HAIKU NOODLE: fresh from my freshly-shaved head.

This just came to me in a blink, as I was pottering through my blog, tidying up old posts. I caught a glimpse of a picture I'd posted (see label "gardens") and ..

What is a graveyard
but just another garden
nurturing new life?

Sometimes I think that, whether or not it is true (there's only one way to find out if it is - but I'm not ready to die just yet), it's a good thing to believe in life after death. Of course, many of the world's religions, mine included (I'm a Muslim, in case you're wondering) believe that our death from this world we know, is not the end. But I am beginning to think, given the state of the world today, that it might be a good idea to believe in reincarnation. How else will we get ourselves to take responsibility for the terrible things we do to this planet and to ourselves?

Perhaps we need to give ourselves these fears: that what goes around, comes around - that the mess we leave behind today will be there abundantly for us to struggle through as the children we'd be reborn as - that the lessons we take the time to learn here, will be the bonus points that give us a head start in our next game - and that, in the end, it will be okay to die.

DEAR ME: "Every day that I live ..

Death is something I think about, almost every day. Not in a morbid way, at least I don't think so. But I'm very aware of it, very aware - and yet I never come up with any real answers about it. Here's something I wrote back in 1993 about it. Mulling through some answers, I end with just another question.

Every day that I live
I am more alive
and closer to death.

Every day that I live
I have more left to do
and less time left.

Every day that I live I die a little
and every thought of death
brings more life to every moment of living.

Accepting life is not enough.
Accepting death is all there is.

Between life and death is a lifetime.
Between living and dying is a moment.

And when I die, will I have lived?

(written on Nov 12, 1993)

I wrote this after reading a wonderful book "Knots" by R.D. Laing, which explores contradictions.

Happy Kumar: something doesn't Click.

So Happy Kumar goes about his day oblivious to the megabuck opportunities out there. (Love the jingle, by the way). What I don't get is, what's the problem? Isn't that what the ideal job is? One where you're perfectly happy? Isn't it about the whole "Do what you love" thing?

Happiness ain't the job abroad, the big promotion, the corner office. A lof of happiness is just about being content. You can have all the trimmings, live the capitalist dream and still be miserable. There's a big difference between happy and complacent and hmmm .. perhaps I analyse these ads way too much. Let's just leave Happy Kumar where he is, content and smiling (a good thing, I will restate) and hope that all the miserable buggers out there go to ClickJobs.com and find something that makes them smile too.