Above is a shot of the clock tower adjacent to the Opera House in Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong. I snapped this while I was walking to the MTR to go to Mongkok in 2013. I didn't choose to paste this particular photo on this particular entry because of a desire to talk about Hong Kong. I just figured that it would help embody something that's been rumbling inside of me for some time.
No, I'm not talking about an angry stomach because of the absence of a decent meal, nor am I talking about
a baby. I am a guy, just so you all know.
I am talking about desire. I am talking about a "wanting" to do things. I am talking about feeling understood and actually being understood. I am talking about being able to know and actually act upon, your passions.
Lately, the last part of the previous paragraphs been tough to grasp.
Over a period of several years, years which have felt like forever, I have, like many others out there, set my passions aside in the name of "making it" in the "rat race". Ah yes, the rat race, that competitive exercise which leaves many successful, some unsuccessful (or vice-versa), and many drained of their sanity, or, well, their strength, any which way you define it.
I would like to raise my hand and say, yes, I have sold my spirit to the rat race many, many, times before. Am I proud of it? Well, yes. There are merits to putting a lot of your energy into your office job. The sense of fulfillment which you obtain from "doing what you do" can be quite special.
Then, there's the other side of the coin.
Where do you draw the line between doing what you need to do, and, doing what you love to do? Some people get to do what they love to do to address needs. Sometimes, I envy those people. Hey, if a camel driver loves what he's doing, and if he gets paid enough for it to feed his family, then, all the best to him. This entry is not dedicated to everyone who's ever wanted a shortcut to the top, to stability, to prosperity. Not in the slightest. It is more of a stream-of-consciousness ode to those who simply want balance. There is nothing wrong with overtime "over time", but hey, one needs to nourish his/her soul in as much as he/she nourishes his/her body and mind.
This entry is dedicated to all of us who have found ourselves to be too busy, too bogged down by stress, too tied up by the rat race that we feel like we may have let what really matters in life, slip from our grasp. One set of enduring images that comes to mind would be the many mental photographs I've taken over the years during trips abroad, or around the Philippines, with my friends and family.
The crazy card games with my grandmas (yes, you read that right) during Holy Week in the province. We'd eat as many steamed peanuts as is humanly possible, and would laugh to our hearts' content. Those were good times for all of us.
The field trips I used to take with friends from school. Eating, singing, shouting on the bus. Fun memories from my youth, for sure.
Long talks in coffeeshops with friends- some long gone, others, who now reside far from me. It all makes perfect sense now. Starbucks, Coffee Bean, UCC- they're all in the business of relationships, not coffee and snacks.
Trips to who-knows-where with significant others, best friends, and other happy people. I will never forget those times.
So, I suppose that sometimes, we need to sleep on pain and hardship not because we want to escape responsibility, but because, we occasionally need to recharge and get ready to fight another day.
No one knows what tomorrow will bring. All we can do is try our best to be ready to thrust, parry, thrust, parry.
Never forget to, once in a while, dream of great views of glacial peaks, the sounds of animal life in a lush forest, and yes, the sounds of tolling clock signalling that its time to....
Wake up.
No snooze option this time.
MC
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