Monthly Archives: May 2022

A-Z Challenge, May Writing, Thoughts

Kindling

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No, I did not mean to misspell the device name for reading books. Kindling, the fascinating process that could start a fire in my Grandparents wood stove. It used to be magic to watch my grandparents use the slivers of wood, sometimes shavings of wood to begin a fire. When I used to help pick the kindling, my grandmother used to say, “pick the slimmest slivers, be careful, don’t get them under your skin” Of course, at the time it was just a warning so I really paid attention to how I was picking the wood and not spend my vacation time, hunting for the invisible pricking under the skin.

Back in Bangalore(Bengaluru), my neighbour next door who spoke Tamil used the same word in a different manner. In conversations with friends, he would retort at his friends who teased him, (translated) “What? You want to Kindle me?” I pondered the poetic undertone of that sentence…so nuanced, Person being Kindled…oh the Idea!

Even Later I began to pay more attention to words. The books that moved me, the poems that made me cry or laugh or mentally skip, all kindling something within me. And its opposite- watching people in different organizations, with their own aims and schemes, and Politicians use words to gather momentum for their ideas, ideology and build their numbers, strengthen their followers, their troops. Media, using words to obscure the truth, and further their own agendas. I watch as so many kinds of Kindling happens… How unaware I was of these when I was young (facepalming). I wondered how I could be this way, in a bubble of my ignorance. Scary!! On the other hand, what am I going to do with this knowing other than watching and examining my own thoughts and words?

I watch another kind of Kindling too, among the young ones, the kindling of their curiosity, their inner compasses, their understanding of the world around them, their quest for the truth. This I Prefer.

Wishing for all inhabitants to be kindled in ways that help make a beautiful world

Signing off

You know who

May Writing, Thoughts, Uncategorized

Juggling

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Somewhere in my reading of Hindu Philosophy, I happened upon the definition of the Word and it stuck with me, as it made complete sense to me. The Word(Vach/Vachas) is Sound(Shabda) for a Form(Rupa). The English translation read “A word, is a name for a form” I thought how profound that was in its implication – There was no speech before we made a noise and agreed that was the noise for the form(object) we were perceiving. It came to my mind was if we didn’t make any noise when we noticed things, we would have probably never reached the over 8 billion population we have today. Imagine how we could ever escape a predator in our Hunter/gatherer phase of evolution if we didn’t have a word for “Run!” or eating something poisonous with “Dont eat that, it will kill you.”

A while later, I heard this popular sentence “You have to name it to claim it.” This I heard when women were being coaxed to speak up instead of keeping silence over micro-aggressions from others, or suppressing their emotions for fear of conflict. I never knew why I was annoyed at people in certain interactions, until I read the word definition for Gas-lighting. Sure enough, claiming that word made my undefined annoyance so easy to understand.

A while later, I came upon The Zen Master Thich Naht Hahn and heard two more words and their definitions, that made complete sense to me. Being- a silent awareness of life pulsing in its enormous fractal-ity, yet knowing of its impermanence in the same moment, so much so, that it makes all of our emotional reactions to the moment, moot; and Inter-being- a fact that for as long as we perceive our existence, nothing on this earth stands alone, that what affects one, has its affect over the other lives.

What I said in paragraph 2 conflicts with that in paragraph 3, – when we claim something, we cease to BE, as Being is fluid, not as permanent as when we Claim something for ourselves. When we Claim something, we also disclaim our inter-being, as it changes the way interactions go, simply because we claimed in our perception.

In all of this Word Juggling that goes on in my everyday life and conversations, I try to remember that when a word is uttered, I am naming a form, and that it remains true as long as I work with the agreed upon conventions for the name and form. That is the only truth in all of what I say, as sad as it is. That all misunderstandings stem when we aren’t clear in our word usage, or we never learned to use the words in a manner that makes understanding crystal clear.

Pondering on Clarity of Speech and Words

As I sign off

You know who.