Carpe Diem?

When one is at peace and 'happy' in themselves, then that is only when they can confront the rest of the world and reject fear, or use it to their advantage. the reason I have placed quotation marks on the word happy is because I do not like this word much - it seems to undervalue the feeling of happiness. If I had it my way there would be a perfect word to describe the feeling of complete content coupled with peacefulness, which would describe happiness. Perhaps this word is simply 'being' or 'sensing', 'pure sensation'. Not just satisfaction (happiness as understood today perhaps, temporary gratification) . Pure sensation is the one to strive for and revel in once felt. Of course one can experience or sense 'bad' things, is this to be embraced with open hands? I argue that these bad sensations are similar to that of temporary gratification - a somewhat temporary dissatisfaction, a mask of just 'being'. Feelings, emotions are in flux. It is that which is not in flux - which we tune into when we are sensing purely that is the state of being which is what brings us closer to ourselves.

We try too hard to reach this state. Yet all we have to do is the opposite.

When I mention using fear to one's advantage I am referring to seeing the fear that is in fact unnecessary and disposing of it. Fear swallows us up, takes us away from who we truly are.

The day that everyone danced

So, this is what I thought about walking home from the tube today. It would be pretty epic. Some songs need patience, and this is one of those songs. It also needs loud speakers and a good bass. Go crazy.

And then music started blasting from the skies! People stopped whatever they were doing. Cars screeched to a halt. Everyone was running outside to see where this music was coming from. Loud was an understatement. It was coming from above – how was this possible? Digitalism’s Zdarlight. Electronic music for the masses. This was the digital age after all and we were all working to the beat. I arrived at the scene of the crime. I told them it was me. I had hijacked God’s stereo and has plugged in this particular tune to get everyone dancing. The 21^st century cyber age was going to have to dance. People were going to have to stop slouching in front of their computers and run outside. This was the biggest event of the century. No one had ever done anything like this before! I had also walked into God’s weather room and tweaked it a little. I pressed a few buttons I wasn’t meant to. Now we had half night, half day and Londontown had a sea. The sun was shining. People started taking off their winter clothes. They were shocked at what I had achieved. The younger ones did not need convincing and started jumping on top of the cars and waiting for the drop of this incredibly calculated and precisely beautiful song. “It is coming!” I shouted. The bass started. The trees were shaking from the ground. God’s bass system is top notch after all. Now all that was left for me was to round up the people. “THIS IS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST PARTY” it started… I had left a pre-recorded message to dub over the song. “GET OUT ON THE STREETS AND DANCE TILL YOUR DEAD!”

That day everyone danced.

Listen to Digitalism

An Inconvenient Truth

I just watched Al Gore's climate change documentary which came out in the year 2006 : 'An Inconvenient Truth'. I'd been meaning to watch it for a while but what sparked my memory was watching a lecture by John Hardy on TED (check out previous post) about a Green School in Bali (Watch the lecture here).

The Green School is designed to teach children about the importance of the environment through interacting with the environment when learning. The children have essential classes such as math, reading, writing etc. but they also have Green classes and Creative Arts classes. The school's motto is: "Empowering global citizens and green innovators who are inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world" and this is extremely important for the future of our planet. Al Gore's documentary is quite eye opening, not only for all those global warming sceptics out there - but even for those of us who are aware of the risks of increased CO2 emissions! After watching this documentary (and the talk by John Hardy) I seriously have decided to put fighting for environmental sustainability and fighting against climate change amongst my top priorities.

Recommended for everyone.

Climate Crisis website

Campaign Against Climate Change website

London Island Ice Tea

Check out my friends' recently opened blog: London Island Ice Tea!

They are "Living, loving and ranting in the beautiful hangover called London".

Ranging from topics on politics, the arts and current affairs their blog is entertaining, inspiring and makes you think about visas, protests and "Things".

Some recent articles include discussions on:

- The student protest of 10/11/10

- The process of visa applications

- Christian Marclay's "The Clock" at White Cube

Missing Rose - Kayıp Gül

Recently I picked this book up on my way back from Turkey - "Kayıp Gül" or "Missing Rose" by Serdar Özkan. I finished the entire book on one 3 and half hour plane ride. It has been translated into 39 different languages and is available in over 50 countries. Described in the book and on
the website (Available

here) as :

“Compulsory reading for all who are thrilled by The Alchemist, The Little Prince and Jonathan Livingston Seagull.”

Air Beletrina - SLOVENIA

it is a book that was close to my heart. Set in San Francisco and in Istanbul it is a novel about the spiritual and personal journey of a young woman in her 20s. Yes, many see the Alchemist as cheesy, but it it is loved for the very reason that it does make us feel uplifted and inspires us to do more with our life and try to discover what we really want to do in this short but sweet life. This book does the same thing - it makes us question our motivations and our decisions. It allows us to truly remember that 'better late than never'. I would recommend this book to anyone of all ages who enjoy a bit of fantasy and are open to new ideas!

One chapter got me thinking about the observation that the protagonist makes (don't worry this is not a spoiler!) - If you entered a cafe and ordered two of your favourite cookie but they only had one so they put another cookie next to it on a plate - would you eat your favourite one first or second?

I decided I would eat mine second, but might take a bite from it first! (Delayed gratification versus instant? or wanting to seize the day versus being too full to eat the second?) If you have any thoughts or comments feel free to leave them! I'd be interested to know.