Empathy isn't enough, must react

Last friday, I was in the waiting line for my titre de séjour, in the Grenoble Préfecture. They just shifted the counters for foreigners, into the roofless yard in between the main entrance and the main building. The counters themselves have roof though. In fact, there are four of these counters built inside a really small air-conditioned office, so small that they actually won't allow people to wait inside the office, which on the other hand is impossible to do so also. One has to wait outside until one of the counters is available. 

It was raining heavily that day. With only two out of four counters were opened, long queue was inevitable. Luckily, the main entrance has big enough eaves for people to wait under it, instead of under the rain. And that is when the confusion came in. The queue under the eaves had some distance away from the office, which made the queue seeming like lining up for other counter. So some new arrivals might think that nobody was lining up for the foreigner's counters, and cut the line. Many would realize eventually, but there was these two teens cutting the line even though they knew where the real queue was. I wanted to ask them to queue up and almost did it. But it is embarrassing that it took me so long to react. I actually stood there doing nothing and hoping the others might stand up against them. 

Finally, a guy took action, asking them to line up. The teens said they only wanted to ask a simple question. The guy said, everybody else was lining up, and insisted that they must played by the rules also. But the teens just wouldn't listen. In the end, the good guy asked the queue to move to the front of the office to force those teens to line up like others and the strenght of the majority prevailed. Now the queue was under the rain but eventually it stopped not long afterwards. 

I felt so embarrassed for the fact that I didn't react. In this world we need more people like the good guy. But sadly, many people are like me, not reacting against injustice. 

And it seems to me that one of the ways that we don't come into this world knowing how to be a person is that we don't really know what to do about empathy. Like the weird thing about self-consciousness is that you become aware of the fact that, you can never fully feel someone else's pain and someone else can never fully feel your pain. ......The question is how do we get to a place where we can empathize with each other enough, to take care of each other enough, to get through this vale of tears.

- John Green, vlogbrothers - 

I think many of us have the empathy with us, just like I can totally understand how the people in long queue would feel if I cut the line. However, obviously we are not taking care of each other enough, and cannot even achieve a simple act, like standing up against those teens who cut the line.

Mesmerizing starry night

Many people I know live in cities. We put electrical lighting everywhere in the cities to be able to see clearer. Many of us living in cities will know, totally out of artificial lighting is rare. When you switch off the light to go to bed, there are always street lamps, the litttle LED from your charging phone, your internet router, etc.. 

Yes, night is dark, but not as dark as we always think. There is light from the stars and the moon. It might be hard to believe for those who always live in cities and have never been far away from the light pollution, that, with this light from stars and the moon, we are actually able to see very clearly at night. While in the nature, while the sky is clear to let enough star light and moon light to shine through, we should just let the pupils slowly dilate and adapt to the surroundings. Torchlight is pretty much useless in this situation, because it can only let you see wherever you point it at. 

As I live in a city also, so witness a starry night sky is quite rare for me, simply because you can't see the sky clearly in the cities with the light pollution. In my country, Malaysia, it is even rarer. In Malaysia, apart of the light pollution, there are clouds, since Malaysia is a tropical country where it rains frequently. So until now, the only constellation i can recognize is the Orion's Belt and Orion. Whenever I can see the Orion's Belt in Malaysia, I would consider the weather to be very clear already. 

Witnessing a trully starry night, it happened to me only twice (may be more but that's all I can remember). The first time is when I went for a 3-days hike in the national park of Ecrins. We were lost on the second day and couldn't get to lower altitude and flat land to set up our tent before sunset. We managed to continue going down the mountain to just below the snowline and found ourselves a slope which was not so steep. We failed to put up our tent also due the rocky surface where we couldn't anchor our tent. In the end we just sneaked into our sleeping bags and tried to get some rest. Nobody in the team managed to sleep that night. It was just too cold and we were in constant fear of rolling off the slope. So we basically were awake throughout the starry and windy cold night. The sky was beautiful as the stars slowly moving across the sky, though we were shivering like hell. That night was a long long night. We were all praying for the sun to come out sooner, and finally the sun rose, we never felt so alive before. 

The second time that I remember is during a stay with a family in Thar desert. This time I had a comfortable bed, sleeping outdoor, with the starry sky as blanket. 

It is an amazing experience to see a starry sky. It makes me think about many deep questions in life and in the universe. 

National Geographic, Best Travel Pictures of 2011 Named : 
Star Sprawl, by Ben Canales

Love life - Rhonda Bryne's The Power

Recently I was running out of books to read. But then I realized I still got a book that I haven't read in my computer. I almost forgot about it. It is "The Power" by Rhonda Bryne. It is considered to be the sequel to another more popular book of the same author, "The Secret". My friend Yogesh sent me this when I was hitting the lowest point of my life. 

But at that time, I didn't want to read it. I know exactly what the book is about. It is a motivational book. For me, I had never read this kind of books. I used to think that no one needed this kind of book, like "The Secret" or "The Chicken Soup for the Soul", and that they were meant for the 'mentally weak'. I used to think that I can stand up on my own after falling down, for I am a Man.

I was so wrong, and had never been so wrong before. As a famous quote says,

The strength of women is the pretense of weakness; the weakness of men is the pretense of strength.

So as I read through the book, like exactly what I thought, plain English and filled with almost prejudiced lines, such as 'You know you can do this', 'Imagine the best, keep thinking positively', bla bla bla... But this is exactly how it needed to be. The word 'love' is mentioned millions times in the book, so many times that it has became a little cheesy. But guess what, it should be like this! I also used to think that, the word 'love' shouldn't be said that much for it to be precious and special. But what the hell! We should say 'love' more!

Waited so long for me to pick up the book, I guess the moment I pick up the book, sit down and read it, I think I am already ready to love again. So thx Yogesh for your book!

Whenever the word 'love' comes across me, I can't help myself not think of my ex. She gave me a note when we moved to different towns, and I still keep it until now, the only thing from her that remains. She always has this positive attitude against problems upon her. She normally just smiles the problems away, the smile that I want to learn. 

Love life!!!

How the Sleeper in the valley died - Blood Diamond and Total Eclipse

I read the poem of Arthur Rimbaud "Le Dormeur du Val" after watching the "Blood Diamond", I just can't help myself not to think that Danny Archer is the Sleeper. 

This is my favorite scene of the movie, when Danny is going to die and phones to Maddy. After the phone call, he sits on hill side, facing a valley, with sun bathing on him, and slowly dying of bullet shot. This is so like the poem. Rimbaud never mentioned how the sleeper died, but I prefer to think that this is how the sleeper died. It seems like the director had read this poem before.

The funny thing is Leonardo Dicaprio acted as Arthur Rimbaud before, in the movie "Total Eclipse".

This poem is the first poem I have read about a dead body. I was shocked but impressed when read it for the first time. This is also the first Rimbaud's poem I read. So, allow me to copy "Le Dormeur du Val" onto my blog :

< Le Dormeur du Val >

C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière,

Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons

D'argent; où le soleil, de la montagne fière,

Luit : c'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue,

Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,

Dort; il est étendu dans l'herbe, sous la nue,

Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme

Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait une somme : 

Nature, berce-le chaudement : il a froid.

Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine;

Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine,

Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.

- Arthur Rimbaud -

Insomnia during a snowing night

Winter is harsh. Snow is beautiful only if it is seen by the one who is in his comfort zone. Watching the snow falling while sitting inside a warm building with a hot drink is of course very enjoyable. Or may be even go outside to play with the snow with all your thick warm clothes on. It is fun only because once you get cold, you can always get back to warm whenever you want to. 

Many of us have a house. Many but not all. Some don't even have a shelter. I cannot imagine how those SDF survive the cold winter each year. Whenever the weather get cold, I can't help myself not to think about the fact that somebody is suffering because of the cold, or even dying. But I still don't take any action yet, to actually help those people. So in the end I am just like many other people, sitting in our comfort zone and do nothing about it.

The coming winter will be my fifth winter. I always prefer it snows rather than getting colder and colder but without snow. I always feel not that cold whenever it snows, which is a funny thing to think about.