Lily white was playing badminton in the garden with her sister Rosy Red. After a while they got tired and then were bored and were seen lying down on the grass, under a tree. Obviously, they were looking at the sky. "Sky is pretty nice today". Lily said to her sister. "Look, that cloud is just like a giraffe!" her sister exclaimed! "Oh, we should play the cloud game". Lily said. It was one of their favorite games. Just looking at clouds and making imaginary figures. It was exciting as; nobody knew what would come up next in the sky. Clouds In the sky So, for next half an hour, they were seen giggling under the tree looking at clouds. Wasn't it a wonderful game? By the time their mom called them for the afternoon tea, they did not feel tired at all. And Lily was seen thinking, while she was having her bread. "What is it, Lily? What are you thinking about?" Mother asked. "Oh, mom, I was wondering how the clouds are made?" "That's easy, when the sun heats everything during the day, water gets boiled and become tiny droplets and rise in the sky. And when they cool, they make clouds" Her mother explained. "So, if I touch a cloud, I will feel water?" "I guess it is correct, but you wouldn't be able to touch a cloud, when up close it would just look like mist" "Oooow.. I see, the mist, a cloud is like a mist in the sky" Lily white was happy with the answer, only for a while. Her mind was always wondering like a puppy let lose in a park. She couldn't stop being curious. So, she asked. "Is everything made out of something?" "What are you thinking now Lily?" "I don't know, I was wondering, if clouds are made out of water droplets, and if water is made out of atoms, what makes atoms? And what makes what makes atoms? Is there an end to it?" "Oh, poor lily, you are actually correct, everything is made out of something, and there is no end to it. I am sure you will learn a lot in science class." "Guess I should be a scientist then" Her mother was seen smiling to herself, when they both left for their study. And she heard Rosy Red asking, "Who is a scientist?" And before bed, Lily made an entry in her diary, which read like this. "Today we played the cloud game, and I was wondering what clouds are made of. Apparently, they are made of water, like mist. And everything is made out of something else. I wonder there is a thing, which is made out of nothing? maybe I will ask a scientist when I meet one"

I was a moss, dwelled on a bark of an old oak. Which stood against the despicable weather of four seasons year around in countryside Living in isolation on a remote corner of a corner's garden. Unmoved, untouched, unspoiled except grazed by Slippery snails at night. I liked the morning dew which I collected at dawn. Before it disappeared when sunbeams across me shone. And I was in love with a black hole. Would you believe it? They called me the crazy moss, the ferns my friends Boy, they laughed at my timid fragile voice And gay smile that I tried to hide. Once in a while when the Sky cleared of clouds. I would stare into the hollow darkness of the night. I would see the black hole in the corner of the universe. Oh. so pretty it was her smile. Her dark countenance allured me with vigor. Her sweet voice which did not escape her own gravity ruminated in my mind. As I wished to drift with earth Fall into her at once and for all Like a moth, falling into a candlelight. Call it madness, call it love It's better than being a moss on a tree unloved. Or falling for the stars, I despise their blue light. I never will speak about it in public My outlawed love of life Moss I would be Moss I would die. But a moss I was in love with a black hole though it's futile. --end of poem -- The Moss

Into the Woods Izzy and Nizzi Once upon a time, there was a mother with two twins. Their names were Izzy and Nizzi. One sunny day Izzy and Nizzi asked their mother if they go to the woods to collect honey for pancakes. Mother said, "Of course girls but be careful!" So, Izzy and Nizzy set off. They met many cheerful animals on their way. Rabbits Squirrels and a fox with three cubs! A rare sight it was. Deep in the jungle it was a little dark. And they walked in silence looking for beehives. “Remember that last Saturday we watched a scary movie where one twin disappears without the other twin noticing?” “I’m scared if it happens to us,” said Izzy. She turned around but Nizzi wasn’t there. “Nizzi? Oh no! Oh no!” What am I going to tell mom! Where is Nizzi! Do you know what happened to her?

Lily white was late for the school. Yes, she did wake up early in the morning, yes, she did brush without falling asleep and she did prepare her bag before going to bed last night. Yet somethings happened and she was just late again, so she stepped out of the home following her father with her pretty little umbrella as there was a drizzle this morning. "Lily You are wearing your shoes on wrong side" Her father exclaimed! and then only she looked at her feet. And he was spot on! she had been wearing her shoes on wrong foot. "Oh, how come I am so stupid! this is going to make me late" She was uttering while trying to exchange her shoes in a hurry. Hmm... what did you say while you were tying shoes? Her father asked when she stepped in the car. He seemed having a serious thought and Lilly was puzzled. So, she took a moment and realized he was asking about her stupid thing. Wrong shoes "Oh father, I said I am so stupid, to wear the shoes on the wrong foot. And this is not the first time." Hmm. her father exclaimed. I agree what you did was stupid, but I cannot agree you are stupid. Nobody is stupid. "What do you mean nobody is stupid?" Were you stupid when you woke up early this morning? No, I wasn't. I was lazy not stupid. Were you stupid when you brushed your teeth? No father, I was only sleepy when I was brushing. Were you stupid when you prepared your books and bags last night? And got ready for bed? NO FATHER! I wasn't stupid. I was smart doing that! There you go. Problem solved Lily. I don't want you to say you are stupid when you do something stupid next time. Well, what I can say? Instead? "You can say, oh... what a stupid thing I did, I put my shoes on wrong side again! I know I am smart but sometimes I do silly things." It made Lily white smile. What a nice way to treat myself. I don't have to feel I am stupid each and every time I do a silly thing. Hmm... what silly things Have I done lately? She wanted to write all the silly things she and Rosy Red did all this year! So, this was a list found in her diary. Silly Things done by Lily White Today I tried to catch a bird. I ran after it as fast as I could, but the bird was much faster than me. I hid under my blanket because I thought nobody could see me. Then Mum asked, “Where are you?” and I started laughing. I put my shoes on the wrong feet. I walked around like that for a long time before I noticed. I asked Dad where the moon goes during the day. He explained it to me, but I still think the moon might be hiding somewhere. I tried to dig a hole all the way to the other side of the Earth. I stopped when my hands got tired. I talked to my teddy bear for nearly an hour. He didn't say anything, but I think he was listening. I put a bucket on my head and pretended I was a space explorer. I ran away from a wave at the beach because I thought it was going to catch me. Then I ran back and did it again. I ate something Mum told me not to eat just because I wanted to know what would happen. Nothing happened. It just tasted horrible. I made a tower with all my blocks. It took me ages. Then I knocked it down in about three seconds. I gave my teddy bear a new name: Sir Fluffy Thunder. I wore a towel around my neck and became Super Girl. I tried to fly from the sofa. Luckily, Super Girl landed safely. I asked Mum a question and then asked “Why?” about her answer. I kept asking why until she told me I was asking too many questions. I played “the floor is lava” and jumped from the sofa to the chair. I almost forgot that the floor was not actually lava. I made a magic potion from water, leaves, grass and some mud. It looked disgusting but I thought it was amazing. I tried to stay awake all night. I told myself I wasn't tired. Then I fell asleep before I even finished talking. I drew a picture of our house. It looked nothing like our house, but I told Mum it was a very special kind of house. I put some random things into a box because I thought I might need them one day. I don't know what I will need them for. I built a fort from bedsheets and pillows. I told everyone they needed a special password to come inside. I laughed for five minutes because my brother said the word “underpants.” I told Mum I would go to bed for only five minutes. Somehow, it became morning. I walked backwards around the house because I thought it was fun. I bumped into a chair. I tried to talk to the cat by meowing. The cat looked at me like I was crazy. I put my toy in the refrigerator because I thought it might enjoy being cold. Mum found it and wasn't very impressed. I stood behind a curtain and thought I was invisible. Everyone could see my feet. I made myself a superhero name. Today I was Captain Sparkle. I made a very serious plan to avoid eating my vegetables. Unfortunately, Mum discovered the plan. I tried to teach my teddy bear how to dance. He wasn't very good at it. I put a blanket over my head and walked around pretending I was a ghost. My brother screamed, and then I laughed so much I fell over. I asked Dad a very important question: “If fish live in water, do they ever get thirsty?”

Why you should write your own biography. Why not? Why you should not write about your biography? When I put myself in your skin, with my mind I can see that your life must be filled with different experiences than mine. Some good some bad, some inspiring some tragic. Whatever it may be If I am a novelist, it would be material for a character in my Moby Dick. So why not? I have no reason to give. Nobody is going to write it for you. What are the odd, you are rich and famous so you can hire, an official biography writer to follow you all around the town and write about your grocery shopping and travel to work. Nope, the fact that you are reading now is evidence for that not happening. So if it is a biography, it should be an autobiography. You will have to do your own. Moby Dick Your life is significant to few people. Think about it. Although you are not famous your story is significant to everyone in the immediate associate circle of yours, meaning friends and family. They look up to you, they depend on you, and you depend on them. For these people you're the famous person in their lives. How relatively small a circle that would be, still your ideas, and views matter to them. Although ignorant today, if will in the future when there is loss. Hence, write it for them if not for you. Human thoughts are valuable. One of the most and only valuable thing is human thoughts. This I do not have to explain as there are many more articles on value in this blog such as this. However, if you're not into journals, autobiography would be a place where, you can write all your life philosophy into. So it becomes the part of the general human knowledge. Do not worry nobody cares. Value of human thought is not immediately apparent most of the time. It is apparent only when it becomes necessary as a real human problem. The problems may not exist now, today. But eventually they will and your biography can be the solution to save some million lives and change the course of the universe. understand your own journey. Your journey when you look back from the comfort of the couch may feel chaotic and haphazard and even bizarre. The narrative which goes inside your head all day, makes edits to it day after day, without you even knowing. Making sense of this journey happens when you look back only. Life makes sense only when you look back at it. Trust me it does makes more sense when it is on paper, when in written format. To see the change. When things are in chronological order, the time you take to write the autobiography will eventually change your identity. Your current identity as a middle-aged man was not the one prevailed in the past. The ideals about the future have changed over time from a young man with expectations, to a middleman for survival and understanding. You might have quit smoking, and drinking, to feel a little healthy on your decaying body. These things are real human problems associated with change. Notice when you start writing, it leaves opportunity to observe the changing life To remember what happened Human memory is notoriously unreliable. At one moment you will have a thought, and it will be forgotten forever, in the next moment. At one moment you would be sad, and without even you are knowing it, will change into jealousy and happiness in the afternoon. Unless you think backwards into your day, and week and months, years and decades. Unless you write them down, your beautiful thoughts, you will have a very short story, which you say to yourself right now. Which can be utterly wrong when taken as a whole. So, write it down and see how surprisingly strange to come back to your past self 10 years in the future. To discover a personal philosophy Life is a struggle. I am sure you have gone through some critical points in your life where you just went from believing in one philosophy to another. At one time, you thought it's all about studying hard and getting a good career. Another time, it wasn't enough, you looked at family life and thought that would make you happy and content. In another time you thought, well nothing matters, past or future, only what is happening now is what is there to it. But where is now? How can I make sense of it if not for the past and future. These may seem obvious stupid village philosophers' questions. But if you read a little bit of any philosopher, you will see, they also followed same thought pattern. why your own biography is unique Your story is unique. I haven't lived through yours. It deserves to be written. Do you know how difficult it was for an ordinary man born in 100 ACE to write about their lives. For one thing the literacy rate wasn't good. And the stationary material was hard to find. Today it is very easy, you can write down your unique experience in a blog, in paper, or even in a vlog. Yes, all the boring stuff that you do make sense. Do not everyone else to go "Woooow..." when you say what you have to say. As long as it matters to you it doesn't matter what others think. Mistakes and achievements Your mistakes and achievements both deserve mentions in your autobiography. Mistakes as you can look back and organize your system, so they do not recur in the future. They function as learning points. Achievement as you often forget that you ever had them in a short period of days to weeks. But when Saturday afternoon, when you sit at your desk to write your own autobiography you will realize, the life you have lived is not bad at all. It's just you forgot to celebrate your small wins and praise yourself. No harm done with a little bit of ego if it makes you smile for a while, while nobody is watching. How are you going to write your autobiography. Set aside a time and a place, and a book, pen and paper. Keep them ready easily visible and available on your working table where you often come and sit. Fantasize about what you are going to write, during normal working hours. Start from somewhere before you sleep. Start about one day four decades ago, where you woke up in the morning after your older siblings who happened to be nowhere to found. Talk about the strange tumult of squirrels which woke you up from your comfortable baby sleep. Talk about the little bag of Jambu, (a tropical fruit) that your brother and sister kept by your bed a simple act of love that you never told them about that you still remember. Maybe they deserve to hear that you still value their childish acts of kindness, which filled your heart with human compassion all these years. Maybe it is time to give them a call. There is no hard and fast rule where you write. What you write and in which device. As long as you add a little story day after day, until it shapes into something which you will be proud of in a decade. Think about it as a project for a decade, not something to be finished in months.

Jim Rhon philosophy of working on yourself. If you are into self-development and generating wealth, you cannot avoid this guy. He is an internet sensation, even after his death in 2009. To be honest I am not a big fan, as his philosophy of getting rich lacks the answers to the fundamental question of why. But as you can see, I write about him as there is some truth, in what he preaches. If you wonder after working hard on your job for decades and you are not wealthy enough to be financially in depended, maybe it is because you worked hard on your job. That will make your employer wealthy, not you. But if you work on yourself, in the same effort and enthusiasm, over the course of same decades, you could have been wealthy. At least had a chance of being, at least changed the odds of being in the future. So, when he preaches "Work hard on yourself, if you want to build a fortune." I cannot disagree. As fundamentally, what would grow is what you work hard on. Then he would give a list of things for you to work hard, on. Like a list of goals, building habits, choosing your friends carefully to orchestrate your development, etc., etc. But this is really hard. Sometimes, no matter how much willpower there is you might not be able to get out of the bed to live your dream life, where you work on yourself before the sunrise. Maybe our souls are too much broken by smartphones and toxic work environments that we work like zombies. Anything? Let's put a why and how to Jim Rhon philosophy First why? Why should you work on yourself and build a fortune. Odds are if you work on yourself still you might not be rich. As life is a really twisted affair with uncountable number of reasons and paths. Tiny things which happen today is going to change your future forever. Like little things like waking up 5 minutes late will push you into an alternate universe with a different reality than current. Fact is nobody knows about future. But from looking at the patterns we can conclude, our happiness depends on the thoughts we are getting through the day. Although we are unable to change the circumstances, the belief of you can change, can actually change your pattern of thoughts. If done correctly you might be able to live a fulfilled happy and ordinary life. I say you should pursue this as only as it is what we desire. Do not ask me why we have desire in the first place, and what happens if we do not pursue any desire. That is entirely for the people who wants to disappear themselves from life. To live an ordinary life, and ordinary problems that is not necessary. How you are going to do that is very easy. I have written so many self-help articles in this blog. About tiny steps you can take, like reading, and meditation, and creating a dopamine detox. However, it is not that one tiny thing which is going to change your life miraculously tomorrow. But I would say that a comprehensive system, which is deliberately created by yourself, personally would be able to do that. This system you create to achieve your goal, should include every foreseeable trouble, and possible solutions. Every tiny action which lead to another outcome which eventually support your goal. Basically, you are going to reverse engineer your goal with a pen and paper, and put down everything, so there is no flaw. Just like a software engineer creating a complex program to safely handle cash at an ATM, or an architect building a plan for a skyscraper, taking into account all the wind, weight and material factors, so it doesn't collapse for 500 more years. This I can assure you is humanly possible. You can use a simple 9x9 mandala chart if your thoughts are just scattered and chaotic. Try this for a 1 goal you are repeatedly failing to achieve and comment me your progress.

Forever teledramas and infinite novels When I was young, I listened to teledramas on some boring family affairs. Falling in love, relationships, family disputes etc. These teledramas were long, sometimes aired for years. While the beginning is played, they did not even know about the complete plot, as there would be major plot twists once in a while throughout the year. I call them forever teledramas. After some time, even these forever teledramas would end. They would no longer suite the public, who change over time and once audience start to disappear, they give them an unexpected quick ending like a car crash, killing both the lovers. To be honest, there is nothing called an infinite novel. Nobody has written one. If you know anything even comes closer to an infinite novel, please do tell me I will include it here. But in that sense blogs and podcasts seems to be infinite. Just like teledramas these are only apparently infinite, no blog will run forever. No podcast will run forever, when the creative crew disappear the podcast will dissolve. So, is co-operate business. We like to buy a stock which forever increase in price. Some really have lasted longer than a full human life generating income for many. But as everything else, these infinite businesses will start to decline. Unless the CEOs are aware of these phenomena, they might just make them bankrupt, without letting them die peacefully by dissolving company assets. Endings Closures viewed as new beginnings - importance of endings Remember the quote "when one door closes, another opens?" So, nothing is bad in life, dropping out of school, ending a career, ending a relationship. It is just what we chose to view this after that thing happened. Are we willing to consider the last decade of life as a learning experience and move forward in this decade of life? Or Am I just doing same old tricks same old ways and never in search of new beginnings? perhaps failure just gives you a data point, a realization you would never have if you were successful. Maybe some of things in your life just need you to give an ending, without dwelling in grief, before you move on. Endings are as important as beginnings. What about the end of life? Lately I have been fantasizing of the ending of my life. But I think this is not a new phenomenon. All living beings think about their death, otherwise they would not survive, but some are more neurotic than others, obsessive than others. Throughout the blog you may find death is a frequent topic. But no wonder it is such a huge subject that I cannot cover in a 3-minute article as once I saw a Yale lecture series about 24 in total on "Philosophy of death". What is there so much to talk about it. For an average man it wouldn't even cross their mind death, in a normal day, as it is all automatic routines that govern their movement. Maybe I have extra time, and just circumstances. When I think the death as an ending to something, called life, I can see that meaning of life is only possible with death. If death never occurred and there was continuous awareness unbroken to eternity, there would be no meaning to existence of such. But the nature is clear, every natural atom changes its composure over time, hence anything built from atoms must decay and die. To me importance of life hides in my death.

Moral ambitions You might have moral ambitions towards society and others. If you're working in education, you might want to improve literacy and build a better system of education for future generation (maybe put some professors in kindergarten). If you work in finance, you will utilize financial instruments to generate wealth which can be used to improve public health and human condition. If you are a millionaire, you might want to become a billionaire to become a philanthropist at your retirement. However, when it comes to your day-to-day conduct as a human being, these moral ambitions may seem to be distant and impossible, "Nice to have things" in your life. And somebody might call it hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is easier to notice. In simple terms, it means you're a Lier with regard to what you say and do, but in better and acceptable way. Eg: You expect people around you to be generous, but you do not give away a penny. You expect and ask children to not to use phones, but you are addicted to screens, most of the day you spend time in doom scrolling. You might say that it is better to communicate openly, yet you hide things from your partner. You say money is not important but gets a heart attack when a part of your fortune is lost during a financial crisis. Histological slide. Hypocrisy is normal and Moral ambitions are mostly platonic. I do not want to completely break the illusion for you saying, "All Moral ambitions are platonic, and we all are hypocrites" But reality is very close to this. Is this our fault? Did not our teachers' parents and religious leaders, teach us the importance of moral ambition and our values? and they themselves were hypocrites? How often we see, teachers getting caught having affairs with their students. Judges and police officers getting arrested for DUI? Doctors getting financial and other benefits from pharmaceutical industry? Why do you think this happens? Can we really live a life that preached on the altar with a pure soul? If so, what is the way? Why moral ambition and hypocrisy clash with each other? Hypocrisy it seems driven by the selfishness, and indeed survival of individual is at its core. Moral ambition on the other hand is the means to the survival of the tribe. If we consider the modern society as such, we can say, the moral ambition has led us to better survive as individuals. But, only in thriving society that moral ambition has a fertile ground to grow. If the survival of the tribe is threatened, we will see the hypocrisy taking over. And individuals will start to act only on behalf of their survival. But consider the dilemma. The survival of the individual is the survival of the tribe. It seems changing personal values according to the situation is the one which keeps some of us alive in times of drought. This is more commonly seen in the nature, when the weaker offspring often led to starvation and elimination. If a cub cannot survive its crib, how can it supposed to survive in the harsh environment. You can argue that ours is not natural, and ours is human, and we are fundamentally different from all the rest of animals. Maybe we all are wrong. I saw a group of scientists, who teach how to detect breast cancer to a group of pigeons (histopathological diagnosis). Surprisingly, when taken as a cohort pigeons did it in the accuracy of 99%, which is the same as a qualified human pathologist. Maybe we are not very different from all the other animals, but just with a slight edge. Yet majority of our animal instincts are still there. So, I do not blame when my friend becomes hypocritic and break his own rules. Maybe tell a little lie here and there. It just proves, his inner animal is at work, high jacking the senile part of the brain instead the neo-cortex. Nothing else. And same applies to me.

Tragic of Jack - the Crow and the carcass story Once upon a time there was a crow. Who happened to be starving from the previous day, it was searching for food from early morning. And on its way saw an elephant's carcass, floating on the river. Half eaten by animals, yet plenty of meat left, the crow landed on the carcass and started eating it. Soon there were other crows. They all were having a nice breakfast feast. However, the Elephant was so huge, that there was enough meat for everyone. When the other crows left, the first one still stayed. Let's call him Jack. Now, Jack, the crow felt a little greedy. Why should I go anywhere else? It is safe to be on the carcass, floating on the river, I do not have to go looking for a lunch. I can have lunch here itself. So, it did. Without leaving the carcass, it had lunch, a dinner and even a little bit of nap at night. Following morning, all his friends returned, and Jack was feeling proud about himself. Like he has found a good Niche, if he was a blogger! So, he boasted about how nice it was to be on the carcass, overnight and all his friends nodded in agreement without confronting him, like all friends do. Now reassured by his colleagues the crow had a new identity. Jack was now not just Jack, he was "Smart a** Jack living on the Elephant carcass". And you can guess the rest of the story. After few days of new success in a row, obvious happened. The elephant carcass slowly drifted into the sea. Still some crows came for a visit, land was visible on a distance. Jack had plenty of time to save himself from his impending doom. But, Jack was fond of his new identity that he stayed. Until land was not visible, and the elephant carcass slowly begin to sink in the sea water. By this time Jack was heavy, sad and depressed. He could not fly far away back to the land and ended up dead, collapsing halfway to the beach. That, concludes the Jack and carcass story. Jack the crow Take home message There are plenty of messages in the story, such as, listen to your friends carefully, they might mean no harm but, their opinions are subjective too. And the one who confronts is not always the enemy as, that is the way the world responds. How about not being greedy with your identity as it is always dynamic. Your identity changes with your age, your friends, things you eat, like in the case of Jack. Good times will never last every day, and better be prepared and foresee rainy days, so you're absolutely ready when the luck runs out. But, the one I want to emphasize is about "Create a ceiling to your habits". Do not try to eat your carcass, day in and day out neglecting everything else in your life. It could be your work, your relationship, your mental health, your blog, that you're working on. Just know the carcass is going to sink with or without your help one day. So, holding onto them tight will definitely is not a wise choice. I am not asking you to take a bite when it is floating. Just define where you will stop. Otherwise, thing you thought was a fun thing to do eventually will consume you. In practice you can chose a stop condition to everything you do. You stop at 1000 dollars in your monthly spending, you stop at 500 words in your daily writing, you stop at 1 hour Netflix even on a holiday, you stop exercise at 30 minutes even if you feel like doing more. Just like minimums that you do on a bad day, maximums will help you balance and discipline and not to get attached too much with your daily carcasses like Jack did. Let's remember Jack everyday with gratitude.

Amazing story of Thing 1 and thing 2 Remember the Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss? I can still remember when I read Dr Seuss, through this wonderful children's story. I enjoyed it as an adult more than a child. I am not sure how he came up with "Thing 1 and thing 2". However, it fascinated me the underlying philosophy of things. Do you know why the story is not comparable to any other, children's story? I believe it is because, he started to address things, in his book at its basic form. Just as "Things" Let's look at the philosophy of "The cat in the Hat" Photo by @WFozStories -X How did Dr Seuss come up with Thing 1 and Thing 2? I wondered how he managed to pull up thing 1 and thing 2 into the story. It is magical when these things cannot be named. Thing 1 can be a kitten, a rabbit or anything. But when he took out the name tag, it is fundamentally a thing. A moving thing, a mischievous thing, which played havoc together with Thing 2, Which is same kind of thing 1. Did Dr Seuss suggest that it is the deed that matters not the name of the thing? I like to wonder, Dr. Seuss himself, on an armchair with his notebook at hand trying to figure out the "Thing" That the Cat in the hat going to pull out from his box. And, his mind went blank, and he could not think farther than "Thing". And smiled to himself, when he knew that is the name he should be giving to the things in the box. It's perfect. Thing 1 and Thing 2. It could be anything, and there is plenty of space for imagination of a child. Image @WFozStories -X Dr Seuss Philosophy of things. When we were kids, we used to be familiar with "Things". Now we do not as the things are shadowed by information we have received. Imagine a child, who see a cat for the first time. He would see only a "Thing". He may even call it "Thing 1". But after learning his parents call this "Thing" a cat, many times, The Thing 1 will be registered in his brain as a cat. Similarly, he would label Thing 2 and Thing 3 in different names. More knowledgeable a person is, he would have more and more Things which are recognized by names. What our brain has essentially done is, developed a layer of information, on top of the fundamental "Things" in the world. I think this is a major difference between us and a child. A child's world is still filled with unknown "Things" which hides mysteries. However, in our world we have, learnt about so many things, we no longer recognize, things as things. Imagine a picture or a video of Chiribiquete Emerald is shown to you. It is a bird which lives in Amazon rainforest. If this is shown to a child who has only seen a Crow once in his entire life, it would be just a "Thing 11" which moves and chirps. However, you would recognize this as a bird, in a flash, without you even realizing it, and you would even be able to guess its weight, if asked. You would see its similarity with a hummingbird. The disadvantage is we would never be able to see the "Thing" in the bird. As our consciousness is always be shadowed by information. https://unsplash.com/@picsbyjameslee Mindfulness, as a tool to recognize things. Mindfulness is a tool, in my opinion the only tool which can recognize things as things. You may ask why should we understand about these fundamental things? What is the point? If you have followed my previous articles, understanding the consciousness, is a possible solution to all our problems, as root cause of all our problems is none other than ourselves. What better way to do it than, understanding "Things" in our world. In a previous article, I have discussed some of the characteristics in these "Things". Here, in this article, I would not go into details, of these "Things" which are recognized by our mind (more precisely their reflections). It is just to emphasize and be amazed by the wisdom of Dr. Seuss who was able to recognize this fact, and even introduce some philosophy into a children's book, written Decades ago! Philosophy of things -Thing 1 and thing 2 PS : Summary of the plot- The Cat in the Hat. In Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat," two children, Sally and her brother, are stuck inside on a rainy day with nothing to do. Their boredom is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the mischievous Cat in the Hat, who brings chaos and fun to their home. Accompanied by his playful friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2, the Cat turns the house upside down with his antics. Despite the mayhem, they manage to clean everything up just in time before their mother returns, leaving the children to ponder whether they should tell her about their wild day.

Well, maybe it is not true everywhere, but I would say a lot of times. Have you ever been called a coward? when you failed to meet your responsibilities, at work in home. Probably the blame came from someone significant in your life, boss, partner, friend. Being coward is a good thing, as it opens up opportunity to move forward. Called a coward is not a bad thing, as it gives you a significant opportunity to reconsider your life. Either you can dwell on the blame or just do a SWOT analysis (or Mandala) then and there and consider your options. Maybe you are just being falsely accused even when you have done the correct thing, or just because you said no to something you absolutely hate doing. Then the matter is very easy, just ignore and move forward. But more significant is if the blame comes from inside. Instead of someone saying you a coward, if you feel like one, I will say there is a problem, as you cannot simply move forward without addressing this issue. Why you feel like a coward? It is important to reconsider why you felt like a coward. Most likely this is due to you failing to meet one of your own core values in a meaningful way. Maybe you just wanted to be a good employee at work, a good father, a good mother, a good son or a daughter. Maybe you just valued your work more than your family life and it just crashed. Maybe you just forgot that elements of life need constant juggling to prevent some of them just falling under gravity. If that is the case, getting your priorities straight, and adjusting your core values would make sense. The truth is nobody is going to come and help you do that, unless you have very caring and understanding parent, with enough compassion to see you through. As the subjective of our reality, I would say that happening is really rare. So, instead I suggest you go back to your own pen and paper and start gathering your dispersed thoughts and streamline them into a flow, for a new beginning. running away from problems of life. Sometimes it is ok to let it go. Once upon a time there was a python, which happen to slither around looking for water. And it went to a village. There while sliding in the bushes, it moved over the blade of a sword which bruised its body. Thinking this was enemy, the python wrapped itself around the blade, and it did cut a little bit deeper. Now in pain, the python was angry and in rage it tightened its grip. Again, and again and again, until the blade did cut all around it's body, by the time it let go, the python was exhausted, bleeding and unsalvageable. The battle the python engaged was not a true battle. It could have slithered away and be called a coward, against a blade. So, I guess being a coward is better than being dead in an unnecessary battle. There is no reason not to let regrets go away and move forward, as holding onto them would make you bleed your precious energy.

Why it is right to get wrong? Lightening When it is a storm, rarely we get chance to observe lightening. Until we developed fully equipped video cameras, which can capture lightening, in slow motion we did not appreciate what is happening. Now anyone can watch it in YouTube. And if you see, the super charged particles in the rain clouds, initially try to find optimal path by sending small streaks of charged particles. And often they end up in nowhere. And after such failures suddenly it detects the correct route and "Bam" all the energy is unleashed, and we can see and hear from 10 miles away. So, even lightening gets it wrong in the first attempt! lightening. : https://unsplash.com/@davidmoum Maze runners. Have you seen maze navigator games contest? These robot enthusiasts get together once a year to choose the winner of the best maze navigator Mouse. It's interesting, before the proper run the mouse is given chance to navigate the maze. And they often end up in dead ends. But this wrong data is used by the mouse to detect optimal and the best route to its target in the proper run. Isn't it amazing; to know the success of a maze winner is determined about the failures? I don't think anyone would appreciate this. Why failure is path to success? In life we fail sometimes. If you are 1/10000 who did not yet, it may be there in your future as well. I am not discouraging or bringing bad luck. If you ask JK Rowling or Mark Suckerberg, or anyone else who is considered successful, will tell that there is no secret formula. Or magic seven steps to success. It is sheer hard work combined with inherent passion and tiny drop of luck from the universe. And guess what most often it comes after 100 such failure attempts. Well, you might disagree showing me a pilot. Failure to land a plane would end up in a crash. Yet I cannot agree, I am sure all of the pilots did fail in their simulation landings. And only after repeated attempts they learn how to achieve that 100% success and confidence. And that goes to everyone who is at the top of their game. And this is the reason why failure is the path to success. As you can see, I use the word game deliberately because we in fact are really playing the gigantic game. Sometimes as individuals, sometimes as races, sometimes as nations, sometimes as species. But we are so much involved in this game so much so that we have forgotten we are just playing. Only criminals' lawyers and occasional philosophers know that it is a game. Maybe some few elite politicians and crazy rich 😜 Asians come under this category. But for the commoners like you and me, we do not even know we are playing the game. Why? Maze : https://unsplash.com/@parrish It's because our parents and teachers did not know this wisdom. If they knew they would tell us or better teach us it is ok to fail an exam. Because it is just a stupid game we humans inherently play as adults. Important thing is to identify which game if you are good at and go there and play till you die. In that game, there would be no failures as you are doing it not to win. And it can be simple things like feeding chicken in a chicken farm. Happiness can be there if you love it! Do you think Einstein did mathematics because he wanted money? Do you think Pablo Picasso painted because he wanted to be famous? Do you think elon send rockets because he wants to burn tonnes of money? Maybe 10% of it is true. Yet 70% it is due to the fact it is their passion. So faliure does not matter in places where your satisfaction comes from passion. So if faliure stops you from doing something, maybe you should start doing something else. After all the life begins at 40 according to some hence you are never late. Let's move onto some philosophical aspects now. Inherently we will talk about death. Games that we play will end at death. Just like that poof. gone. Everything you love will vanish, and even if you came from afterlife nobody would even agree the decaying body is yours anymore, so much so all the valuables we collect. If you become a ghost even your friends and family would run away, unless you are a friendly ghost like Casper. So even if we look at the failure from this point of view, you will understand failure does not matter as we all are doomed anyway. But why not reach the clouds before you fall back on earth? Steps to success: https://unsplash.com/@camstejim The second point I wanted to show you is if you look at your life from a one second after your death, even the success would not matter? Did you see that? Our eyes are not used to see this fact because we are always looking at life from this side of death. We are unable to visualize ourselves after death. There is good chance that all the materialistic and spiritual ties to this life would be cut off at our death. When we understand this, I find it easy to comprehend the mentality of seekers of truth. I see nuns, priests, monks and countless others, give up their burden of involvement of pursuit of happiness of the game our society in search of a truth. And I see they also start to play their own game without understanding what is happening. Some end up not bathing for years, some end up doing meditation under trees. Some end up coming back to the same place found nothing. And some I can see smile, when they realize 😄 it's all the fool the same. You carry your own fool to the palace, to the forest and to the Mars, and you would not find happiness or peace. Unless you know you are constantly being fooled by your mind even looking for virtue in a world of nothingness.