Walking The Line

Definition of power

Tue, 28 May 2019 14:12:46 +0530

An interesting definition of power vs freedom:

“I would define power as the ability to make other people do what you want; freedom is the ability to do what you want.”

I tend to agree, but I’m usually split between wanting the regular kind and the freedom kind. I think most people can’t really go for the latter because they’re too scared. And I sympathise. It’s not easy to look at the scary abyss that is non-conformity and think “cool, I got this, I’m alright”.

How to be a writer

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 09:25:17 +0530

Oh, this piece is really, really good:

“The process of making art is the process of becoming a person with agency, with independent thought, a producer of meaning rather than a consumer of meanings that may be at odds with your soul, your destiny, your humanity, so there’s another kind of success in becoming conscious that matters and that is up to you and nobody else and within your reach.”

— Rebecca Solnit

Enemies

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 12:39:46 +0530

I won’t flatter myself to say I have too many enemies, if any. But there are definitely days I feel what I think is enemity emanating from people. Or hate. I’m not sure. Either way, I should read this poem more often.

Enemies by Wendell Berry

If you are not to become a monster,
you must care what they think.
If you care what they think,

how will you not hate them,
and so become a monster
of the opposite kind? From where then

is love to come—love for your enemy
that is the way of liberty?
From forgiveness. Forgiven, they go

free of you, and you of them;
they are to you as sunlight
on a green branch. You must not

think of them again, except
as monsters like yourself,
pitiable because unforgiving.

On motherhood

Sun, 24 Jul 2016 10:59:49 +0530

In other words, a topic that I know almost nothing about :-). But I do have a lovely mom (though annoying all the ways only moms can be), so I can imagine what she went through when giving birth to me. So beautifully described by Carrie Fountain in Eating the Avocado:

Now I know that I’ve never described
anything, not one single thing, not
the flesh of the avocado which darkens
so quickly, though if you scrape
what’s been exposed to the air it’s new-green
beneath like nothing ever happened.
I want to describe this evening, though
it’s not spectacular. The baby babbling
in the other room over the din
and whistle of a football game, and now
the dog just outside the door, scratching,
rattling the tags on her collar, the car
going by, far away but loud, a car without
a muffler, and the sound of the baby
returning again, pleasure and weight.
I want to describe the baby. I want to describe
the baby for many hours to anyone
who wishes to hear me. My feelings for her
take me so far inside myself I can see the pure
holiness in motherhood, and it makes me
burn with success and fear, the hole her
coming has left open, widening. Last night
we fed her some of the avocado I’ve just
finished eating while writing this poem.
Her first food. I thought my heart might burst,
knowing she would no longer be made
entirely of me, flesh of my flesh. Startled
in her amusing way by the idea of eating,
she tried to take it in, but her mouth
pushed it out. And my heart did burst.

Be faithful Go

Mon, 11 Jul 2016 18:30:33 +0530

There are poems whose meaning eludes until you’ve read them a few times, and then there are ones which hit you in the face. This one’s got to be the latter.

Innocence

Fri, 01 Jul 2016 11:30:35 +0530

For me personally, a return to innocence is one of the hardest things to do, but seems essential in more ways than one. I think this one by Robert William Service captures the sentiment quite well:

Innocence by Robert William Service

The height of wisdom seems to me
That of a child;
So let my ageing vision be
Serene and mild.
The depth of folly, I aver,
Is to fish deep
In that dark pool of science where
Truth-demons sleep.

Let me not be a bearded sage
Seeing too clear;
In issues of the atom age
Man-doom I fear.
So long as living’s outward show
To me is fair,
What lies behind I do not know,
And do not care.

Of woeful fears of future ill
That earth-folk haunt,
Let me, as radiant meadow rill,
Be ignorant.
Aye, though a sorry dunce I be
In learning’s school,
Lord, marvellously make of me
Your Happy Fool!

Where does love go, when it goes?

Mon, 13 Jun 2016 20:26:21 +0530

Where does love go, when it goes?

You know exactly what to do

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 15:23:10 +0530

The longing is real :-)

The Black Umbrella

Sun, 24 Apr 2016 08:08:47 +0530

I guess this needs no explanation:

Because of the menace
your father opened
like a black umbrella
and held high
over your childhood
blocking the light,
your life now seems

to you exceptional
in its simplicities.
You speak of this,
throwing the window open
on a plain spring day,
dazzling
after such a winter.

— “Weather” by Linda Pastan

Powerful

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 11:36:53 +0530

Whoa:

Praise the souls of black
boys, enslaved by supply chains, who carry
bags of cacao under West African heat. “Trick
or treat, smell my feet, give me something good

to eat,” sings a girl dressed as a Disney princess.
Let us praise the souls of brown girls who sew
our clothes as fire unthreads sweatshops into

smoke and ash. “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me
something good,” whisper kids disguised as ninjas.
Tonight, let us praise the souls of Asian children

who manufacture toys and tech until gravity sharpens
their bodies enough to cut through suicide nets.

- Craig Santos Perez

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 09:35:33 +0530

This is so lovely:

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

— From The Guest House, tr. by Coleman Barks

More on poetry

Fri, 08 Apr 2016 05:24:55 +0530

This article is obviously a fantastic profile on Leonard Cohen’s outing at the Isle of Wight, but what stood out for me was what T.S. Eliot apparently had to say about Dante: genius of poetry was that it communicated before it was understood. I think I can agree with that.

What poetry really means

Sat, 02 Apr 2016 09:07:23 +0530

Is up to you :-). Recently I started reading poetry. Which is rather strange because I never had patience for it. But I realize it compresses a lot more meaning into a few verses what a whole book might take to say. Also, it’s open to interpretation - like the best songs are. In that context, I found this poem, which I think is bang on: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176056

Californication

Sun, 06 Dec 2015 22:48:15 +0530

In what seems like a million years ago, someone mentioned I “should” watch Californication several times. Now that I finally got around to it, I can see where she got the idea. I’m not entirely sure if I should feel flattered, though :-)

Pay attention to people who challenge you.

Wed, 04 Nov 2015 12:30:53 +0530

There’s this feminist friend of mine whose confrontational attitude kinda put me off at first - I still don’t think I agree with a lot of her views - but thanks to her, I did reevaluate a lot of things I always took for granted.

I catch myself noticing the “micro aggressions” that she used to mention, and sometimes I notice something unfair to women that I never paid much attention to. So here’s me, thanking her for opening my mind to a whole new dimension of human relationships :-)

Mobile now

Wed, 04 Nov 2015 07:21:48 +0530

Though a static site is how I would prefer to update my blog, I realized that convenience trumps configuration, every time.

So I moved to tumblr which has a really nice mobile client and hopefully should help me be a little more regular. Hopefully :-)

“Art” is the intersection of craft and self-awareness - Anon.

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:15:02 +0530

“Art” is the intersection of craft and self-awareness - Anon.

I used to be painfully shy (I still am in social situations), and this article kinda sheds light on...

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:46:51 +0530

I used to be painfully shy (I still am in social situations), and this article kinda sheds light on this trait: http://bit.ly/cmmYL5

RT @JPBarlow: If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be...

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:55:39 +0530

RT @JPBarlow: If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up. –Hunter S. Thompson

“Live the present intensely and fully, do not let the past be a burden, and let the future be...

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:06:19 +0530

“Live the present intensely and fully, do not let the past be a burden, and let the future be an incentive.” - Carlos Slim