Reflections

I apologize for the lack of updates on this blog, but I’ve just been overwhelmed with life. These past few weeks have been a little hectic. So just a small foreword, this will be an unusually casual post from me. I’ve had many different post-ideas floating in my head, but everything is just jumbled up in my brain at the moment, and I cannot bring myself to write something articulate enough, or worthy enough to be called a blog-post.

In the meantime however, I will tell you that I’ve developed a new talent of sorts to pass time and sooth my very uppity nerves after a long day of negotiations with my four year old nephew, who just happens to be a naturally gifted deal-broker. Kids are the greatest politicians, I swear. Having spent this time with my little one is almost like having spent it in an introductory diplomacy class 101, minus all the academic baggage and course work.

But yes, about my ‘talent’; I’ve been making beaded jewelry, toggle bracelets to be more precise.


these are just a few I made for fun

Working with the intricate and delicate array of glass and metal beads had made me think of something strange, yet profound. I’ve been thinking about the fact that very little of our ‘stuff’ these days is made by hand, with true inspiration and talent. With great care and precision, thought and focus. By and large, everything we own is made and manufactured in huge factories around the world. Even warfare has become so impersonal that we use drone (not even human operated) airplanes to kill people ‘overseas.’ Even machine guns have become too ‘personal’ for our ‘modern’ taste.

I realized how desensitized we have become to our common, miserable, human condition – to suffering. Even war had some meaning ‘back in the day,’ killing someone was personal. The art of archery, for example, was held in high esteem. Archers were very highly regarded in many societies for their great qualities. Everyone had a skill they practiced. Today, we have lost all that. War is totally meaningless in the greatest sense of the word. Today, we kill for the sake of killing.

I’ve also been thinking about the probability of becoming more self-sufficient. We have become so dependant on this parasitic system, that we can’t even grow a vegetable garden for our own personal use anymore. I may sound a little “old-fashioned” but truly, I have no problem being called that anymore. This system no longer values skills – it only values profit. No one cares about your talents and abilities, all the corporations care about is how much money you can make them; what happens as a result is that people start losing their acquired skills. They just become ‘parts’ of this global ‘machine’ that keeps fueling this system of extreme interdependency. People’s lives are wasted away in some four-walled cubicle – I mean look at the ‘development’ projects in India – the call centers?

I find this extremely sad, so I’ve made some small steps in my own life to reaffirm my independence and dignity, as an individual and as a human being. I wish to give back to society, and not the corporate system, and I feel I am making those small contributions now by watching my nephew, by not paying any taxes to the corporate state and by learning how to become more self-sufficient in the long run. That’s my new personal, long-term goal in life, and I know it won’t be easy to do – but what is left for me to do is to try.

Anyway, I hope to get back to regular blogging soon, with more interesting and beneficial entries that (hopefully, God-willing) we all can benefit from. And, just to let you all know, your ideas are always welcome and appreciated.

With peace,