sisters and brothers

On this day, your day of birth, you are zero and have no life. I do not mean this ironically. It’s just numbers. You have not lived a day and thus you have no life. Others around you have lived, but this does not make them superior. On the contrary, they look at you with hope and wonder, convinced you will not fuck up as they have. For this reason and this reason alone - at this particular point in history - you are superior.

Do not let it get to your head, though, little man. It’s just the current state of their thinking. Your whole life will be about what you think and what other people think, not what is. You think you have entered a world of things; you have not. You have entered a world of opinions and considerations.

Welcome

Case in point: the big tall guy, a gentleman in all outward appearance, is in his mind a cripple, barely kept up by a matrix of internalized excuses and justifications. Look at his eye, there you will see a dull flicker. You see that? You don’t want that. That’s your dad. Nice guy, but you don’t want that.

That small dude opposite, that’s your brother. He will show you the ropes. He’s a mischievous little rascal with a weird sense of humor, but his heart’s in the right place. He will always mean you well. Follow him. One day, you will wake up, your throat tied in a knot, your insides near collapse, and your mind scattered to the wind. He will be there. He will hold you up. Follow him.

But do not concern yourself with this now. For the time being you will get acquainted with the basics: light, color, touch, smell and such things, and this will be more than you can handle. Plus you will be assaulted with needs that were hitherto addressed through automaticities. Those days are over amigo. You will need to speak your mind now. Start exercising your vocal cords. Do not be shy or your needs will not be met. For this you will mostly be dealing with her. You cannot see her because you are a lying on top of her, but that is your mother. No further comment. I’ll let you discover her on your own.

As for me -  a final word -  I too look at you with hope and wonder, but with one difference: I know you will fuck up. And when you do - let me tell you this now in case I forget later - you can count on me, little brother.

I am your older sister. Welcome home.

type 6 Homo sapiens: the perfect being

type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 

You are in your thirties. You traveled the globe. You bungee jumped. You studied abroad. You are well educated. You are a professional and your prospects are good. You know how to enjoy yourself and you are considered good company. To all outward appearances you are an accomplished and sociable individual. Not just to outward appearances, you are accomplished and you are sociable. You are the type of human being many would like to be: fun, enthusiastic, traveled, smart but not burdensomely.

Plus you have a keen sense of style and you go out of your way to find just that item, that purse, that necklace, that thing that looks good with this, this and that, and you wear those things in the right manner, that is to say, you do not overdress, you do not underdress, you dress just right. You are entirely balanced. You are the type of human being everyone dreams of being. You have that mix of humility and outgoingness that everyone desires. What more could you possibly desire? You have this human being shit down to perfection. You do not err. You do not dwell on dull or ponderous subjects, you do not touch on matters that may offend, dismay or put someone on the spot. This makes you highly appreciated. You have no enemies. You are kind and gentle. What more do you want? You are perfect. You are the kind of human being every human being wants to be and should be. There should be no other type of human being. You are it. There should be no departure from your sense of humility and outgoingness and festiveness, your non-confrontational style. Things would be fun. Life would be fun. There would be no wars. You are someone people admire. You are a standard. No one ever doubts your intentions are good. You are intentions are good. You are in many ways a perfect being. The perfect being. You radiate this perfection. You traveled the globe. You studied abroad. You bungee jumped.  You have that mix of humility and outgoingness that everyone desires.

What are your thoughts?

2014

We are a pinpoint  in an expanse that is a hundred thousand light-years wide. It is only an expanse because it is studded with stars we can see, but beyond these stars there is so much more space it numbs the mind.

This year, as every year, we orbited one star. Just once.

What you have done (or not done) during this period probably means a lot to you. Perhaps you are pondering this right now. Perhaps you have done nothing else but ponder this for days. Perhaps you are saying to yourself that you should have done more, lived more, loved more, spoken your heart, reached out to her or to him, broken some habits and started new ones, and so on and so on. Or perhaps you are sitting back in the satisfaction of a job well done;  or you are a list-maker and you are not interested in looking back at all, only in itemizing what is yet to come.

Most likely, though, you are not perplexed at the fact that you are a four-limbed creature with limited electromagnetic perception, fully dependent on an organic pump circulating five or so liters of blood;  and you are not pounded with anxiety at the terrifying vastness of space.

You’re not. Because life is much more interesting than any of that.

Because your inner world is much more interesting than any of that. It is bigger than any terrifying vastness. No measure can circumscribe it. No one thought can encapsulate it. Your ideas can be boundless or they can fit on the head of a pin. Any limitation, any boundary is your own, placed there by your own hand, kept there by your own hand.

Just our luck then, for the hand that puts up walls can also remove them.  

I wish you all a year of greatness and wonder, where your inner world is lit up far and wide, and your outer world reflects it with all the light and beauty life has to offer.

Lui Labas