This is not a religious post, but King Solomon of ancient Israel wrote the words, “all is vanity”, after trying all sorts of different material pursuits and concluding that, in the end, none of it mattered when compared with his relationship with God. Other translations use the phrase, “all is futile.” I’m sure there are similar quotations in other literature.
Solomon used the word “vanity”, not in the sense of conceit, but in the sense of futility. He had engaged in all sorts of material pursuits that many people consider to be the main aims of life, only to find that it meant nothing when you are faced with great loss, whether that is of someone, or something else, or even of your own health or life. After all, as Solomon went on to say, we can’t take it with us when we die, even though the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt seemed to have tried.
“Is that really odd? Is it old-fashioned? Isn’t that the mindful way?”
“Oh, so we’re back to mindfulness, again. Now that is quaint.”
“What’s so odd about mindfulness?”
“Well, you have to admit that it’s a very strange way of doing things. I mean, you sit there contemplating your breath.”
“Among other things.”
“Such as?”
“Whatever comes to mind. The important thing is to spend time watching how your thoughts and feelings ebb and flow.”
“That’s what I mean. Quaint. Why would you want to know what’s going on in your own mind? That’s not just odd; it’s scary.”
“It’s only scary if you’re afraid of your own thoughts.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, consider this: How many people do you know who cannot abide silence? The first thing they do, every morning, is to turn on the radio or the TV, just to get some noise in their environment. Why do you think that is?”
“For company.”
“But why do they want company?”
“Because they . . .”
“Go on.”
“Okay. Because they don’t like being alone.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re afraid to be alone.”
“We are built as communal creatures. Still, in my opinion, one of the biggest causes of anger management issues is that people don’t spend time alone with their thoughts. They are so busy that they don’t have time to stop and ponder. The result is frustration and anger.”
“Maybe. But I still don’t see why you have to take such a quaint view of the beach. No sand. It’s not a beach without sand.”
“Yet mindfulness tells me that the sand is there.”
“See. Now that’s what I mean by quaint. It’s odd how you can see that.”
Crying havoc and Letting slip the dogs of war. Where’s the fun in that?
Business is not all about work. I believe that we work to live, not live to work. So it is good, sometimes, to relax a little and take the pressure off ourselves. As part of that relaxation I like taking photographs and writing all sorts of material.
So I thought it would be fun to take some well-known quotations and give them a haiku/senryu twist.
Bright summer sunshine Reflected in the flowers Enhanced by the leaves
Contrasts come in all shapes, sizes, and colours, as well as other attributes like texture, smell, and so on.
There are also contrasts between humans. And sometimes these contrasts can cause conflicts due to the thought that one version is better or worse than the other.
But take these orange flowers. Would they be as bright without the green background? Would we notice the green if it wasn’t for the flowers? No. We need both to make the image worth looking at.
It may not be a great image. But it has contrasts that enhance each other rather than criticise each other. This contrast is interesting because the colours don’t come from directly opposite sides of the colour wheel, as we often try to achieve in art. No. They are both shades of the same colour – yellow. One has blue added, the other has red added. But they both use a common colour.
And when we see the commonality, the contrast becomes beautiful, rather than clashing.
It’s the same for people. We may have areas of contrast. But we are not from the opposite sides of the spectrum. Deep down inside, we all have something in common.
Just as the flowers need the leaves, and the leaves need the flowers to make each other beautiful, we all need each other to make each other beautiful.
Greenacre 9 