Thursday, December 11, 2014

The Familiar Landscape


Windows of Unfamiliar Landscape

The Familiar Landscape
Spectator: Dchee

The clock of holiday is ticking away once again. With competitive price slashing in the airlines industry, intercontinental travel is made easier in the recent years. It is no longer a dream for one to have breakfast in one country, lunch and dinner in another country.

Some say travel is therapeutic. Which is why going abroad alone can mean a lot for a person when it comes to understanding oneself. Let's be honest, it is about going to the airport alone, sitting next to a stranger, finding the way to your hotel, grab the breakfast alone and occasional chit-chat to strangers; things that you would not have done in your everyday routine.

To be in a foreign land, sometimes in a totally unfamiliar society, makes one listen closer to his/her thoughts. When the world seems indifferent to your existence, it is no surprising that you would become your own best friend, telling yourself the next best decision to make for it to be called a day. I suppose the meaning of a day is beautifully calibrated that way.

Looking out from the unfamiliar window on surprisingly painting-like landscape, the thought of blissfulness emerged out of the totally relaxed mind; you guiltily imagined the whereabouts of stress and worries you used to have back in the hustle-bustle city. You chuckled, acknowledged that those are part of the mechanics in the unknown realm of life.

It was lunch time, you grabbed a quick bite at the nearby stall which has quirky food that drove your curiosity. You took out the city map, going through marked locations that interest you and made your way there. Deep down inside you understood that artistry is perhaps not your cup of tea, but being miles across your hometown made you feel that your time was meaningfully justified. So you went on with the thrill, letting the senses absorbed in an unrestrained fashion.

Watching the sunset closes another therapeutic chapter in your travel log. Seeing the expected busy night life you began to relate back to your hometown, good or bad. You knew it was another lonely night spent in an exotic corner of the world that you thought you knew. Talking to your monologue, thoughts surfaced once again with much recollection of the past and you probed harder to fathom the purpose of tomorrow.

There after, you plunged into another slumber therapy.

I guess, the hype of travelling is all about being alone in an unfamiliar landscape. To truly uncover oneself, internalize the monologue that arises, discover the familiar landscape in the yet unfamiliar world.




Monday, October 27, 2014

when the September wind is gone

There goes September, end of the Summer -
The peak of a year, for any dream to be cleared.

October came with chill winds and shower,
slowly dawned upon me that another year is over.

Scanning to-do list while ambivalence grew stronger,
...I wonder,
whether mankind is the slave of Material World or never?

Two decades of tests and struggles,
Evidently ... mankind has become more confused and greedier,

A fact which I beg to differ,
I see Complacency as the crux of the matter,
since in humbleness we know how much we can filter.

The future to some may be a horror,
While others welcome it with a sense of honor,
The rest resort to believe the fortune teller.

There comes November, beginning of the Winter -
Cold storm with bonfire, for there is nothing to be feared.

- Desmonde, Autumn 2014









Thursday, August 14, 2014

Chasing the Train of Your Life

When the days passed like nobody's business, one can't be more worried about the path to be taken in life. We do, of course, make choices at each station of life as we progress. It is analogous to taking the train in the city. Do we know where we are heading before we even set off from the terminal?



The dichotomy of life is tricky - we are physically living in the CITY yet we are metaphysically wandering in our imaginary CITY where destinations are sometimes undefined, blurred, or clear and far. Duality exists in our life in the following manners:

i. [Congruent] - the CITY that you are living in is the CITY in your imaginary world: wherever places you are visiting today is a result of your informed choices of destination in your imaginary CITY by taking the right train.

ii. [Incongruent] - the CITY that you are living is not the CITY in your imaginary world: whatever you do today is divergent from your ideal CITY i.e. you probably missed your train or you've boarded the wrong train.

There is perhaps no best answer to this conundrum. However, we need to ask ourselves in this age of life whether have we taken the right train and how much money we have in our wallet? Some people may have a stack of bills for trial and error; some only left with a note to take the leap of faith. Ultimately, how urgent it is to take the train?

Let us examine a few scenarios here:

1. You and your partner jump on the bandwagon to take the new train to the town not knowing the real destination cause everybody else in this age seems to be doing the same thing.

2. You and your partner board a different train to the same destination. Although the destination is clear, you have to know the rapport between you and him/her so you will not end up waiting like a mad guy at the destination or lost contact eventually.

3. You and your partner board a different train to the different destination. That is probably another new chapter to write in your life.

4. You are waiting impatiently at the Terminal because you do not want to risk the last note in your wallet. You may or may not know which is the right train to take.

5. You and your partner boarded the right train - right time - and in control of the time and any back up plan should the train break down.

6. You are a backpacker hopping on each available train randomly hoping to find someone who can assure you of the right destination to go.

7. You take your own sweet time cause you just have too much in your wallet and time is of course not a matter to you. You might have known the right train to take in this case.


So as the saying goes "Life moves on", which train are you trying to catch exactly?

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Recalling Magnetism of Life

Sometime ago, I wrote an entry on the Magnetism of Life.
Life is akin to magnets in action. Imagine every person is carrying both North and South poles which alter their positions in an undefined span of time. As the principle goes, when the North meets the South, they clique. When the North meets the North, they repel.


"magnet pool"

Society is a macroscopic pool of bubbles that are constantly tweaking their poles due to the external factors. In Year X, they are intertwined in a particular fashion similar to the cobwebs. However, in Year X+1, the web undergoes slight twist as a result of magnetic activities. Although they happen by chance, they are not necessarily predictable. That is why people changed across the years, for good or for bad.

These constantly changing "vulnerable" bubbles, to say the least , still driven by will-power as much as human intuition is intact. Strong will power gain governance over the alternating poles and thus true friendship stays against all odds. Better still, when psychics overrules, the magnetism can be intensified in the desired path.

As conceptual as this theory, they are all happening within indefinite boundary space.
Remember, there is freedom within; there is freedom without.


When you face adversity, thicken your wall to let loose from the undesired pole, or prepare a metal plate.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Mindset

With the Spring looming around the corner and the festive Chinese New Year in the Orient,
one can't help to recollect the past and astounded by the trajectory of life that one has gone through in the past decade. From high school days to college life and the career moment.
It is amazing how much awe the Time is able to inspire.

"choices"

The fact that Life is one way street is undisputed. Given the complexity of society, it is largely debatable as of how one perceives his way forward. [Compare Time Frame Scenarios]
The mindset can be:

a) To persevere with steadfast belief, unswerving position to attain life goals albeit being mean and cold;

b) To play by ear, adopting an opportunistic approach to minimize losses (see Sunken Cost Theory) despite taking risk to entertain the unnecessary, sometimes;

c) Resort to blame the past, engrossing in analyzing the defeat, either challenging it again or tumbling into a state of despair,

Of course, life is more sophisticated than a pot of curry. You can put all the ingredients a,b,c or capitalizing only own one item to make your so-called signature dish. The bottom line is: where is your point of reference, and is it you?


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Time Matter, Time Shutter


Imagine a box frame. You are inside it. The clock starts ticking away...tick tock tick...
You leap forward three box frames. Another hour passed, you find yourself looking through a series of box frames from a vantage point. Now imagine you see yourself in each of the box frame. You start to see the sequence of your movement much like the shutter in a camera. Pieces as a whole.
Packing up those past boxes in ten years, you will see a pattern of life as flexible as human vertebrae. Sometimes straight, sometimes bend, and maybe winding. You are now at the latest box frame gazing into emptiness. 

You start to wonder what might be the right shape for the future frame path.
In ideal case, they will form a desired path. 
However, in reality things usually happen not in accordance to our desires. A "pre-determined" path so to speak. 
Now what I am really interested in is this: set aside the harsh reality, how do you perceive and work out your own reality? 

A few possible scenarios here: 

Direction A - Extreme desired case. Your ideal merges with you perceived and the harsh reality. Surprisingly you are managing them so well that you gel three of them into one ultimate point. You should be proud but this is usually impossible. 

Direction B - A more typical form. You set your own goals and persevere with faith in spite of all challenges from the harsh reality. You do give and take with the Ideal and the Reality. Sometimes they give in too. Therefore you are maintaining your ultimate point and two of them somewhat support what you are doing. Bear in mind that sometimes you will have to compromise your ideal. 

Direction C - Extreme undesired case. You just say goodbye to your dreams and succumb to the harsh reality. I don't suppose you are going this way. If you are, perhaps you should read - Socrates " an Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living". 


That probably sums up the meaning of life in a temporal sense. 

I wish you a very Happy New Year and hope this article enlightens you on your New Year's Resolution. 

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