"May You Live in Interesting Times"

For those that haven't read any Terry Pratchett, this is meant to be a curse. However, I use this in its non-Pratchett sense. Today really has been an interesting day. As I start on another journey, into a land that is both known and un-known to me, I am filled with apprehension about what circumstances tomorrow will bring. Not in a bad way, simply in a human way. When I feel like this I watch documentaries. I have filled my head with so much information that I can talk about at least the happenings in about 25 % of the world. Let me tell you about today. Obama is the Democratic Nominee; I was 60 % sure this would happen. I have been blogging on various news sites and blogs. Salaam Cafe, Amitabh Bachchan, BBC, Washington Post, etc... If you were to spend a day watching SBS you would truly appreciate the world we live in. I have seen no other channel where such a global perspective is brought into my living room. Today I was exposed to the following topics. American Politics, Race issues, International travel, luggage issues, Muslim issues, International money transfer issues, cell phone issues, computer and html issues, comedy, nostalgia, school, college, medical degree issues... I actually wrote a poem once, which described my day from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. It started off by dreaming, waking, yawning, stretching, brushing... and end up with reading, yawning, thinking, sleeping, dreaming. If everyone were to do this, you would realise we do so many activities in a single day. If we were to note each and every thought that went through our minds, it would be an astonishing list !

What is Race? Is it genetic, phenotypic or is it just an excuse to exclude a group of ppl who we don't identify with? We define ourselves by exclusion. We start of as 'over-inclusive' ; We want to be everything, but we settle on being just a few things. So the colour coding of American society warrants that Obama is Black, but the Blacks, who associate with slavery, say Obama is 'African'. Is Obama black enough/white enough ? His grass root support says he is! Does it matter? It depends on who you are. It depends upon how far your thought process, and that of those around you, carries you towards being 'inclusive' rather then 'exclusive'.

It is about perception and our inability to question our own state of thoughts and emotions. We hold onto our thoughts and emotions as if they are the most precious of commodities, not realising that they are fickle and inducible. If I were to say that Emotion defines as as Humans, everyone would agree (mostly). On the flip side of that same coin, I could say that Emotion is fleeting and inducible, and hence Humans would be defined by impermanence. Maybe these Budhists are onto something... But we are not impermanent, at least we 'think' we are not. Hence it is our thought process which is at fault. I heard on a 'talk show' (no not Oprah) episode on "Faith based' education, a representative from the Christian School Association or (something like that) responding to an Atheist, that 'God' is their answer to 'Why we have been created and why are we on earth'...

Irrespective of whether this is true or not, why would you ask this question in the first place? We replace one intangible unknown with another tangible unknown; one that causes exclusion rather than inclusion. It fools us into believing a few 'reasons' as to why we are here. I have no issues with ppl believing in God, as long as they don't try an make too many decisions which are detrimental to me, based on their belief of their God. I mean do ppl actually presume to know what God thinks? See this is the irony of religion.

It is clear to me why we have been put on this earth. We have been created to engage with our environment. There !! Dr Narayan's solution to man's existential crisis. No it isn't my solution, it is the Hindu-Bhudhist solution. The concept of Maya refines itself from Hinduism to Budhism. It reveals itself in any 'theory of mind'. I reckon it would be at the heart of every organised religion too. However, engaging with one's environment, involves a subjective interaction. Do we dominate of do we sublimate to our environment? This is the question my imaginary readers. This is the question. Our interaction with the environment is facilitated by our intent. Intent to do what though? Some intentions are bad even though they are good. The notion of 'civilising' the savages is such an example. Such a convoluted world we live in. How do I know if my intent is good or not ? The Kantian method of answering this question would be to think 'n' steps in the future, or to question 'what would happen if the step that I'm contemplated was performed by each and every member of society'. Another way of establishing the 'Golden Rule' would be to ask what would happen if 'this particular action was done onto me'? But aren't all ppl different? I may not appreciate help, but someone else may appreciate the help while we were struggling with the same thing. There isn't a simple answer. Perhaps it would be good to carry labels on our clothes. Cloud Tags of our thoughts, perhaps. Of course someone would invent an optical clothe reader and try and sell you something after you walked underneath an awning or something.

I could try and treat ppl the way they like to be treated if I knew, only if it didn't involve too much sublimation from my side. Should be really be interacting with our environment without censure or limit?

I have reached a stage where I now limit my interaction to where I think I hold a sense of Agency; agency doesn't mean control, agency also means being ok, not being in control. I treat others as I would like to be treated and I listen, listen to what ppl are saying both verbally and non-verbally. I seek genuine interaction. I make eye contact with each and every person I talk to, even if it's a stranger and I try to smile as much as possible. I shall call this the 'Unbeliever's method of Humanism' I'll try and think of something original soon :)