Tag: South Asia

Perfection and Permanence

Right! We are wired to look for those two qualities in others, but we know it’s in vain.

Buddha realizes that by stop wanting, we found. Gandhi won by being after the path of  non-violence. Yet, we keep slaughtering each other, hurting people and writing them off .

In business, we took calculated risks, optimal ROI and voted for the most pragmatic of minds.

But humanity can only advance by those who follow a different drum beat. The “Yes, I can” kind of people.

There is a fine line between scientists and dreamers, poets and politicians.

They imagine the possibilities, while realizing that permanence and perfection are just mirage, yet one needs to reach out still. The paradox in life is to know, then to forget that we know, and before we know it, we end up knowing the truth for the first time.

Face-to-face. Out of the gate, into the sun, and keep following it. What happened before will happen again. But this time, we are all the wiser. Still with the half glass. Full or empty? Ask first of yourself the perfection you are looking in others. No wonder we all cried the minute we are out of that maternal bubble. From then on, it’s all uncertainty and unpredictability. The guy whose name is Murphy did not invent the Law. He just articulated it better than most of us. You and I are joined by the hips, commonly bonded with Murphy and might as well acknowledge that there is no Perfection nor Permanence. On that note, I am grateful for WordPress for being there, day in and day out. Reliable, but even then, I am not sure, it will be there permanently. As to Perfection, we are reaching for it, or else, there wouldn’t be new apps and themes, new ideas and content, challenges and overcoming.

Simon’s Sound of Silence

“In restless dream I walked alone” this time, w/ out Garfunkel.

Two moments of silence descended upon two reflecting pools.

It was so eerie that ten years ago, of all things, Matt Lauer was interviewing a Howard Hughes biographer when the TODAY show got interrupted.

I don’t think viewers ever follow up on the bio after that morning:

Sound of smoke.

Sound of stress.

Sound of silence.

Silence, ten years ago, was deafening.

More like being speechless. Same freeze-framing the day President Kennedy was shot.

Even for those who made a living by commentating and improvising.

“Ten thousand people maybe more”.

People talking without speaking.

People hearing without listening.

Simon remains one of a few voices from the 60’s, who traveled far to Africa,

to enrich his repertoire.

The globalization of music.

Continuing Music Education (George Harrison and the Sitar opening act at Concert for Bangladesh).

Over the span of 60 years, more Americans have turned warriors without borders, might they be in Europe, Pacific, SEA, M.E. or South Asia.

The names which are now etched into the 9/11 memorial represent a diverse pool of country origins.

First, we have to be able to trust strangers.

Then, we do business.

Finally, we party and share the grief.

Besides English as lingua franca, we got music. We got Rock and Roll, soft or hard.

Then we got Sound of Silence.

In the decade since, I have been more aware every time I fasten my seat belt, before take off.

Hundreds of air passengers, strapped in for known and unknown destiny.

Like the Hockey team from Russia.

Even the last survivor didn’t make it.

Flight 93 passengers took destiny back in their own hands.

The hijackers got hijacked in a 9/11 twisted plot. Then, rescue workers needed to be rescued.

No crescendo for an already stress-filled morning.

We wanted to get back to book reading and book reviewing.

We wanted our loved ones to come home.

Le Monde headlines the next day was “We are all Americans“.

If there were Twitter, our chosen top tweet would have been

“We’re all first-responders”.

In restless dream, I walked together.

Simon and Garfunkel: twin talents for Twin Towers.