Tricks

The old me was young...

...The young me is old.

Vichyssoise

I will never do it in my life because it's wrong.

That's just your opinion. Have you ever heard this? - "It's unbecoming of young men to utter maxims." It's from a philosopher from ancient times.

What does it mean?

It means young people should not make statements like that without having essentially and thoroughly tested them on two things - Reason and Experience. In other words, without thinking it through and without having gone through the situation in context oneself. However, there are certain situations which lie exclusively in the domain of Morality and doesn't necessarily need a first-hand "experience", but then it needs that much rigorous supplementation on the Reason front. Only after that, the case for "opinions as convictions" holds. But we won't wander in that realm for this present purpose. We'll stick to, "You are young and you don't utter maxims, non-exclusive to Morality, so to speak."

Fair. But that doesn't quite make the distinction clear between young and old. When is one considered old enough?

When the count of one's real experiences become more than one's mere opinions.

And how to keep these counts?

You don't have to. Experience takes care of it.

I'm confused.

You are young. And drifting from the point.

OK. What did you mean by "real experiences" and "mere opinions"?

Experiences are what one collects as one moves along the path of life. It's what he comes out with, from situations, having entered those situations empty-handed or with certain amount of knowledge and opinions. Anyhow, all that collected treasure is your real experience. "Mere opinions" or just opinions, on the other hand, are what one forms about a second-hand situation based on those collected experiences (some people do use Reason as well, some don't), as a substitute to the still uncollected experiences. But only for so long. It's good to have opinions about as many things as possible, on as wide as possible range of subjects but they should always be left in a free, flexible, transitory state so as to keep them from changing into unbending "convictions" without having gone through the two essentials I mentioned earlier.

Reason and Experience.

Always. Furthermore, opinions have their origins in experiences (collected by some and passed on to others) and experiences are the opinions gone through a process and transformed over a period of time. It's like the relation of a shoot and a branch of a tree. A shoot comes out of a branch and grows into a branch.

So, it's when the count of your experiences exceed your mere opinions that you cross over from being "young" to the "old". It's then when you become qualified to utter those so called maxims. Having acquired the wisdom from concrete, first-hand intercourse with similar specific situations. It is any time better than having drawn it from imaginative or passive media. And reliable.

So what should the young people do until they don't get qualified enough?

So long as you are young, you just need to be wary about not mistaking those opinions as some unchangeable, carved-in-stone principles that'll govern the course of your life ahead. There shouldn't be anything water-tight or inflexible about them. And though you are bound to find your opinions in conflict with others', it should be You yourself who's willing to challenge and change them first.

What about you? Are You old?

No. But I'm the young man who doesn't utter maxims without...you now know what.

(Not) The Second Choice

A flower sad

For not being the first

To be touched by a butterfly.

A branch

calling itself second

to be a wandering bird’s perch.

A raindrop lamenting

Not being the first

To kiss the earth.

Spring

of a year

mourning not being winter.

A cloud sorry

For not being the first

To be moved by the wind.

The indigo of a rainbow sad

About not being

The violet.

N.

The Act

What's going on outside? What's all that noise?

A wedding. I don't understand why are all these people so happy when it's just two of them who're getting married? What's all that cacophony and blocking the roads, all that dancing, fireworks, trying, but NOT succeeding in not looking stupid because they're all so dressed-up for all this! Oh, I know why.

Why?

Because...two people can fuck now.

What??

Oh...Political correction: Because two people can live together now. Spend their lives together, raise a family together...all that.

Right.

...Something which they couldn't before they allowed it. But now they allow. It's a victory for them.

You mean it's a victory for the couple?

No. Two more people getting inducted in another one of their holy "institutions" is a victory for People Power!...I mean the ones who are doing the Victory Dance.

I think it's a win-win.

I think it's a racket.

An experiment

Well how do they do it (if they actually do it)?! Come to their blogs, pick a random subject and put up a perfectly NICE post. Right then, right there! I'm sure they don't do it that way. Because nobody can do it that way. Well, at least I cannot do it that way.

...{{waiting}}...

See I'm trying now, but it's just not happening!

...{{waiting}}...

Naah...Nothing.

...{{waiting}}...

Sigh...(It's not a nice feeling to be on a blog site and finding yourself at a loss of words. That's plain demoralizing.)

Napping is a better idea. For the time being...

Happy Song, Gone Wrong

Hello, here I come again,

Little bitter, little vain

Venom spit, honey drip,

Let me see which way I trip.

I came to write a happy song,

But as it happens, I was wrong,

Here I go, who was I fooling?

You may even stop drooling.

The reason I have changed my mood,

Is first I have to think of food.

And of the bills and of the rents,

Or else sleepin' in the tents.

Money cannot buy you joy

I'm sure was said by one rich boy,

But for me now, to hell with honey,

'Coz I'm fuckin' out of money!

N.