Sayings and Stories
Apologies for the long delay. I have
actually been busy with a couple of new projects- first, I bought a new
ukulele- meet Polo, everyone, short for Apollonia, named after the Greek god of
music- and I have been trying to learn how to play it.
Second, I signed up for the Airplane
Poetry Challenge to write 100 Poems in a year. Usually, they give one prompt
for every week (I joined in Week 13 so I’m already behind) but April being the
National Poetry Month, they’re sending out daily prompts which, what with my
daytime job and all the whining I was busy doing after spraining the big toe on
my right foot (my theory is it happened while I was running from the alien
monsters in my sleep. True story.), I’ve not had much time for the blog. But
I’m ready to make amends for that, with what I hope is going to be a long
ramble about three of my favourite quotes and a rather fascinating tale.
I'll start off with the story. I found
this little gem in the 'Introduction' section of Robert A Johnson's
book- Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark
Side of the Psyche. It's a fascinating book, strongly recommended.
Johnson tells us that Carl Jung's favourite story was about the 'Water of Life'
that sprung out of some artesian well somewhere. Anybody who drank from that
well would be healed and rejuvenated. But as news about the magical properties
of the water spread, the important people turned up, fenced the water, set-up a
ticketing system and rules about who could drink that water and when. The water,
annoyed, changed direction and found an outlet to flow out somewhere else. But
the people, so busy with all their rules and systems didn't even notice that
the water was no longer there. Eventually, however, the new source was
discovered and the same self-important people turned up there as well and set
up the whole obtuse paraphernalia till all the magic was lost yet again. And
people continued to line up to drink the water that was no longer there, for it
was what they had been taught to believe and we are really really afraid to ask
questions. And the water found a new site, and so on, and so forth.
As
allegories on the human condition go, this has to be one of the simplest and
profoundest ones I’ve come across. We’re all thirsty, because somewhere, the
spring of life has dried up, and failing to, or refusing to notice, we plod on,
only dimly aware of an indistinct lack. And the thirst leads to fear, to
hatred, to anger, violence, greed and obsession, and sometimes, when all of
this fails to disguise the thirst, we notice the gaping desert inside us that
we call depression. And because we do not and will not know that the water is
gone, we go through life craving for one thing after the other, often finding
them, and yet failing to find what we were truly looking for:
“Jaha chai taha bhul kore chai,
Jaha pai, taha chai na.” – Rabindranath
Tagore.
Trust the Grand Old Bard to just casually come
up with a statement like that. “What I seek I seek by mistake. What I find is
not what I seek.” And may be life is just a series of misunderstood desires,
only to be replaced by newer and greater desires, but there is beauty in the
seeking. If humans did not desire, there would not be so much violence and
jealousy in the world, but if humans did not desire, the world would lose out
on so much art and music and poetry. I’ve always found Desire of the Endless
(in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman) to be such an enigmatic character. Our desires
define and drive us, for the dichotomous nature of desire lies at the very root
of our being:
“Humanity lies in the place where the
rising ape meets the falling god.”- Terry Pratchett. We are all part of the
divine, or the infinite, or the endless or whatever else we may want to call
it, and thus the sight of an ocean or a mountain or the flash of a lightning
rending a stormy sky creates those unquiet stirrings deep within us, reminding
us of a past we have forgotten. And perhaps the aching hole we sometimes
glimpse in us comes from light years of space that separates us from the stars
we came from, and we cover that up with lesser needs because it is so much
easier to be the falling god (even Newton said so) than the rising ape. But
even then, despite the pain, we rise. We ask, we seek and we think:
Je pense, donce je suis.
–René Descartes
I think, therefore I am.
We think, therefore we
are human, therefore we are conscious, and we are aware of thirst, and desire
and scattered stardust.
But sometimes I think our
thoughts exist before we think them, like poetry that is waiting to be written.
We just need to reach out and find them, and once again the water of life
reveals itself.
Did you like this piece?
What are your favourite stories and sayings? Are you participating in
NaPoWriMo? Let me know in the comments. And share if you liked reading this.
Other pieces on my blog
that you might enjoy reading:
If you want to check out
my poetry- you can find it on my Instagram or on my Facebook Page- Ruchira’sRambling. Here is a sample poem:
And if you’re feeling generous, or if you’re
tired of reading, you can find my music on my YouTube channel. For a taster-
here is my original song- Dreamers.
Thanks for all the love.
Comments
Post a Comment