The Boy Named Crow

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction. You change direction, but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. somethinginside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine….

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: It will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You’ll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

from “Kafka On the Shore” by Haruki Murakami.

An author who I only recently decided to start reading, and OH MY GOD! I am DEVOURING his books. I remember coming across his book at a friends house. He had at least seven or eight novels, and at first I thought they were maybe comic books, or a sequels and prequels kind of thing..like a grown up version of The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew or something. After reading two books so far (Dance, Dance, Dance and Kafka On the Shore) I see why he had so many books. Murakami is just surreal. If you have not read him.. DO IT. NOW.

 

Contemplation

I meander through the moonlight
skipping stones lit by the twilight

Holding silent conversations with the wind,
I wallow in the revelations of my hindsight
and bask at the beauty of my insights

Finding solace with these djinns,
I wonder if somehow, they can enlight

10 things I know to be true

1. Peanut butter and honey on toast runs laps around peanut butter and jam
2. I will never be good with words, but hindsight is 20/20 and I have a backspace key.
3. Any day ending with after-work drinks is a good day indeed.
4. My dog will stop whatever he is doing and run, not walk, RUN to me in a heartbeat if i am holding his ball.
5. Spoken word performances will either make me smile or observe in awe because regardless of the subject, they will resonate with me.
6. Regardless of where I am in the city, 50 rupees will always be enough for two cigarettes and at least one micro-bus home (the cigarettes are for after the ride!)
7. On a good day, my phone will drop a call after 40 minutes of talking.
8. Something might be waterproof or shockproof, it might even have a warranty or a guarantee, but it is never ever “sush-proof”
9. A little smoke goes a long way to making a movie, ANY movie, amazing.
10. I will keep editing this list until I am satisfied with myself (see #2).

what motivates our empathic minds?

Unless you’re an enlightened being who has learned to detach themselves from their environments and learned to let go of the concept of time, being quarantined for over a week starts to eat at the insides of your mind. I have been struggling to find ways to kill the time and each day reluctantly resort to plugging in my hard-drive and watching movies and tv shows. I have had suggestions from friends of how I could better spend my time, though. Read books, read books on really intense subjects like (and this was far fetched) “quantam mechanics and shit, so you’ll come out in two weeks like a genius”, meditate (ummm), write a novel! While I appreciate the enthusiasm of the ideas, I decided I did need to keep my mind engaged somehow (lets face it, watching episodes of how i met your mother, and the likes, isn’t that intellectually stimulating).

So my friend and I had a random discussion, as we always do, and the topic of humanity came up, specifically, of how he felt that time was running out for this generation, and something must be done (he is slightly pessimistic, if you couldn’t guess). While the specifics of why he felt we were doomed were never mentioned, his pessimism still managed to rub off on me.

Enter youtube and these wonderful animated lectures that I had discovered through tedtalks.com (shown to me by a fellow procrastinator :D).  I watched a few animated lectures on youtube and the pessimism began to dissipate. Of the several videos I watched, two specific ones gave me some sort of hope in humanity for no particular reason.

 

“The Empathic Civilization”

 

“The surprising truth about what motivates us”

 

I was initially going to have a post about the way we are motivated and the implications of the lecture (2nd video link) on how to improve the productivity of bureaucracy in Nepal, but it got a little bit overwhelming and my patience dwindled.

The first lecture, meanwhile, I thought was interesting simply because I am fascinated by the discoveries made by evolutionary biology and how these discoveries attempt to rationalize various aspects of human nature. While I don’t think every single characteristic of our being should be chalked down to science (despite the fact that it does all boil down to science), it s still interesting to see how our similarities contribute to our uniqueness.

Here’s to hoping you have as much free time and patience as I did to load and watch these videos (if not patience,  I hope you have fast internet at the least)! They’re totally worth it, and will make your procrastination feel productive!