A poetic afternoon

Today, I started off with this:

Strangers, strangers
In my land
Make me believe
I can stand
When I fall and tumble

Down the drains,
My nerves they land
'pon the sea
Of empty sand
Then wash ashore in crumbles.


And something in the middle: (more like to be read aloud with a beat)

Behold, the notebook
A symbol of doing something
Something useful in life.
Perhaps I will scribble something worthwhile
Something worth reading for a while.
As simple as it may seem
To want to not waste time
It cannot be done, I tell you,
Time flies by
With every breath I take
Every second I stare
Every fidget I make
Every day I behold
The beauty of life
The pointlessness of life
The strangeness that is strife
In every moment of life;
And that, oh that
It cannot be undone
And that, is what is wrong.


And then ended up with this:

Seeds of Dream

In depths of need
I sow the seeds
That desperation
Barely feeds,
That grows upon
My climbing fears
Watered by my
Silent tears;
Looked after by
My sleepless self
Nurtured by
My bleeding heart;
The light from fire
That burns within
My mind provides
The shine it needs;
The strength, a desire
To finally seize
My life from all
These lifeless weeds;
And then it sprouts
A single bud
From whence erupts
A lingering thought:
Of hope, of want to grab it all;
Of no more pain, of standing tall;
A dream that now shall never fall,
So deep-rooted it blossoms upon
My soul.

Dreams to be had

There's dreams to be had,
Fulfilled at that.
Come across them
Run across and
Go on like you
Never saw them
Then,
Then walk right back;
A glancing look that lasts
But in your mind,
Forever in your mind
Behind questions unasked...

Quote

(after a failed attempt at using logic to convince a friend to be happy)
Above feelings, there is happiness, above happiness, there is love; if one is missing, the one below sways the mind.

Started a maths blog

Separated it from the main blog, as this one is (mostly) for literary works.
Check it out here: http://iateyourgrannymaths.blogspot.com/

A little thought

Hmm, here's an interesting thought: what does air smell like? Most people may say air is smell-less, but then, how can we really know? We've always "smelt" air our whole life. Can one compare the smell of air with the smell of no air? No, because without air, you can't breathe in, and then how would you smell? I think maybe the smell of air is the default smell in our nose, and that's why it's so oblivious to us. Take taste for example. Keep your tongue where it would normally be, touching the top of the inside of your mouth. Do you taste anything? Now try moving your tongue around, or tasting the bottom of the inside of your mouth. Feel anything different?

How and Why

Quotes, quotes, quotes... I see a lot of quotes these days. Some make sense, some are nothing more than a neat play on words. I don't get it; does a sentence have to be poetically cute to be true, and just because something sounds nice and witty, does it mean it has a profound impact on reality? Why are so many 'smart' things said in riddles anyway? I mean, take for example the proverb "Winners don't do different things, they do things differently". As I said, poetic, isn't it? But do you think the author thought really long and hard, like "hmm.. winners, they do things.. everybody does things... do they do different things? hmm... maybe not.. so what is different about them.. hmmm..." etc etc. and finally came to the logical conclusion expressed in the above quote? Or do you think it just came to their mind all of a sudden while they were thinking of something to say and then went like "hmm.. aha, yes, yes, that is true, very true, I know what it's trying to say!"
Yup, in most cases, they just think up something first, and then think up reasons as to why they said it and what it could mean. But, let's take a look at the quote again, shall we? "Winners don't do different things" ..well, of course, for any thing you could possibly do, there is somebody else in the world who does it. "they do things differently", well so do losers, being different doesn't necessarily mean it is good. So, if you go by this quote, winners and losers are one and the same? And what about entrepreneurs? They DO do different things. Of course, there are winner entrepreneurs and loser entrepreneurs as well. Basically, what I see in this quote is, if you are trying something and it doesn't work, try doing it differently... well, thanks for the big help. Quotes such as these are nothing more than ink blots, to be interpreted according to what you already know. Their poetry serves only as an idiot's memory cue, which they probably won't remember in times of need anyhow. And so we come to what I wanted to talk about - the 'How's and the 'Why's.

Why - the reason why you did something. How - the way how you are going to do something. "Why did you drink water?" - "To quench my thirst." "How did you quench your thirst?" "By drinking water." How's and why's are linguistic opposites of each-other: 'how' is the cause that seeks a way, which turns into the effect; 'why' is the effect that seeks a cause. Let's say, without questioning your morality, that you shot a dog. Well, and let's say that, not listening to me, somebody does question your morality, and asks you "Why did you shoot the dog?" You reply (since you, being a character in my little story, don't have much choice) that you did so because the dog was annoying you. You shoot first, and then you answer why later. Now let's take it the other way round - you are getting annoyed by a barking dog, you have a gun: how do you deal with the nuisance? You shoot the dog ..or you shoo it away, or you go somewhere else, or you give it a doggie treat, or any other solution, which you are free to choose from, since you are now asking how to solve the problem, not why you solved it this way or that way. Of course, when you ask why, you have choices too, but those choices are about the reason why you did it, you don't really have the option of rechoosing what to do.

Do these "reasons" sound familiar? Yup, excuses. That's where they all come from. Somebody does something not very agreeable, and you ask them why they did so. They can give you 10-20 reasons why, "It was so this that, I didn't have any blah blah, It would have yaggity yagked anyway" etc. But you're damn certain they weren't thinking through any of these reasons before they did the act; they only came up with the justification later, which doesn't make them reasons at all. If they actually had been thinking anything while carrying out the said act, they probably wouldn't have done it in the first place. But no, they have already done it, and they need an excuse or two why they did it. Or lots more excuses, actually; I am surprised how many "good reasons" they come up with - makes them almost sound like a tactical genius. But alas, if only they did the thinking before the act - if only they asked how instead of being asked why.

Keep in mind - not all 'how's are the same. "How is this possible?" "How does it work?" "How could you do this to me?" "How do birds fly?" These hows show a degree of powerlessness, and they are the same as why's. You find yourself the subject of the acts of others, or to the laws of nature, and you ask why things are how they are. Gravity - gravity keeps people firmly settled in their dear home planet. Why is there gravity? Obviously nothing to do with us humans. But why are people able to walk, stand, sit, run, hop, jump, stay on the ground? Because of gravity. Gravity is the cause - the greater power, and we can merely feel its effects. In a way of speaking, we are one of its effects. I'm sure gravity didn't come into existance for us though. Nature didn't ask "How do I create suitable conditions for humans to live?" On the contrary, life shaped itself around the framework of nature.

You are subject to the whims of nature, there is nothing you can do about it; but do not be subject to your own whims as well. You cannot change the universe, and you cannot change most other people, but you can change yourself and what you do. You can ask how do I do things in a better way, and follow through, making yourself a better person. You cannot do something first and then try hard to justify yourself, that won't change the fact about what you did and what you are like. Do not be a slave to yourself, to your own actions. You could be wrong and never know it, since you only seek to justify yourself, like a lawyer fighting for a fixed cause, no matter what you did. Debate before it's too late, don't be forced to take sides. Think of reason first, and then how to accomplish your goal; don't do something first, then reason why you did it. Ask how, not why.

First post

It's a poem, just wrote it:

Fleeting Moments

There's a special time of the day
When I feel serene;
My worries take a break,
And I feel relieved.

Oh no, they're still there
But they weighed heavy so,
My heart just gave way
Now they clamber from below.

But if only for a moment
My heart is free of pain,
I take my time to stare
'pon the fields past heaven's doors;
'Tis in these fleeting moments
That true happiness lays;
And a deep breath I take,
To get ready for life again.

Ok

Made a blog, welcome here.