31/03/2009

a paperpin's lecture on the importance of system and organisation



"ever since paperpins had come into conception some 50 years ago, they had diversified greatly in form and function. such had their popularity maxed, that they were even picked up by the one hit wonder bill gates, one fundamental difference being that bill was a far inferior creature. not to say that the Human Being was an inferior race, it's just that paperpins associated simplicity with brilliance. Human Beings were too complicated and hadn't yet reached the oneness of mind and spirit, like the paperpins already had.

the paperpins were popular at the offices, but among people who called themselves slanted, nice-weird, loony and et cetera they were quite unpopular. paperpins were twisted and shouted at. they were called names - they were called the Commas in a Long Sentence. simply said, it meant that paperpins were like lots of Commas in a Long Sentence, like grammatical paperpins which never allowed a sentence to come to an end, making it more and more inexplicable and multilateral, holding compound meanings and contextual leanings together with a single, deftly-bent, snap-clasping inch of aluminium alloy.

however, paperpins had been created for an important reason - systematic organisation of paper. words, and the papers they were written on had to be neatly ordered and re-neatly re-ordered. paperwork would be lost without them. red-tape bureaucracy would become a carnival ribbon without them. paperpins effectively held entire nations together. could you imagine a world without paperpins?

Human Beings, however, have been known not to like discipline and order; some of them quite hate dealing with organisations which, for all practical purposes, exist on filing systems (paperpins being their basic elements). these organisations include banks, courts, schools, universities, public libraries and any sort of government-like offices, where Human Beings seem to be their most distressed, suppressed and harrassed selves.

to them, i have but one question: is life possible without system? is it possible to exist without structure, rules, foundations, regulations, stipulations? what would we be able to ever achieve without a formulated plan in life? filing systems form the core of organisation, the greatest mental ability of Human Beings, a concept so abstract it has yet to be mastered completely. we cannot, at any point in time, allow ourselves to simply.."

The so on and so forth continued for a long time that day. The paperpin was a brilliant speech-maker but became quite complicated and winding in its meanings, not quite unlike its physical structure. Its speech was given sparse applause, as predicted. But one thing remains quite unblemished, despite the paperpin's overtly preachy and quite boring speech - that a (long, burdensome, obsolete and frustrating) system is important, if only to create the purest of magic, escape, spirit and freedom within ourselves. Whenever we get the chance, it's the system we break free from, and we enjoy it, don't we?

(Picture Source)

03/03/2009

I think I've officially lost it

I think I've officially lost it. I was told this unofficially, around four years ago but this time it has finally sunk in. For the past three minutes of having lost it, it still feels as great as it did that precise moment when I realised it.

It's not that I haven't lost it before. I have. I have lost it, I have seen myself losing it and I definitely see myself losing it in the future. But this epiphany, while drinking coffee and studying the Direct Effect of Emotions on Interpersonal Attraction suddenly came to me and left me surprised, despite having subliminally suspected my self of having lost it for the past four years. For some time now, I suspect. Or even longer, I suspect (even more sublinimally now).

I'm not sure about losing it - it feels like an uncapturable, strangely ephemeral feeling - but having lost it feels quite peaceful. Like I'm finally agreeing with this voice inside, which has been incessantly trying to make small talk with me for such a long time now, till about nine minutes ago when it suddenly grinned at me and disappeared, nevertheless to come back and wink at me.

Yes. When you will have lost it, you will feel like writing some good old undiluted nonsense right in the middle of quite sincerely studying something. You will also, quite sincerely subliminally suspect yourself of an obvious truth (that of you having lost it) and then go ahead and become sublinimal about it. You will hear voices in your head, indeed, this voice will try making small talk with you and not just that - it will also grin, and then rush back to wink, at you. You will also, find a quiet satisfaction in endlessly repeating and reiterating and resaying and retelling and finally in a flourish of rehashing, recapitulating it all.

I think I've lost quite a bit of it now.

goodness.

 My first response to reading this blog again was, seriously, a post on parenting - that was what I last posted about? I can't help but ...