Ramblings on a busy day
Meanings
I just got an email from a friend who is now based in Ireland. She is a nun who tells me in all her emails that God is good and that I should never be afraid to let go because when I die I wouldn’t be able to bring with me even a toothpick. These things are always said with humor but the truth behind the thoughts are eternal.
Incidentally, in one of those chats at some quiet corners after series of “harassing” days, I got into an exchange with this friend or that on the two types of people who have the ability to survive any trying situation. The philosopher is one and the poet is the other. The former explains the meaning of anything. Cockroaches have significance. Germs, viruses, terrorism, traffic, bad days – all these have significance in the way one’s life moves; in the way a country moves. Poets too can survive any inhumanity including those at concentration camps because poets can give meaning to anything. Nothing as seemingly meaningless as dust or dung can escape the scrutiny for meaning by the poet.
What would life be like without people who can articulate meanings through sounds and scenes that are soothing or otherwise?
On a busy day, it’s like I’m running here and there upside down. Can you imagine me running on my head by the roadside? How could I do this if there were no wild flowers on the road or the sound of dusk and mothers’ lullabies?
When one is in the middle of a writer’s block, one can only ramble. I’m in that state now. I can only write reports, concept papers, position papers , minutes, manifestos or any of those dry and stiff statements about the economic, political or cultural dimensions of everyday….in stale statements…literature in a hurry…..phraseologies that by their nature of being alongside technical writing do not need to capture the color and texture of dawn and dusk. A writer’s block is like a benign growth in the body of a writer’s soul. It is not deadly but it makes a writer powerless over words.
A movie clip entitled "Life" sent to me by a friend was edifying and soothing at a time when there was this sense of aridity in me.Here's the movie clip. Please search through Yahoo using Internet Explorer. Sorry that the movie can't be embedded here. Here's the link: http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Life/index.htm
