SUNDAY, 19 DECEMBER 2004
Small discovery after a short trip
I have rediscovered the value of music on a train, and in other public appearances. I listened to The Offspring on the way from Tainan to Kaohsiung, and then started listening to AC/DC at Kaohsiung station. The latter (specifically a track on the album Ballbreaker) filled me with such passion that I was prepared to shove people out of the way to get to the ticket booth. Two young ladies on the train to Fengshan couldn’t help peering at me under their eyelashes, and when I appeared with the same passion at Fengshan station, a group of young gang members almost attacked me because they saw the threat in my eyes.
[It makes me wonder: what can one do to manipulate your mood, and specifically in such a way that it is conducive to achieving constructive results?]
WEDNESDAY, 22 DECEMBER 2004
Coming to Taiwan, spending a lot of time on my own, thinking about things and writing were all conducive to me formulating what I had been given, defining who I want to be and choosing a role that would be appropriate for me.
For another person parenthood, having a child of their own, can be conducive to achieving similar results – or if not similar, maybe good enough for that person to bring about an existential condition that I will be able to recognise as similar to my own state of existence.
On phrases and choices
“To find yourself” ~ the conventional phrase
“To confront what you have been given; to define who you want to be within the framework of what you have been given as well as particular time and place and needs of the community; to decide what role is the most appropriate for you taking into account all the above, and then to take actions to become this who-and-what” ~ my choice of words
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