“Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”
―Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle’s collection of 12 short stories, was first published on this day (October 14) in 1892. Here’s one of my favorite lines from one of Holmes’ locked room mystery, Adventure of the Speckled Band.
Do you believe in karma (good or bad)? Have you experienced one?
“I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”
―François Rabelais
It is with heavy heart that I share this quote as I mourn for a colleague, a friend, and a kuya who is now off to seek his Great Perhaps. I cannot talk about life and death the way Albom or Coelho does, but I can wholeheartedly say the world lost another good man today. I could only wish he left us on a good time. Not during this cursed pandemic. But perhaps, God has far better plans. He may not be surrounded by the people whose lives he touched, but his soul will be surrounded by our love. 😦
Today we are surrounded by man and his creations. Man is inescapable, everywhere on the globe, and nature is a fantasy, a dream of the past, long gone.
My first foray into the written world of Michael Crichton was Congo. James, who loves the man as much as Dan Brown, never missed to mention his works whenever we talk about books. So I guess this is where curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back comes in.
The 1980 sci-fi novel centers on an expedition searching for rare blue diamonds and investigating the mysterious deaths of a previous expedition in the dense tropical rainforest of the Congo. At first I was worried that I’d be stuck in the complicated science and technical jargon but as it turns out, Crichton is a great de-jargonizer. I found myself immediately engaged in the story that capsulized science, history, and geography in each and every page.
Which brings me to this week’s WQW, Iron and Ironies. Congo left me emotionally, mentally and morally disturbed. In a simple story it raised provocative questions that I found hard to answer.
To what extent is animal cruelty? Is it limited to performing experiments/animal research? How about throwing lobsters on a boiling pot? Sticking pigs on bamboo poles? Exterminating rats? Do ALL animals have rights or just a selected few? Does man get to give them the reason to stay alive as a species?
These questions led me to reflect on our deeply ingrained habit of meat eating, on the equality among animals, and man’s idea of speciesism. I know there are multiple sides to these multifaceted issues and I would love to hear a thing or two from you. 🙂
From the words of Neil Gaiman…
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard.”
I’ve been out of the blogosphere longer than I originally planned. Somebody, call my muse!!
In the meantime, I’ve decided to tidy my shelf and post some long overdue drafts in the next few days. Sigh. Why must writing be this easy and hard?
A blank page is no empty space. It is brimming with potential… It is a masterpiece in waiting— yours. A.A. Patawaran
Masterpiece in Waiting
Each day is as blank a sheet of paper
Empty as a white canvas
Quite as a still guitar
Bare as the starless sky
But as magic slides through our pen
Ink drips from our paintbrush
Fingers play with the strings
And stars twinkle in our eyes
A masterpiece takes shape
Out of nothing, a glimpse of something divine.
© 2016 Maria. All Rights Reserved.
In response to The Daily Post prompt: Blank
Starting a clean slate today. Happy to back here in blog-o-sphere. Let’s write our masterpieces, shall we? 😉
Flatterers and fools
To power they drool
Honeyed words, sugar-sweet
Night and day, they breathe of cheat
Savages in polished suits
To vagabonds they stomp their boots
And if in frivolous pledge we fall
In misery we shall crawl
In response to The Daily Post prompt: Frivolous
A little over a month from now, PH will be having its national election for the next governing body. As much as we would like to have ideal leaders that are dedicated to public service, we couldn’t really have that. Can we?
“Choose the lesser evil,” this is the very thing I have in mind. It’s saddening that we are left with this choice but that’s life. It happens.
For years I have knocked
on a closed door
Each thump was a plea,
A prayer from a fervent soul
My hands never ceased to rap-
Slam, hammer, and whack
At the threshold of dreams
I won’t let go
But years have passed
And the door remained closed
I should have gambled at the window
Which opened a chance,
A possibility of luck-
An opportunity
I mustn’t let go
In response to The Daily Post prompt: Window
I have finally decided to climb over the windows of my dreams if I can’t walk right through its door. HA! Is that metaphorically insane? *fingers crossed*
Sadly, this would mean I have to take a break from blogosphere for the rest of March and will have to miss some flash fiction/poetry prompts. 😦
BUT… I’ll be dropping by every now and then to read your posts. That’s a promise. 😉
Ciao! ❤ ❤ ❤
Win or lose
We are what we choose
Gain or loss
We all have our flaws
Good or evil
A constant tug-of-war
But we’ll fight
wrestle and
brawl
Until our wickedness
Is distant
faint and
far
In response to The Daily Post prompt: Fight
Here’s to fighting against all our inner evils, big or small. *fist up*
Have a great weekend, everyone! 😀
Stretched across
exposed walls
Shelves filled with
different worlds
Rising like warriors,
they whisper a story
to one’s ears
Thousands of pages
waving to thee
In response to The Daily Post prompt: Shelf
That feeling when you walk in a room full of books. *dreamy eyes*
Let’s set them free, shall we? ❤ ❤ ❤
