Day 71 : Having a Good Time!

Sometimes there comes a day when you feel like things are just a bit to weird. Well weirder that usual at least. Most of our time we spend walking around like a tin soldier. We only go to bed at night to key back again, only to wake up the next day and repeat the same BS all over again. Our days become inexplicably merged together. All of it goes by so fast, and of so little consequence that soon begin to wonder if the last year did happen at all. Or did the universe just skip a few months and the people in it are just in on the prank. Everyone is just playing a trick on you. Or maybe just soon you will wake up one day an all of this will be just a half-remembered dream.

There are times when some guy comes up to me and says, 'remember that we did that thing', and I want to bash his stupid face in. Because I do not remember the first thing of what he is saying. And what sucks more is when the story he is describing is such a laugh riot, and you did play a part in it. And by the looks of it, you would've really enjoyed it a lot. But heck if you remember even bit of any of it. This sucks. You are always complaining that you seem to be having a very monotonous life and nothing of any excitement has been happening anymore. Then you begin to realize that things do happen. You really do not change. People around you do not really change. The way you react with them, do not really change. What mostly happens is that the good times do not register as often into your brain as it used to earlier.

You see, as you progress with your life your expectation and definition of what 'having a good time' means gets blown way out of proportion. You think having a good time means, getting wasted on the deck of a cruise ship with pretty girls and blue ocean all around you. How often does that happen anyway? Not all of can be Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street. And also the truth is you don't really need to own a 100K yacht to enjoy yourself. At least you never really needed them in the past did you? You always had a rowdy ol' time with your friends and colleagues. What has changed? Have you become boring now? Don't people include you in their funcapades anymore?

Not true. As far you know you are not missing out on any exciting nights happening around you. Maybe you are just getting old, and so are the people around you. Maybe what people you know do for having fun has changed as well. Maybe getting wasted is not a big priority for them anymore. And anyways, you never got high on anything earlier either did you, so why should it matter now? Even now you can get people to enjoy themselves, go out of their way to feel the moment. And isn't what having a good time is all about. To actually stop the constant monologue going on inside your head, and see/hear/feel of whatever you are doing or wherever you are doing it. Really, just noticing your life at any instance of time makes it memorable.

Make memories. It is much cheaper to do than you'd think.

Day 41 : Imagination

Have you noticed that when you sit silent for a few moments and you mind goes off wandering to some distant shore dreaming up things. How it always seem to climax into the past?

Our mind is an amazing thing, with powers beyond measure. We can live, die, procreate, decimate, grow, shrink, travel, anything inside our heads. There is nothing that we cannot do or create or visit inside our heads. With all of the permutations and combinations of universes and existences that we can imagine, almost all the time our mind always comes back to the past.

We are all anchored to our past. We dream of the future yes, but even when we dream the roots of that dream sprouts from our own pasts. We all want to be rich, because in past we have had felt the sting of poverty. We all want to look attractive, because in past all of us have felt a bit average compared to others around us. We all want to be intelligent, because in past we've been looked down upon as ignorant. We all have our own needs and desires. And nearly half of them are something that we had lacked in the past; or something that we imagined/known in the past.

I wish there was some way that we could just cut off the cord with the past so that our minds may simply go ahead and take us to the worlds unknown to us. Places and sights that is so strange for us that the very notion of them would be exhilarating.

For example, look at all the popular alien movies and books we see. All of them have limbs and eyes and consciousness. Whenever I imagine of alien existence, I think of some specie that do not have a body. They don't have need for eyes to see, nor any measure of right or wrong. They are alien creatures with alien needs and powers. Why should they ever even imagine being anything like us?

In a way, they reason the movies and books make do with such portrayal is not because they cannot think of weird beings. They do, a lot. But they still to sell their product better they feel they need to tone it down. In other words, they are saying the masses are not capable of imagining let alone accepting anything too out of the acceptable limits of unfamiliar. I feel that is sort of insulting.

There is this popular American show of the 70's called Cosmos. It is a semi-scientific documentary series about the universe telecast during the Space Race. It is quite good, some of the graphic might seem to campy by today's standard but honestly I find them a lot more open to imagination than a lot of other stuff we are shown or taught.

It is a popular belief ancient Indian scholars could calculate and predict eclipses, distances between the planetary objects and satellites etc just by looking at the stars. These scholars researched human body and universe out there by just imagining the whole way it functions. The whole science of astrology was an output of this imagery.

I love our strength of imagination a lot. I enjoy the sense of freedom that it gives us. I only dislike the way our imagination is limited by our known world.

Today, I am going to add a really weird alien creature to my horror story.

Day 36 : John Goddard !!

Today. A colleague sends me this link. And then I go berserk the rest of the day.

Prior to my seeing it, if you had asked me who I thought is my role model. I wouldn't have a straight answer to give to you. I mean sure I would’ve made up some clichéd story like my folks, or a teacher, or a famous writer/thinker. But that would to some extent be false. Now I am happy to say I won't have to make up stuff anymore. I officially have a role model now. And his name is - John Goddard.

He has every right to look smug!

Seriously dude, look at his LIST! He has done everything!!

There are things in this list that I think you will find in the bucket list of every single human being on this planet. And then there are things so exciting, they definitely deserve to be in everyone’s list.

Visiting exotic places, doing extraordinary things, doing ordinary thing and actually enjoy them, speak more languages, learn new musical instruments, re-trace famous voyages by other famous explorers, read more books, write books, go around the globe (four times!).

 And so many more...

There are few people on this planet who can confidently say "been there, done that" without coming off as a lame bullshitter. He has actually been everywhere, done everything, and experienced everything. He even has a list to prove it. And books, and shows, and pictures.

He even went on the lecture circuits in the States speaking about his myriad experiences. I mean, he is the one guy on this planet who should be everyone's role model. The one guy who's very life is a lesson on how to live life to the fullest!

I guess when Mr. Goddard passed away couple of years back and reached the pearly gates up top. My guess is he would have been welcomed with open arms by the Creator. Who else to get the feedback on how beautiful his creation is!

Today, I will make a bucket list. One more resolution to accomplish this year.

P.S. I know there are way too many exclamation marks in this post. But darn it, this guy is awesome!!!