Consumption Rationalization

     The human being could be considered the biggest consumer on this Earth, even bigger than grasshoppers, or maybe viruses. This is simply because not only does he find it enough to consume everything around, but he also consumes everybody including his own self! Everything his hands drop upon, his feet step upon, and his eyes fall upon, an expiring creature living in an expiring world! 

     The lifecycle of the Homo sapiens (Hominidae, Primates): they eat, drink, excrete, sleep, move, wash, dress, talk, shop, produce, reproduce, inhale, exhale, receive, transmit, hit, destroy, dirt, burn, hurt, wound, kill, cure, hate, love, envy, support, think and feel and act and react, survive, and die... All forms of consumption, all forms of life erosion.

     The merchandise of life are everywhere. Some are on shelves, piled in boxes, and stored in depots, buy and sell and show us your money Mr. Big Spender. The others, however, are just there everywhere, no shelves, no boxes, no depots, no cha-ching or ba-bling! Buy and sell same still but this time show us your deepest truest will.

     Such a capitalistic view! We make you love to consume. We make you live to consume! No 'consumption rationalization', for that is a silly unrealistic term of little dreamy boys at school. If you have more than enough, why should you rationalize if you can still have enough? If you have enough, why should you rationalize if you can still have less than enough? If you have less than enough, why should you rationalize if you can still consume the little you have till you have nothing? And if you have nothing, well.. What are you living for then? So you keep on running after the mirage of brand names and you set a price tag to the non-priceable before the priceable. Yet brands are tricky and price tags are not sticky.

     To be controlled and distracted and wasted or to control and focus and establish. It is your call. Fair enough, isn't it?  

A Toy Story

     What if you discover that all that time you have been a toy. An entertainment to others and a drama to yourself. A game in destructive hands, you get your time and then you are thrown away. The source of happiness and pride, but only temporarily till a new toy takes your place, till the novelty fades away, or maybe till the highlights of interest are focused on another possession, another fun activity, another subject of enjoyment and self-satisfaction.

     And you remain there, alone and neglected, till rust invades your gears and ageing wearies your motor. But still not in peace, for you still get used but this time to shatter you into pieces, to dismantle you, to get your precious inner carefully crafted metal and magnets, to leave you hollow, and then to throw you into the garbage.

     Such a tragic fate! Only because you accepted to be a toy. To fall into unsafe hands. To have no will. No value. No life...

Until you fall in the hands that really appreciate your existence. So they reconnect your abused parts, they gather your inner pieces, and they take good care of you. They fix you. And you become a toy no more, but the only reason for real joy and serene happiness. You become alive.

The Potential Candidate

     This life is getting stranger and stranger. As you grow up in it, you start to learn more about yourself and much more about others. Yet growing up does not necessarily mean getting older, but getting to know how life works and seeing clearly what people want.

     God has given you a gift called kindness, but the more you deal with people, the more you realize that such gift does not actually belong to this awkward life, for the equation is turned upside down: before, in the good old days, Kindness=Goodness, while today, in the messy current days, Kindness=Weakness!

     Temptation rules! Self-interest prevails! And you are for others simply a mere potential candidate! So you run from people who want to get you used, but you fall in the hands of those who want to get you abused. There is no room for humanity or the slightest commonsense. Terms like respect, love, kindness, goodness, charity, trust, honesty, and others of the sort are becoming day by day obsolete. Words that are gradually losing their places at the dictionary to become a vague part of a vague history. Only the naive would believe in such platonic terms, as naive as you!

     What do others want from you? How do they see you? You see them as friends, while they see you as a service provider, and once the service is done, your presence is no longer required; you see her as a girl who deserves your trust, while she sees you as a potential suitor, and once she realizes otherwise and that you are dealing with her from the human level of respect, she turns to search for another potential black suit, for that seems to be her life objective and her built-in idea of a man; you see him as a real man, while he sees you as a body with no soul, and once the body is exposed and the eyes drown in the flesh, you turn into a disposable entity, a burden to get rid of.

     It is contagious! Today you are used, the next day you are the user. Today you control your self, the next day your self controls you. And it starts over and over again. Friends are mere objects at your service, girls are potential suitoresses, and men are a senseless cover for insecurities and desire. And kindness fades away, a normal result for recurrent states of frustration and depression. And life becomes full of frantic creatures tearing each other apart. And you stand all alone in the middle of the frenzied crowd, with all the tears of blood and the scratches and bruises, and then you realize what you are really made of. We are our own victims, and others are just a good excuse, suitable potential candidates!

At the Dark Alley of Life

At the dark alley of life, there they slither;
There is always a buyer for every commodity,
A dog barking at its own reflection.

Living in a Chessboard, or in a Painting

It is as living in a chessboard; every move counts, directly towards fate.
Every step needs serious planning, or else .. Checkmate!
But am I the player or just a wooden piece on the plate?

Like being in a picture surrounded by a frame so obtuse,
The frame is cracked, and the picture is broken loose,
But am I the painter or just a painted figure in recluse?

I am my own player, but sometimes others' wooden piece,

I paint my own life, but my whole existence is a masterpiece,

But whether a game or a work of art, my meditation is never to cease.

Cross Thy Ruins

Lost in the ruins of an old dream
Trying to cope with the running stream
Escaping from the reality of a present life
Trying to endure such a daily strife!

Looking everywhere like a runaway thief
Running hastily without a moment of relief
Carrying a fancy crime on his bare shoulders
The panic of crossing the ugly truth's borders

Lost in the ruins of an ancient world
Roaming through its memories as freely as a bird
Waiting for a time to come but in vain
Waiting for the Guidance to a world more humane

A soldier in his shining armor, all by his own
Fight after fight, not a single groan
Miles and miles from home, yet still walking ahead
Faith pumping the heart, and prudence nourishing the head.

Just Thoughts...

• What makes your eyes shine?? Money, fame, lust, power, even food?? It's puzzling how a man can fall so easily for one of these although everything around him already warns him about them .. They make the eyes shine so much to the extent that, unless controlled by wisdom and faith, one can get blinded and driven so quickly to the gates of hell .. The test is clear and the questions are already known, but still it is hard for many to get at least a 'pass'! ... It's true that the 'flesh is weak', but still there are several ways to make it a little stronger, aren't there?
• If Man's mission in this life is to pray for the Creator, to work, to preserve the Earth, and to ensure the existence of his kind, how can life be that complicated? Why is it so hard to maintain the 4 objectives intact? People forget about their Creator, they hate working, they destroy the Earth, and they destroy themselves! If life is a big exam, with the questions already known, why is it hard to find their answers?
• Every person has this self-image in his mind about himself and about the world that he tries so hard to maintain and convey to others. It's true that you cannot see from a person but the image he wants you to see, which is, ironically enough, almost always not 100% sincere! The eye does not see but what it sensually perceives, and that's why, like all senses, it is imperfect, and it can be tricked and manipulated so easily, and as such it cannot be the basis of any rational decision or judgement!!
• It's a pity how the word 'friendship' is abused and undervalued in this virtual social network! ... You could have like a 1000 friends on your list, but you'll realize that actually a couple of them are your enemies, some of them have some interest in you, some don't really know who you are, some find you a good method of entertainment and pass-time, and even some add you just for the sake of adding like collecting stamps, finding yourself not having a single real true 'friend'!!
• Have you ever sat on a wet grassy hill at the countryside at night, watching the dazzling live painting of the moon and stars, smelling the breathtaking scent of the fresh breeze, listening to the glorious orchestra of the winds and the night insects, touching the cheerful tickles of the grass and the wet soil, and feeling the Mighty Greatness of the Creator? An all-senses fulfilling experience.
• There is a widespread problem in balance and common sense! If you are kind, you are seen as naive and prone to be used .. If you are friendly, you are seen as trivial and prone to be ridiculed .. If you are religious, you are seen as an extremist and prone to be categorized .. If you have good morals, you are seen as a pretender and prone to be accused .. If you are good looking, you are seen as shallow and prone to be misconceived .. If you get closer and talk, you are seen as a parasite and they ask you to stay away .. And if you stay away and shut up, you are seen as arrogant and they wonder why you are not talking to them!!
• As simple as they might appear, yet they could be the most difficult questions you'd ever have to answer (that's if you find an answer to them from the first place!), questions about your identity and your purpose in life:Who are you? .. and What do you want? It's dazzling how such simple 2 questions which are formed of even simpler 6 words can define one's existence!
  

Can You See the Light?

The power is down. Lights are off. With or without glasses, it doesn't make a difference. So you throw your glasses away, but gently, fearing they will break, or else it will remain dark for you even after the lights come back. Something urges you to sit on your bed by the window and look outside to see the world. The vision is blurry but it's not only you this time. You see these far black blurry buildings, all covered by the light of the dark night sky. You look a little upwards. You see this so bright star. It keeps on twinkling and blinking as if it's sending a message that nobody could understand .. Nobody but you.

Suddenly a slightly cold fresh night breeze hits you. It carries with it the far voice of the call for prayers. The call for praising God for the blessings He gave us. And then for no known reason you remember the girl you love. You remember her kind heart, her angelic face, her lovely smile. Your love to her even makes the memory more vivid, more lively. Exchanging smiles that carry a thousand meanings, but only one feeling, the best feeling ever, the world is yours: one existence, one heart, one soul. She's really lucky; you love her so much. And if she loves you back the same way .. Well .. You're the luckiest man on Earth. But as all the good moments, they take their time and then simply fade away. But you really don't feel bad about it. "Till we meet again."

Unexpectedly, a whirlwind of thoughts appear and you swivel amidst of it. Your family, your work, your studies, your responsibilities: your life. Yet life is a big test, and you never failed one. The children in the streets cheer: "The lights come back!" But really, did the lights go anywhere?! Lights have been always within, and will always be.

Follow the Bread Crumbs

///It is said that life works in mysterious ways. Sometimes you feel you understand it all. You know why things happened, happen, and will happen. You can realize that incomprehensible link between the past, the present, and the future. You even find a way to solve that enigma of life. That riddle of human relations. That puzzle of the universe. Yet, that's an illusion....

///Other times you feel totally lost. You can see no road to walk upon, no reason to live for, no light to follow. The past, the present, the future .. Just time passing by. Just fiddling routine. Just ticks of an old rusty clock. Ticks that get slower and slower by time till an ultimate stop. Till one last sound and then absolute tranquility. You don't sense the meaning of life, you don't understand others, and you don't even know yourself. Yet, that's another illusion....

///Life and death, they are always there. Always connected. Always around you. You'll be amazed to know how many times you actually experienced death while you are technically alive. When you sleep, when you sneeze, when you feel so helpless, when you surrender to sadness and, worse, to hatred, and when you lose faith in yourself and, most importantly, in God. How many times do you think you died in your life?*

///What about going the other way round? How many times you actually sensed that brilliant glare of life inside you? When you enjoy the beauty of nature, when you feel so strong and healthy, when you feel loved and cared about, when you succeed, when you get into an adventure that makes a rush of blood into your head, when you believe in the capabilities, the ones you know and don't know about, inside you, and when you pray and sense that satisfaction of having God as your everafter sustenance and support.* Still in illusion??

///We are living in the story of Hansel and Gretel, with the worldly matters luring us to fall from their cliff just like that cannibalistic witch who was luring those pure 2 children to her candy-coated blood-filled hut. The human being is born with purity and innocence and good will. That's his natural birth. However, he is easily distracted and he gets into oblivion. That's his natural birth too. Mercifully, and also like Hansel and Gretel's, bread crumbs keep on falling into our way all the time. Lots of cues and clues that are so obvious to the heart before the eyes, to the soul before the mind. All you have to do is follow them and you'll reach home safely.*So no room for illusion, just common sense. For life is no mystery, it is so obvious to the beholder. But it needs not only vision, but also prevision.