Content and Creativity.

Time spares no one. That continuum ticks on, breath by breath, counting down and counting you out.

Yet family bond endures. It has been that way for centuries: hunting and gathering, agrarian and industrial society.

The very moment we fear that the machine will take over, that’s when we got Social, from Twist to Tweet.

Web Page or Front Page, we still have demand for Content and Creativity.

Story telling. The narrative, personal or institutional. Once upon a time, there was….

We don’ t exist in a vacuum. Instead, weakest or strongest link, we are a part of that chain, of continuity and 4-D universe.

What comes around comes around.

Carrying all that mass around, we search and seek for meaning in the mundane. But we are here, still here, on this New Years Eve. Champagne and confetti. Or we might as well lay down and die….

What is there to celebrate? The fact that we owe our existence to a host of people: food provider, transportation provider, internet provider, medical examiner (not yet).

We connect and we reject. We choose then we return the merchandise. Choices piling on top of other choices.

Sometimes, no choice at all.

That’s when we feel the helplessness of depending on others, when we face our limits.

Go ahead and connect, to link, to post, and to Like.

It’s all virtual, but real nevertheless.

Until we move on to something else, to other platform and play place.

Part of growth, of dying. Of shredding old skin and put on the new. Reinvention the Gaga’s way.

Lips singing and lips kissing, same-sex or hetero-sex.

Finding new combination, exploring alternative mode of existence. But the time continuum ticks on, as it always has.

Santa has left along with 2013. Everything was. Simple past. From here on, we all face new possibilities and potential.

Content-rich or content-poor, all up to you. Suit yourself. Ever since the invention of the zero, we have realized the futility and irony of our being: can’t do with it, and can’t do without it (the zero).

So, what’s left? Back to the cave, and see our shadow? Project ourselves onto others? Disliking someone or disliking ourselves? Kiss and make up, or split? Dilemma by definition is not to be solved. It is to be shared with others who have a heightened sense of empathy. Then we are back to needing others, fellow inmates in this asylum called Earth.

I don’t want to time-travel. In fact, I’d rather stay freeze-framed in time. Being just a boy, looking out to the game called life, where adults hurting each other and pretending to laugh (alcohol induced).  Being just a memory keeper of both the good and the bad times. So I can start my story with “Once upon a time….” all the while making up more sizzling detail to hold your attention. That attention has been split between screen flashes and banner ads, children demand and societal demand. The burden is on us, to keep creating and reinventing ourselves, shaping our narrative and destiny in the process. A guy walks into a bar….a boy born into an aging family….a girl growing up without a Dad….what’s the punch line? Will there be a happy ending. We want in. To be part of the story-telling and narrative written. But first, there must be conflict. Not too far-fetched so the audience can relate, can empathize and connect. We need Content and a bit of creativity. We got enough platform that last for a life time. Post-industrial society has more convenience than any earlier times, but for some reason, we find ourselves wanting. Kids still want to shoot randomly and then themselves.

Man still threw his baby out then jump from the tower (with reason known only to himself). In the absence of terrorist, we have projected onto that mirror, and found ourselves the very horror we have become. Good luck with happy endings.

Customarily Bad Luck

It’s known urban legend here in Vietnam that you do not take a photo with three people. Someone will need to stand in to defy the odds (of bad luck).

It is also bad luck that a person in the photo but was cut out.

I once saw a family picture which had a missing member. Apparently two sisters were either in love or married to the same man. So out of madness and jealousy, one cut out the other’s image from that photo.

Some ancient cultures refused to have their photos taken, for fear that their souls would be captured.

Imprints of expressions.

Frozen moment in time.

Together then separated.

I still remember one elementary classmate whom I later met in Santa Ana.

He must be the oldest friend of my early memory.

Very special indeed.

His face, his smile and his wagging ears.

Another friend who is now dying, also has an unmistakable square jaw.

Later he went on to play “pro” Rock and Roll (wearing a wig).

Another friend/neighbor with pony tail, still playing 8 shows a week.

I just got back from hearing him. His closing number was requested .

“When mama died, Pappa broke out and cried”

A person is nothing but the sum of his memories.

Conversely, a person with complete dementia is just a walking zombie.

Images and music carry us back in time.

Christopher Reeves used to star in “Somewhere in time“, a very soulful and un-American type of movie, which was quite unlike “Back to the Future“, although both centered on time traveling theme.

Last week, I ran into a childhood friend once again.

After the brief chat, I walked away, still couldn’t shake off  the way I had remembered him: the 7th or 8th grade friend I strummed the guitar with (Something in the way, she moves….).

Soon, we will be able to upload our entire history with Facebook‘s Timeline.

The “me” will be among the “we” as we progress through time.

Sharing intimate moments, leaving them in the “cloud”  till infinity.

An insurance against flood and fire, dementia and destruction.

This Christmas will be one of the most memorable ones for me: I get to share it with a cousin whose husband has been missing in action for more than 36 years.  It took her a long time to place his picture on the family altar (reserved for the dead).  When or if we are having our souvenir photo taken, I probably will ask someone to stand in the photo. You see, we could not discount her husband, whose photo is now sitting on the altar, to belong there or not.

Puzzling indeed, and heartbroken in fact.