synonyms for happiness

Monday, September 25, 2006

Poem

Under the cover of a mask, a city moves and flows.
Her currents are pushed by the constant conversation between sea and land.
All arrayed in the holiday colors, the city brims with tastes that match the bright light
That bathes canals and faces.
A constant jubilant noise
Alternately grates and hums against your ears.
There's the calling of the vendors,
The constant flowing water,
And above it all, the church bells toll.

Friday, September 22, 2006

What does it say?

I'm not the only one. My perception of something changes if I know what another person thinks of it. Many of my opinions are solely my own, but many have just been expanded upon in my mind in a way of thinking that is unique to me. If one person likes a certain song it becomes angsty and annoying, but if another person likes it, it becomes profound. It depends on my perception of the person and not so much they're perception of the song. I have expectations for how everything is going to turn out, and thats why I'm a writer. I have the stories in my head and they're a solid and real part of my everyday life though I'm the only one who knows about them.
I want to do things a certain way and it doesn't matter at all. I wonder if there's a word for a person who obsesses about behavioral details. If I'm sitting and talking to someone, whether I know them well or not, I always make not of how they're sitting. Are their legs crossed, how do they have their feet, what are they doing with their hands? So it's not really a creepy thing if I have the habits of this manner in my friends memorized. I always notice hands. Some people have fingers that are long and graceful. These people tend to be female, and this feature looks a little odd in a guy, but some do have it. Something I consider very attractive in a guy is muscular and graceful hands. Not graceful in a femine way, but in a strong way, a little like a bird, but that doesn't make any sense.
So what does this say about me? I don't know if it's good or bad that I use the ideas of other people to base mine upon, because in such a minute way as this, I think that everyone does. But should I concentrate on a bigger picture instead of the details I love so much?

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Time and the T'ang Dynasty

Is there something that everyone in the world does or has done? I mean there are things that we can't function without, eating and sleeping, but does everyone do them? How do I know that there isn't some person out there who has some condition where they don't need any sleep at all?
But there is something I think the majority of people have wondered. What if I was born into a different time place or situation. If time isn't a line, as some theories say, and it is always and continually happening, it could have happened, that I, the same person, was born into a wealthy earl's family in the mid-1600's. Or a Indian Brahmin's in the 300's. I mean, I suppose my body would be different, but my soul (if I decide whether or not I do believe there is a soul) would be the same.
I have often wondered what era I am most dissappointed that I missed. Elizabeth I's time is high on the list, as is the 1960's, the Middle East in the 500's, 600's, and 700's, before the Crusades, Renaissance Italy, and ancient Greece. Those are just to name a few. I am currently in a phase of obssession with history. It was probably brought on by Rome to Renaissance, our current main lesson block, and an overdose of Mrs. Amrine.

My mother tells me of my grandfather, and of his grandfather.
She speaks of wars that were fought, and famines that were defeated.
But I do not understand.
She says,
"Suffering comes to everyone in the world. It is not a happy place."
She says,
"Happiness is rice in our bowls on the table in the evening."
I say,
"Happiness is the birds that fly over my head in the morning,
And the horses who run in the fields through the afternoon"

This a poem I composed just now, inspired by what we learned today about the T'ang dynasty.