Hi …  a few days ago we went to see a Jack Johnson concert on a muddy, flat field at UBC (University of British Columbia).  We walked as close to the stage as possible which turned out not to be the best idea, because I am small and the tallest guys in Vancouver decided to stand right in front of me.  I was beginning to get tired, squashed by people and a little sick…when he finally showed up.

For a while I was jumping up and down to see him in his red T-shirt, but soon I decided stand still, raise my head and watch the huge screen showing him up-close. And from that moment on, I forgot about the suffocating crowds and the smell of dirty feet coming from somewhere close - because I was completely fascinated with Jack Johnson.

What fascinates me is his humility and simplicity, so uncommon among acclaimed and adored celebrities… There’s such a deep peace about him, that comes out through everything: music, speech, facial expression.. He is wearing a simple red t-shirt and a pair of jeans, he is not trying to establish any new fashion trends… he is there in front of thousands of people just as if he were in his own garage practicing…  he really really doesn’t seem affected by the ecstatic crowds celebrating his success.

I get caught in the groove of his music, listen to the words of his songs, and start to feel fuzzy and peaceful.  I think to myself that this man is one of the most powerful I have met, because one needs so much internal strength to remain really humble when a star…  I wish all “stars” learned this from Jack Johnson.

And i wish we’d learn it too - for when we are small “stars” in our little worlds.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Evelyn Glennie is a percussionist from Scotland. She is deaf. I think no comment is needed. Just that it makes me think (again) of how little we know! And it also makes me think of God…

When he was 14, William Kamkwamba built his family an electricity-generating windmill using spare parts that he found and plans from a library book. And look at how unsophisticated and shy he is! He makes my heart grow.

We are so stuck on the idea that to do anything (or to keep our “comfort”) we need tons and tons of new raw materials, dug out of the earth or produced at big costs; it seems that this is not always the case … a change of paradigm is all that’s needed in some cases.

Also, it seems that we don’t need much sophistication to do great things. In this society, we value too much things like communication skills, behavioural and situational rules, complicated planning schemes, papers and signatures, all that’s included in so called “professionalism”…

But what are all these without a spark of truth and passion coming from someplace deeper than the mind?! To me, there is a lot to learn from this boy.

I first found this video posted on Rox’s blog. I’ve been listening to it since then over and over, it is one of those songs that never cease giving me goosebumps. I want to post it here for those who didn’t already see it on Rox’s blog… Read the lyrics (excuse mistakes - my translation)

By Emil Cioran (translated from Romanian by me => excuse mistakes)

In general, people work too much to be able to remain themselves. Work is a curse. To work like a dog just for the sake of work, to find the impression of joy in an effort that can only lead to irrelevant accomplishments, to think that you can only be a complete person through continuous, objectively sustained work — all this is revolting and unintelligible.

Sustained, continuous work makes one stupid, trivial, and impersonal. It moves the sphere of interest from the subjective to the objective, into a fade plan of objectiveness. When living on this plan, man stops paying attention to his inner education, to the intensity of inner fluorescences. The accomplishment of a simple radiant presence becomes underestimated or ignored. Absorbed by work, man can only pay interest to facts and material things. This is because real work, that should be an activity of continuous internal transfiguration, became an activity of externalization, of getting out of one’s true self. Characteristically to the modern world, work shows an exclusively exterior activity. That is why we can say that by working, man does not accomplish himself, he just accomplishes. The fact that every man must have a career and participate in a form of existence with which he will not (most times) be satisfied — this is an expression of becoming imbecile through work.

Working to live is fatally more painful for humans than for animals. In animals, this activity (the equivalent of work) is so organic, inseparable from their own existence while humans understand the plus that work gives them and start needing more, wanting more of that plus. In work, man forgets himself. He does not forget by getting to a sweet and simple naivety; he forgets through a permanent self externalization neighbour with imbecility.

Instead of tending to a glowing presence in the world, to a solar and sparkling existence, instead of living for himself (not in the sense of egoism, but in that of internal growth) man has become an impotent slave of the outside reality.

Emil Cioran (1911-1995) is a very important Romanian philosopher. He lived in France for most of his life.

So, I finally made a blog… another one. Now we can all be connected :P.

I came home by bus today, nothing special. Next to me there was a guy who was talking to himself. He said he prevented a kid from falling at a sharp turn and that the kid’s mother did not thank him for that. He was outraged that she just walked on, without saying “thank you”. While he was talking like this, another sharp turn came and a big fellow almost fell on his lap. My seat mate thought this was amazing, that he saved two people from falling, in the same day. He told the girl in front of him how amazing that was. He also told me. I smiled, but felt a bit embarrassed, didn’t know what to say back ….

On the other side of the crowd on the central aisle, there was an Indian man who didn’t know English and was trying to explain something to the boy next to him in the universal language of onomatopoeias, as loud as he could: Brrrrrrrrrrrr, chsssssssssss, click-clik, vvvvvrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuum…. etc. People were smiling.

I thought of how fine the line is between what we call “normal” and what we call “abnormal” in people’s behaviour. It seems that if the same craze ends up adopted by a group instead of just one isolated individual, it can readily change into accepted or “normal” behaviour… maybe even fashion. I was quick to label my seat mate as a lunatic. But what if there was no me the “sane” one and him the “crazy” one? There is me, crazy like this (like everybody else), and him, crazy like that (like no one else)!