Music..

"The music was here...and here. That's the one thing they can't confiscate, not ever. That's the beauty of it. Haven't you ever felt that way about music, Red?We need it so we don't forget that there are things in this world not carved out of gray stone. That there's a small place inside of us they can never lock away, and that place is called hope." (From Shawshank Redemption)

If (by Rudyard Kipling)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Lie...

“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked, completely surprised.
“It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”.....

Optimism or denial?

Just read this article "For a happier life, shake off your misplaced optimism" on FT where the author talks about sheer "hope" being one of the key causes of the financial crisis where everyone just had too much faith in the future growth of economy and just forgot to factor in the risk of a calamity or unexpected.The article talks about a very valid point of too much optimism being counter-productive at times. I just could not help but wonder how frequently in life we tread the fine line between optimism and unrealistic expectations. Is a little pessimism healthy for making practical life choices?

All the black swans in the bountiful river of hope exhort us to treat all the unexpected events as the ones which would change us for better in an unexpected way. Does it always help to take life as it comes with a few rare calamities embedded into it by hoping that these events will unfold something unknowingly fruitful? Or does it make sense to sacrifice a bit of optimism in accepting the eventuality of the black swans and making practical decisions before they swim into the hopeful river full of pointed stones questioning our decision-making and foresight?
Have we been over-stretching our optimisim to justify things not turning up as we had expected them to? Is it not better to introspect and think of a better approach for the time to come instead of being so reluctant in accepting "grapes are sour"?At times, we are not in control of anything that happens to us. But it might be better to take it as an event to learn something from instead of clouding it with too much optimism that everything happened for the best.
I will not have even myself question my optimism which is sacred in a lot of ways but I just feel that we tend to overuse the "hope for the best" medicine at times instead of asking ourselves about what really went wrong?

With a song..

I start with a song, a new one
or the same as the one before.
Its the sound of what I could be,
the music flows in the stream
of unsung feelings, unsaid thoughts.
Lyrics pick up a special meaning,
meaning of happiness and love.

I return with a song, a new one
or the one I started with,
but its not the same sound,
The music now flows to remind
the spoken words, numbed feelings.
All meanings are lost,
to be reinvented when I start again..