacks, because there are too many books in them. Imagine that...academy schools where they teach you the photosynthesis cycle in KG-2. And yes, I did know that when I was in grade 2. But I can't imagine being a teacher, and failing a 5 year old KG-2 kid for not being able to spell "dyslexia minora". I would feel sick to my stomach.
It's become a strange world we live in. Life has become fast, and I would have become just another person of the billions that are running around out there. But I have learned, and I too have gone through subconscious changes, and exchanged states of mental normalities. I grew up not so well equipped for the great struggle, not as smart as many of the kids who already had a head start on me..not as bright or as fast or as tall, but later realized that not much of it mattered. I discovered hard work, and the value of money - and I was running along like everyone else, trying to win. Like everyone else, on the same track..like everyone else trying to "make it". I wore the same uniform and the same track shoes, running and running, wondering how far behind me the person behind me really was, and how far ahead the person in front of me had got. I became a part of the human machine, the global corporate mentality ladder, just another figure or number...never stopping once to look at myself, rather always looking to how I should behave in front of this person or how bad it would "look" if I did that, or who I was expected to be by whom, and that those expectations were so high but I had to fulfill them for some reason. I forgot what it was like to live for myself, like millions have forgotten. So many people concerned with self-image for other people, when those people were consumed with the same thing, and truthfully didn't care...people have forgotten how to have fun.
Think about it, and learn to look inside. Do you trust yourself with your own sound? It's not about them anymore, that's been blown out of proportion. Realistically thinking, there are some places we will never go, some people we will never beat, and some things we will never be able to do. That race has begun, and finishes, and will begin again to finish again. Break free from the repeat button's trance, and breathe with me. Try to think about where you come from, and where you go. What's the reason that keeps you in flow? What makes you tick, what makes you move, what is the source of that spark, what is the fuel that motivates your soul? Chase that dream, run for that truth, be greedy for that knowledge, and be thirsty for that idea...You will find self-improvement, self-health and self-consciousness. I always looked around me, about me, to other people, other things, and thought the thoughts of everyone around me...every one's except for my own. I always was the type who felt that I need to run that race, and that I was losing, because every time I would cross the person in front of me, instead of being motivated I would instantly realize that there is someone in front of me, and was another person I had to beat - another hurdle I had to jump, another obstacle I had to overcome. Then, one day I noticed my shoelace was untied, and I simply stopped to tie my shoe: everything changed.
From that angle, that point of view, and from that standstill; I was instantly plunged into a different light, a lime-light. When I stopped running, people started wondering why. The light was instantly on me, and in this light, I got a chance to see who I really was. I realized that I was running a race on a track which went in one large circle, and that the finish line was nothing more than the starting line. Then all of a sudden, I saw the flowers. And as I was looking at them, everyone started looking at me. They could see how I dressed, how I moved, how I talked, how I walked, and most importantly, that I didn't care about a silly race anymore, and that I knew it didn't matter. In their eyes, I was different, and in today's world, different is...well it's different isn't it? People started to realize that since it didn't matter to me what they thought anymore, it would be interesting for them to know what I thought. They started to realize that because I didn't care what their demands and expectations were anymore, that maybe MINE mattered all of a sudden...and thus began my journey; to the centre of my universe. And the whole time that they stood watching me, wondering and pondering about me, I didn't even realize. Why? Because the flowers smelled so damn good.
---
ray
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