Journals33
Newest
Evaluation
2 min read
Words are instruments by which we represent the world around us. That is why with increasing understanding of the world, we equally know more words.
I am fascinated by how so many words are associated, interrelated, and yet they saliently have different 'values.' It is if you put them on a scale, and these words - seemingly synonymous, would suddenly outweigh each other.
So in my insatiable desire to understand the world around me, here is my valuation of a few words. (God forbid that I be so introspective [and therefore withdrawn] like this!)
Work > Job
Goals > Tasks
Value > Cost
Giving > Taking
Value to receiver > Value to giver
Hope > Promise
Justice > Obedience
Goodness > Laws
Ability to forgive > Righteousness
Comfort > Luxury
Enough > Excess
Faith > Belief/Religion
Strength > Power
Relationship > Popularity
Honesty > Pleasant
Kind > Nice
And yet the same words can mean so differently for other people.
For some, the scale tips differently. For some they equate words.
The weight of words then, are not inherent to them. They sometimes change value over time. What must've been valuable to you before, no longer is.
Go on, try defining the world.
I am fascinated by how so many words are associated, interrelated, and yet they saliently have different 'values.' It is if you put them on a scale, and these words - seemingly synonymous, would suddenly outweigh each other.
So in my insatiable desire to understand the world around me, here is my valuation of a few words. (God forbid that I be so introspective [and therefore withdrawn] like this!)
Work > Job
Goals > Tasks
Value > Cost
Giving > Taking
Value to receiver > Value to giver
Hope > Promise
Justice > Obedience
Goodness > Laws
Ability to forgive > Righteousness
Comfort > Luxury
Enough > Excess
Faith > Belief/Religion
Strength > Power
Relationship > Popularity
Honesty > Pleasant
Kind > Nice
And yet the same words can mean so differently for other people.
For some, the scale tips differently. For some they equate words.
The weight of words then, are not inherent to them. They sometimes change value over time. What must've been valuable to you before, no longer is.
Go on, try defining the world.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Today
1 min read
I officially melted.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Happiness and Cheap Thrills
5 min read
I cannot remember my grade five english teacher's name, but I still remember what she wrote in the 'memo' part of my autograph. Her note said:
The best things in life are free, love, happiness and peace.
Choose your pick
What's been told to a grade five student only makes sense after almost a decade. What a lag! But hey, better late than never, right?
This time, I know better. Truth is, happiness may not at all be free, but it often comes in weird and inexpensive packages. So, what's your happiness? Here's my list:
*The scent of freshly cut grass of our garden or of the UST field
*Not being late in my 7 am class after a gruelling hurdle
*Rain, the smell, the atmosphere, the spectrum and the music it brings along with it
*Picking up shells on the seaside, just like a kid
*Being able to dance without anyone watching
*Being able to write down and capture my emotional and intellectual spurs
*The feeling of getting excited to peel off another paper layer from a dermatograph (you know that dry crayon-like highlighter)
*"Ice burger" your regular sherbet in a bun
*Cheese sticks
*Chansel pizza (esp. with aiza)
*Playing boobles with rica (coinventor)
*Hearing Jeff Buckley's Last Goodbye and singing it with Pim.
*Laying down on the hammock
*Meeting up with old friends and taking an unfathomable number of pictures, letting ourselves get a little silly once in a while and have fun. (hi diyes!)
*Getting caught dumbfounded in a boring class, and be asked to recite and still give an answer on point
*Catching a glimpse of an enrapturing sunset, with the sky draped in hues of gold, pink and purple
*Scoring nice stuff from ukay-ukay
*The smell of freshly brewed coffee
*Listening to 90's music, non-stop
*Singing karaoke at a friend's birthday or in a booth in your suki amusement centers
*DVD marathon in a friend's flat
*Experimenting with cooking, and better yet ending up with satisfying results.
*Cooking for someone, and have that person find the food delicious.
*Making a stranger smile and getting a smile from a stranger.
*Wearing my favorite undies
*Having exact change to pay the trike so I wont have to break the bill
*Have my Smokeys covered by my sister
*Having my camera at the right moment at the right place, and immortalizing a scene or a moment
*Getting a forwarded text message that's either too hilarious or at least makes sense
*Memories of Japanimation with high school friends.
*Cramming with online company.
*Taking the final exams and finally having a good rest
*Taking time to drop by the bookstore and get a chance to smell the school supplies. (which reminds me of the days when I was happy and excited to go to school)
*Sprinting to finish all assignments and projects and being done just in time to at least get an hour of rest. (oddly, an hour rest after a hard day's work is better than a 16-hour rest during the idle days of summer)
*A fresh box of crayons, with all the pointy heads intact, and clean sheets of smooth and thick sketch pad, waiting to be harassed by pencil lead
*A nice empty notebook feels the same.
*Getting a snail mail or better, a package from the other side of the world. Writing and sending back a snail mail.
*The clanking sound of typewriters
*Hearing alicia keys' soundwaves in unlikely places - such as the bookstore. (well yea, im a fan)
*Finishing a book long due
*Easily getting a hitch home, like, when we (aiza and I) have just gone out of the UST gates
*Having a good cry, and feeling lighter afterwards.
*Forgiveness, be it from others or be it from ourselves.
*Catching up with an old friend, having a conversation and still feeling just as close as before
*Being able to help someone, in means big or small
I can go all day. How about you, what's your happiness?
In life, it's truly hard to find happiness. It's not because the world is scarce of it, rather, it's because it takes effort in finding it and in absorbing its simplicity. But then again, it's free...well almost.
__________
Originally published August 20, 2007
The best things in life are free, love, happiness and peace.
Choose your pick
What's been told to a grade five student only makes sense after almost a decade. What a lag! But hey, better late than never, right?
This time, I know better. Truth is, happiness may not at all be free, but it often comes in weird and inexpensive packages. So, what's your happiness? Here's my list:
*The scent of freshly cut grass of our garden or of the UST field
*Not being late in my 7 am class after a gruelling hurdle
*Rain, the smell, the atmosphere, the spectrum and the music it brings along with it
*Picking up shells on the seaside, just like a kid
*Being able to dance without anyone watching
*Being able to write down and capture my emotional and intellectual spurs
*The feeling of getting excited to peel off another paper layer from a dermatograph (you know that dry crayon-like highlighter)
*"Ice burger" your regular sherbet in a bun
*Cheese sticks
*Chansel pizza (esp. with aiza)
*Playing boobles with rica (coinventor)
*Hearing Jeff Buckley's Last Goodbye and singing it with Pim.
*Laying down on the hammock
*Meeting up with old friends and taking an unfathomable number of pictures, letting ourselves get a little silly once in a while and have fun.
(hi diyes!)*Getting caught dumbfounded in a boring class, and be asked to recite and still give an answer on point
*Catching a glimpse of an enrapturing sunset, with the sky draped in hues of gold, pink and purple
*Scoring nice stuff from ukay-ukay
*The smell of freshly brewed coffee
*Listening to 90's music, non-stop
*Singing karaoke at a friend's birthday or in a booth in your suki amusement centers
*DVD marathon in a friend's flat
*Experimenting with cooking, and better yet ending up with satisfying results.
*Cooking for someone, and have that person find the food delicious.
*Making a stranger smile and getting a smile from a stranger.
*Wearing my favorite undies
*Having exact change to pay the trike so I wont have to break the bill
*Have my Smokeys covered by my sister
*Having my camera at the right moment at the right place, and immortalizing a scene or a moment
*Getting a forwarded text message that's either too hilarious or at least makes sense
*Memories of Japanimation with high school friends.
*Cramming with online company.
*Taking the final exams and finally having a good rest
*Taking time to drop by the bookstore and get a chance to smell the school supplies. (which reminds me of the days when I was happy and excited to go to school)
*Sprinting to finish all assignments and projects and being done just in time to at least get an hour of rest. (oddly, an hour rest after a hard day's work is better than a 16-hour rest during the idle days of summer)
*A fresh box of crayons, with all the pointy heads intact, and clean sheets of smooth and thick sketch pad, waiting to be harassed by pencil lead
*A nice empty notebook feels the same.
*Getting a snail mail or better, a package from the other side of the world. Writing and sending back a snail mail.
*The clanking sound of typewriters
*Hearing alicia keys' soundwaves in unlikely places - such as the bookstore. (well yea, im a fan)
*Finishing a book long due
*Easily getting a hitch home, like, when we (aiza and I) have just gone out of the UST gates
*Having a good cry, and feeling lighter afterwards.
*Forgiveness, be it from others or be it from ourselves.
*Catching up with an old friend, having a conversation and still feeling just as close as before
*Being able to help someone, in means big or small
I can go all day. How about you, what's your happiness?
In life, it's truly hard to find happiness. It's not because the world is scarce of it, rather, it's because it takes effort in finding it and in absorbing its simplicity. But then again, it's free...well almost.
__________
Originally published August 20, 2007
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Ah, But Who Understands?
2 min read
Education puts a premium on good communication skills.
Growing up, I remember being fascinated by how there are so many vocabulary words, and how there can be one word, to explain full and extensive thoughts.
Nostalgia
Vicarious
Schadenfreude
One, word.
The hell I have so many words to say. And no matter how bluntly, candidly, and simply, I say something, there is this whole jumble of thoughts and truths I could not get across.
I speak the best way I can possibly know, but who understands?
The seemingly complicated words are more exacting.
Nostalgia - a desire or longing for the past.
Vicarious - substituted, and as in "vicarious experience", to experience, only by listening.
Schadenfreude - happiness in the suffering of others.
Yes, when you use these words - they are definitive.
But when you use the simplicity of language, it is most deluding. Simple language is apparently open to interpretation, to infinite ones. Simple language, after all, is not as simple.
So we say we've got good communication skills. There are words for that:
fluent
eloquent
well-versed
But may I ask, who understands?
Growing up, I remember being fascinated by how there are so many vocabulary words, and how there can be one word, to explain full and extensive thoughts.
Nostalgia
Vicarious
Schadenfreude
One, word.
The hell I have so many words to say. And no matter how bluntly, candidly, and simply, I say something, there is this whole jumble of thoughts and truths I could not get across.
I speak the best way I can possibly know, but who understands?
The seemingly complicated words are more exacting.
Nostalgia - a desire or longing for the past.
Vicarious - substituted, and as in "vicarious experience", to experience, only by listening.
Schadenfreude - happiness in the suffering of others.
Yes, when you use these words - they are definitive.
But when you use the simplicity of language, it is most deluding. Simple language is apparently open to interpretation, to infinite ones. Simple language, after all, is not as simple.
So we say we've got good communication skills. There are words for that:
fluent
eloquent
well-versed
But may I ask, who understands?
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Devious Journal Entry
1 min read
I had the best Catholic education I could ever get. It gave me an appreciation of the enigma that God could sometimes be.
So, in the times that I hurt, I just remember that it is because we are sometimes called to share in the suffering of Christ. It is of no need to question God's design and wonder how seemingly "imperfect" things are. God's perfection, besides, cannot possibly be defined by our limited human language.
So I resign in trust, while I take this in.
So, in the times that I hurt, I just remember that it is because we are sometimes called to share in the suffering of Christ. It is of no need to question God's design and wonder how seemingly "imperfect" things are. God's perfection, besides, cannot possibly be defined by our limited human language.
So I resign in trust, while I take this in.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In