MONDAY, 28 MARCH 2005
10:36
I exit the photo shop and walk to my bike. As per routine, I want to put on my face mask. I pat my trousers, look into my book bag, notice it is not hanging on the handlebar. I step back into the store, throw a quick glance over the counter and conclude that I must have lost the mask between the bank and the photo shop. I get on my bike and pedal away.
Over the next two or three minutes I am a functioning organism: I take into account traffic, pedestrians, red lights, green lights; I turn left or right into the correct streets and alleys; I control my speed, pull the brakes when necessary, and stop where I need to. I am also busy with intelligent thought processes: to burn photos from a digital camera onto a CD is unnecessary, so I reckon, because I already have all the photos on my computer; I also remember that the guy said we can just plug the memory card into the computer on his desk, go through the pictures and just mark the ones I want to print out.
Then, suddenly, I realise the mask is pulled over my chin. It was on my face all this time. I was simply unaware of it for the two or three minutes that I was in full human functioning mode.
And so, ladies and gents, it is with many other truths.
[08/06/15: People tend to think that if X is true, or if Y is not true, that they will certainly know it. We do not always realise how fully aware we can be, how awake we can be, and sober, and intelligent, and how we can fully function in complex relationships and situations, and in all this time be totally unaware of a truth that is staring us right in the face. This also applies to religious beliefs. People will believe 100% in something, and think if it were not true, that they would simply “know” it, since they are after all fully aware of things around them, that they are sober and intelligent, and that they successfully function in complex situations every day. “How can I function like I do every day,” they will ask, “and not suspect there’s something wrong?”]
13:55
Two things: How other people see you and how other people see themselves as they think you see them.
14:56
Just remembered the phrase I had wanted to jot down a few days ago: The card is on the table – consider it, reject it, accept it, or criticise it.
15:52
The Great Apostle of Creativity and the Gospel of an Extraordinary Life
TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2005
15:08
“The price of cornflakes and tomatoes increased in certain supermarkets and smaller shops, but the Biology homework of the ninth-grade students in Kyrgyzstan is less than last week.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Precisely.”
15:10
There have been many times in my life when I have identified problems, analysed them, devised and considered possible solutions, and then, suddenly … the problem is over and done with. Then I usually think: “Well, there you have it.”
15:14
The price of cornflakes and tomatoes, and the ninth-grade students in Kyrgyzstan.
THURSDAY, 31 MARCH 2005
09:49
To brush your teeth is a matter of self-maintenance. You don’t just brush your teeth when you have a problem with your teeth; you do it to avoid problems. So it is with other aspects of your life where self-maintenance should be applied as a precautionary measure, and not as an emergency measure.
It is important to apply the right words to the right processes – same with not calling a tomato a pumpkin.
23:03
If a human life does serve a purpose, does it necessarily imply planning and/or design prior to human existence?
______________________