Adieu, Adieu!

Desiderata.English
today is an "Adieu" piece
abridged from the column that is published by Borneo Post
for Jan 1, 2006.

In less than a month into Blogging started on THE IDES OF MARCH, 2005 Desi's WORDS won the heart of fellow journalist Yan -- more formally, PHYLLIS WONG -- who soon found a place in The Borneo Post to run my column on Sundays from May 1. I picked that day in May for an inspired reason, for The First of May won both Yan's and Desi's hearts like The Gal/Boy Next Door respectively, each with her/his romantic leanings. For more detail, visit her in Sibu, next door to Catsville I often tease her -- mostly mentor, sometimes mentee to this teacher aspiring to be a poet. My telling could be bought cheaply with a tehtarik if thou can track me down in the FuRong Maze.:)
I need to bid Adieu, Adieu fro a selfish reason. At certain road junctions, another writing platform beckons, and Desiderata.English has to take a respite; further, this Engrish guru suffers some "burnt out" -- don't we all, cracking our grey cells?
However, when I am inspired to come up with Words, and words are all I have To take your heart away -quality to do justice to the BeeGees poetically, I will oblige with an occasional sin'-son'.


Ignorance is Bliss - Is It Wise?

I always tickle a few good friends when they ask about my blood pressure readings, including a good friend and counsellor who recently graduated into full-time ministry work after obtaining a Certificate in Theology. He puts many young ones to shame because at the age of 68, this friend whom I cheekily refer to as Mr Coww, is still engaged in self-improvement, a living testimony to lifelong learning in action. When I answer that I'd rather not know what my blood pressure was so that I could enjoy my food and drinks with an unburdened mind, Coww's jaw would drop for a fraction of a second, then in a mocking tone, he would admonish:"My friend, your Ignorance is Bliss policy is not wise," adding that I was completely irresponsible, and it was dereliction of duty of the highest order, to myself!

Just two weeks before Christmas, I assured Coww I had taken heed of his caution, and had never failed to take my daily "thernomin" tablet of 100mg for my hypertension, unlike during a previous period, I went without the medicine for several weeks, which was truly "tempting fate" a little too far!

But more importantly, Coww recently resumed the question of "personal faith" with me, as I had once differed with him on the question of "soul" and "spirit". He told me that I was mistaken in thinking that "soul" and "spirit" were one and the same. They are two distinctive entities, which another good friend of mine, Phyllis Wong, was able to elaborate -- elucidate's the better word -- so clearly that I finally could discern the fine distinction. Thanks to both these teachers for upgrading my education, and more so, for "personal sharing" on a "spiritual" matter which I hope adult readers will find the time to ponder over. (Welcome to visit Phyllis at yancorner.blogspot.com when you are free.)

A Beautiful Mind

During the Yuletide season, the few days break gave me an opportunity to work on a "film-script" -- my latest adventure in writing -- and one movie I re-visited which I found "meaningful" was about a Nobel laureate and his beautiful, yet troubled, mind.

"Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart," John J. Nash Jr was quoted as saying by Russell Crowe in a movie of the same title I adopted for my post today. The film is a heart-warming, yet melancholic, one based on the true life story of the Nobel prize-winner in mathematics, with some liberties taken to enhance the messages of a legend in his own lifetime.

It tells of an understanding wife Alicia, played by lovely Jennifer Connelly, who stood by her man who lived not quite a "normal" life in that a brilliant mind sometimes went off the top and the man transformed into another personality -- a state termed schizophrenia that often sees Nash go into illusions of seeing "enemies" where there were none. Nash who is the mind capable of sifting through a maze of mathematical equations and algorithms is sometimes changed into a childlike being, removed from the reality of his environments, and yet having to cope with the demands of the real world. Not many women can stand the strains of being married to a man swinging betweeen the poles of reality and fantasy.

Nash thrived because his heart and that of Alicia had danced at a common wavelength at the most testing times of their married lives together.

And in my interactions with Coww spannng some forty years, I have had the privilege to have witnessed a brilliant mind, but more dear too me, a deep insight into a friend's heart. I have also taken certain liberties -- as poets are wont to do -- to give an inkling into a special person's innermost sanctuary. What indeed is friendship based on if not on communication of confidences and sharing of insights between two individuals? And a friendship that endures is to be treasured more than gold. My advice to my esteemed readers is you should cultivate a handful of true friends to whom you can turn in times of need. A bondship between two individuals can see them through dark storms and high seas -- that gives one a calm beyond a doctor's best medicine, I hope every reader has found at least one confidante to help face Life's many and varied challenges.

I shall relate here a conversation I had with my confidante. I once was quite lost in terms of finding the "right" ways to capitalise on my God-given talents, and so I asked dear Coww. He said wryly that I might try to the best of my ability -- but if that one ingredient was missing -- my success in writing would never achieve the peak I was capable of. "No, no, my friend, it's not that. Unless you are touched by the spirit, your limits are merely at the human level ..." I feel humbled by Coww's words, so discerning, yet disconcerting at times. My writer's streak of impatience and of the questioning mind sometimes cut him off, followed by a long debate of what this "spirit" he meant, and my perspective of "it". Well, we never stop learning, and new friends coming into one's path add on to the learning process.


Coww is a born storyteller. He studied in a Chinese school for only one year when the Japanese invaded then Malaya, and for the following three years, it was a long, long holiday. Later, as a real life teacher now sitting in front of the class, he could quote Shakespeare better than many mates who had undergone 12 years of schooling in English while he only had five! So we share two common loves -- passion for Shakespeare and getting high on poems. He has an edge because he could recite poems from Chinese literature besides colonialist British while I can only from the latter. But age catches up with humans soon enough; when Coww sometimes complained of "fainting spells", I was apprehensive, and at such moments I would recall one of my favourite poets, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), on:

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.

So my wish at year's close is for all my readers to have good health above everything else, so we can continue to savour the simple things in life. Indeed, it's double happiness to find a beautiful mind, and a peaceful heart, and I hope to expand the number in the company of such faithful friends. Coww and Phyllis truly help this writer understand himself better, especially to distinguish between the soul and the spirit, and to constantly keep the faith, when sometimes things look overwhemingly bleak. Let's work together with a few friends so that the heart's song will go on for ever, and I'll continue to try to patiently listen, and discern the gems of friendship within. Gifts from one heart to another.

Desiderata.English will take a break for some time but I hope to write an "occasional" column again, God-willing. Meanwhile, I'd like to share another Max Ehrmann's poem, Wanderers, before I say adieu.

A clear, cool night. I have been reading,
but the thoughts of man do not solace me.
I raised the curtain and looked at the moon,
clear and silvery; and I brushed
some of the unrest out of my mind.
I know all the theories of the moon.
There have been times when the symbols
of science have robbed me of some of its
mystery and charm.
But no one can explain the moon any
more than a grasshopper can explain me.
In youth, the moon promised too much.
But now I understand better; that was not
the moon's fault.
Also the moon and I have this in common:
we both are wanderers across the night.

Wandering is an enjoyable escapade that one can afford, best done in the steal of the night! because you don't have to "disturb" another "soul". It's about the only adventure a "muddled"/ "muddied" mind can embark on anytime to clear the mind. You wander back to childhood, that maiden kiss, wedded bliss, adult sorrows, life's myriad lessons, and
still
one wonders
what's this life all about?


At year's end, I'd like to share one Prayer to My Maker:

"Give me and all my dear friends time to continue to
wander the landscape of the earth, moon and the stars.
More importantly give us time
To wander among the alleyways of the lost
the busy streets of passersby
and the highways of business people
to be able to find a few more
fRiends
among
fellow travellers,
falling in love
mayhaps
with some wayward
wondering
souls?"


In the coming year, in my solitude

I will continue to wander into
the depths of the night
And never hold back on the promise
Of finding that common beating
of life's symphony
in another human heart
And I beget a new friend.

Before I close, I would like to thank all my good friends, especially Mr Coww and Phyllis, who help me see with the heart, as expressed in this quote which I treasure:

"And now here's my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." *** from The Little Prince



SIDEBAR STORY

A productive hobby Desiderata started in March 2005 is blogging, which is an Internet-based journal-writing, with mine dedicated to Civil Society issues and the promotion of the English language. I also won some new friends at blogsworld, and was privileged to meet up recently with four young and articulate fellow bloggers -- John Lee, Imran Ahmad, Koi Kye Lee and Sabrina Tan, the last two whose articles had been featured in this column previously.

Imran Ahmad, an IT graduate, recalled the event, and titled his story -- based on just seven days old gathering -- Anniversary

It’s almost a week. How time flies. Life was never the same since last Friday night, when I had a truly wonderful experience. I promised someone I would write a soppy story to commemorate the occasion and immortalise it within the bowels of my memory forever. So here it is, I am writing this at 2.30 am and my mind is still able to spew stuff at its normal rate.

So what’s the experience I’m referring to that I hear you asking? Well it’s the joy of meeting new people and building a ship which we christened as Friendship. The only ship that doesn’t sink is friendship. I am beginning to agree to that adage. And my experience last week serves to strengthen my belief in it. And I hope that my new found friendship, although it didn’t take 5 years long to build like the Titanic, will not sink within 3 hours. I know I will do my level best to nurture and preserve my new found circle of friends.

Everywhere I go, I hear people complaining about their friends, and how the institution that is friendship is slowly eroding and losing its charm and importance in their daily lives. But from what I’ve been experiencing for almost a year now, I am glad to know that good people still exist out there, albeit existing in the cyberworld. But behind every pseudonym lies a living and breathing person, and someone who really cares.

Some might say that I’m being delusional about the whole thing, but I beg to differ. In the cyberworld, you can really measure a person through his writing. You can tell people's character by what they write. You can know if the person is being sincere in thoughts and opinions. How many of us can say that about another friend in real life?

In real life, there’s all the false pretense, the dressing to impress, and not forgetting the fake accents. People pretending to be someone else, rather than being themselves. In cyberspace, what you see is what you get.

To all the cynical people out there, I only have this to say to all of you: You may laugh at me for being different, but I’m laughing back at you. And I pity all of you for not having such wonderful friends that I have. And to have such handsome and beautiful friends, this is one heck of a lucky ugly person. So life does have its rewards.

So to my new friends, here’s wishing you success in everything that you may undertake, and here’s hoping that the people that matter most to all of you will appreciate you as much as I do. Also many thanks for crossing my path and showing me that nice people are still in existence. Thanks for being my source of guidance and advice, and for keeping me company on the one too many sleepless nights I have.

Again, with a lifted heart for all your good wishes, Desi Wishes all Esteemed Readers "A Happy and Progressive New Year".

MAY YOU WIN SOME NEW FRIENDS COME 2006.