____ Being Human ____

It's complicated...

You see, life has a meaning, when you tend to carry a dictionary with you. Else, it's a book, full of symbols and icons, that you may or may not refer for any references. Life, a four lettered word. Love, another one of its kind...hate...well, one more to the group. So you might seek a pattern leading somewhere from somewhere, but actually it’s nowhere.

It's perception...

The way we see and observe. The way we are brought up, of course, one does not have any sort of recollection if he's born in a barn and asked to solve a geometrical figure. Yes, we do have our environment, teaching us, teasing us, appeasing us, but is it really the one which differ the good from Great?

In the end it turns out to be a turn of a dice, a lucky strike, a mingle jingle hurrah. That's what life is all about; a complex set of very complex but straight at your face type of algorithms, you miss the most obvious...remember?

Or is it? Is it so simple? Is it so very simple? Then why is there so much pain? Why there's so much confusion? A catastrophic cataclysm?

May be, being human, is not so simple after all! May be it's in our clay, something to do with destiny. Denying and defying it in the beginning, running for hopeless means and never giving enough when it really matters. Always hurling towards new, regardless of it's being authentic, or true to nature. Always conclusive and not being reasonable. Always asking for more and lending nothing in return. Yes, my God...who would believe, but yes, being a human is, in fact a felony.

You want to fly, never look at the bottom, feel disgusted to see people, crawling like insects. You want to live in a world, a fantasy, your own choice, your own selection, and for every one else except you there's toilet.

And here I am, amid all the mess surrounding my existence, all the dirt and filth of human nature...and here I am...

Now what?

Back to basics I presume. Need to open the pages of the same book that's been revised over ages and ages, which defines every moment in time that created history, created life. Need to go back to the same book, tangled and dusted. Under the sun it's piled up so much rust and winds have torn some of its grace. Yes the same book...

My heart!

And let's see…may be being human is not that bad...after all...

If I only knew how to read this book!

Reviews

[~Haute*Cocoa~]

I rarely get blown away by introspective pieces like this (because they're usually superficial and pretentious) but this is great because you didn't wander into using either of those fallacies! You 'kept it real', so to speak, and free of hubris, but still had valid musings. Keep up the good work! I think I need to read that book too, ;)

[Touché Armada]

This was such a rant Atif.. You know no matter how many times I have read this, I still get left with that wow so just how many people think like this? I appreciate the way you write and what you write, I think the same things to myself at times, perhaps everyone does? Getting to the end of this the frailty, and almost aggravation of getting back to ones self that beating rhythm maker in the zone of the area that heats and chills and heats and shatters.. Eh you're right perhaps its not so bad being human... Its just all the other humans out there we have to worry about.. =) When its hard enough to read your own book,, whats the hope in reading anyone elses.

[Heart Stream]

i love this. exploring the co-existing meaning and meaninglessness of being human. the dualities and non-dualisies of what it means to be in a body, born here on this earth. thank you.

[The Random Writings Of ..]

O my gosh, I absolutely LOVE THIS!!!! Back to basic's I like this. How life is hard, and beiong human is hard, but then again maybe it's not. Wow there is so much insight in this piece and it is so true. I think everyone should read this. It is god for the soul and the heart! Great write!
Kates

[Celtic Cat]

hehe. Love this. The first stanza makes me picture a kid with a dictionary in his pocket, trying in earnest to figure out life's meaning. And, it's so great because you can see this kid at any age, maybe later with a calculator or some scientific tools trying to put sense to it all. And, you want to buy him a funnelcake and a coke and tell him life shouldn't be taken so seriously.... can't be measured so decisively, and then, he checks his watch. Sigh. He still doesn't get it.
Ah! It's Perception. Now here you had me. I used to always say "it's ALL about perception", because it is! Or, at the very least, it can be! You can alter any reality by simply changing your view of it. We can also learn to see in different ways... but, like you query.... who's to say if it's good, great, or other?? Which view will lead you to the prize? And, what is the prize?
Perhaps it is about luck! In which case, I still have a fighting chance!
Simplicity....... too complicated to be simplistic!! Pain? Why pain? Well, now, there's a subject that we can debate.... but, whose definition of pain do we use? Which barometer to measure by? Subjective? Objective? Hmmmmm.
Being human is in fact a felony! Love that whole stanza there. Very telling of the things that make you go hmmm. Of course, this all sounds more like a human DOing than a human BEing. Running around like dogs chasing our tails isn't really a human trait... although you'd think so if you watched us long enough....
Love the line: never giving enough when it really matters. Falling short may be a human trait....
"and for everyone else... there's a toilet" I love that, and I don't even know what you mean by it!!! I'd venture to guess it could just be symbolic of an outlet, but toilet.... leaves open so many possibilities!!!
Now what? Here's where you totally fooled me! I thought "the bible" then you answered "my heart". Now there's the perfect ending, answer and riddle. Yes, where is that instruction manual??????
Love this!

[Middagslapie]

Tis actually quite wonderful if you sit back and think about what life realy consists of and i could not have found better words to romantisize its reality... lovely! Truely lovely!

[Polly Lewis]

Unfortunately, life dosen't come with a set of instruction. We have high's and low's, and fuzzy bits in between...
We do our best with what we have but most of us spend our lives fighting against our own nature.
I love this piece; it is poignant and inciteful yet leaves me ever hopeful :0)