Even after they're gone
Their blogs continue sucking power into servers
To remain online. And they stay
On our list of friends on Facebook, always,
So near, they don't die;
Where in a different age,
They would not have been more than a weak glow in the abyss of our memories
Even as we strain to keep together
That distant warmth which is the ghost of their existence -
But now they're always with us. And we can always
Send them messages and happy birthdays,

Even after they're gone.
They're always there in the online world, but
Ever too shy to return
Messages, pokes, or accept
New friends; perhaps they are just too busy; perhaps,
In another world,
They have a life.

Even after they're gone,
We think only of those
We think of; We forget those we forget -
And we are distanced from
Our grief, which we no longer know how to contain
Within us; we are forced to learn to forget
What it meant to remember.
How do we light a candle for someone
Who is always present on our desks?

Even after they're gone,
We now have the technology
To keep them alive in our shared consciousness.
We can no longer feel the shape of the wall
That stands between Us and Them -
Or remember that we too will, in all likelihood, cross over,
To leave behind a people
Who will never learn
When to hold on,
And when to let go.

Life is a series of over-corrections, because you're always wrong.

S: That's an overly pessimistic thought.

Just thinking about how we are always so obsessed about "learning" from our experiences, and how society does not agree with people who "just do not learn".

S: care to explain who this nebulous 'society' is?

what i mean is that theres nothing inherently wrong with people who make the same mistakes break the same laws and cause the same distress on those around them all the time. i have a colleague who is not very lets say inspired at his job. my boss thinks that he needs to grow. i think if not learning anything can still earn him a salary its a fine strategy.

S: I am surprised this is coming from you - it departs from your typical idealism

atypical is where i'm trying to go. i've always embraced change, cos i think change is inevitable and for me coming to terms with change is the most appropriate response - but there's always been this line i wouldn't cross - a part of me i wouldn't let go and allow it to change. i'm realizing that in order to embrace change, i need to be able to let go of even that part of me that thinks exactly that.

isn't the dictionary in our age, a fucking fine democracy?
you do not elect people to choose the words to put in them -
it is not in the interest of those who rule the book to rule our lives.
instead, they simply document how we consistently use as words;
failing to do so would render the dictionary less useful.
yet, as open it is, at the same time, the dictionary has the authoritative say as to
what words we prefer children to or not to be taught.

i think it is exciting, because in the democracy of our time,
we look down on people who break the law - yet it is the very action
of these people that end up in landmark cases that change the law.

the dictionary, instead, rewards those who dare to challenge the times.
it recognizes them as trend setters.
it recognizes the fact that it is the times,
that must decide for itself what is right, and what is wrong.

but i have only one issue with it.

that the dictionary is necessarily biased towards the society that creates it - to those who do not write their own dictionaries, it is an authoritarian state.

yes, there is Wikitionary, but are we ready to teach our children the words we really use and who we really are?

The Artist responds to a world of infinite detail to create lofty ideas, while the Scientist responds to lofty ideas to create a world of infinite detail.

And as they say. the devil is in the details.

Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.” (The Arts, Picasso Speaks, 1923)

It is the theory that decides what we can observe....(Albert Einstein)


The Consumer gets caught between both and sees nothing but the truth - even when it is a lie.

now i know why people who cook don't really eat all that much of what they cook - cos
eating starts from the cooking; cooking starts from the eating. cooking is like a process you get to know the ingredients, imagining their taste, and experimenting to understand the taste better, so by the time the cooking is done, putting it into the mouth is just part of the whole process of tasting the food.