The Idiot Box

Sometimes I take a stand back on my relentless slew of how evil the Idiot Box really is because of the odd insight that it gives. It never fails to bring me, mentally, to my knees.

An advert for Today, the Singapore-based newspaper...

'Today is today plus alot of tomorrows.'

Don't think those are the exact words, but you get the idea.

Infomercials...

can mean so many different things to so many different people.

When you are a kid, it is a reminder of how good life can be. And because you are impressionable, you believe the processes in front of you. That the green magic duster is indeed good enough to clean fragile glassware. The blender is a magical twister that crushes, juices and at the same time separate the pulp from the liquid. A gel from some tree bark that someone applies on their thigh can really make the fats disappear within 45 minutes!

When you have watched enough infomercials they lose their glitter. You begin to laugh at the before and after pictures and say, 'Are they the same person?' You point at the poor model on the floor and laugh at her permanent grin. When the sell part of the infomercial comes up, you go... 'Wait 5 minutes, surely they will throw in new freebies...' and viola, they do!

The conditioning power of the idiot box is so strong that you know, in 30 minutes time, they will repeat the whole segment.

The things you learn... from your favourite nanny that never fails.

Movie: Walk the Line | Notebook: Chapter of Friendship

This is now officially the longest title I have to date. But it is important because both converged on the same cosmic line today.

Remember that a few posts back I posted a chapter from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Since then I have been reading his works and visiting his bits and pieces daily, finding a certain freedom and joy in what he has immortalized.

Selfish me me thoughts aside, I thought it was interesting that his name kept popping up!

While watching Walk the Line (the movie) today, the book ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran was the book that June Carter handed over to Johnny Cash as a gift. My heart skipped when the screen was flashed.

Oh my, is it a sign that it is a book that I am destined to own. Hah! Childish of me to assume that coincidences revolve around my private wimps and desire.

All that said; here is another one of my favorite chapter from the same book. I absolutely love the first two lines. But the same question remains, which hold more prestige, the satisfaction of a person wants or needs? Food for thought people!

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

- From the Chapter of Friendship in ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran -

Movie: Shall We Dance?

Beverly Clark:

We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet...

I mean, what does any one life really mean?

But in a marriage,

you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things,

the terrible things, the mundane things...

all of it, all of the time, every day.

You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it.

Your life will not go un-witnessed

because I will be your witness'."

Thats an extract from a pretty old movie Shall We Dance? starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez and oh boy did I love it. I never did catch it while it was at the movies and I cannot for the sake of my life remember why. Hadn't had the money? Hadn't had the time? Wasn't interesting enough? Fearful of wasting 2 hours of my life whittling away, starring blankly at a screen and trying to absorb the little nuances of a story that I know will never become mine? I have no idea really... a few weeks ago, I finally found the time, the money and the lack of fear to sit down and properly watch the show on the small TV screen assigned to each unit in this student housing complex and... oh boy did I love it!

I love how it gets into your mind and without you even know it, makes you feel as if you are part of the whole series of events. Makes you savour painfully the emotional turmoil and battle the moral choices that the characters had to make. And it is refreshing to note that this is a movie with no clear choices, no bad guy or good guy, no correct and wrong and in that small little sense it reflects the type of life we all lead. I mean come on... you make a million decisions everyday which does not really affect the overall quality of life that we lead on the individual level and yet collectively, can irrevocably alter the consequences of the lives around you.

That all said, I really agree with the above extract about how we all need a witness to our lives. When it was being said onscreen by the character to the PI, who was by the way hired to investigate Mr. R.Gere, I was startled to realise that though verbalised between 2 individuals who didn't matter to each other, it had amazing truth.

And it is all between here and there that we long for the admiration and devotion that only a fervent lover can bring and search for the deserving individual of our unconditional and crippling love.