Popular Posts

Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Brain vs the Heart

      I wonder who came up with the idea that a tooth and the human heart should share semblance. The humiliity the picture draws is undue.Given all the brain goes through it should be the one with a people's favourate badge on the chest. It should be the one on thanksgiving cards instead of rotting in the middle of some scientific book whose author you could never remember unless you name your teacher after him.
      And then the brain gets to be the one with all the complications. This brings to mind the image of a couple. Like the saying goes unlike poles attract so all successful couples have the extrovert and the introvert. The heart and brain are in constant conflict because they are both exroverts, trying to gain dominion over the body.

     Well of course some people think the heart is just what science sees, a blood-pumping vessel. Yes and  No. True, "a heart" pumps blood but "the heart" is that part of the brain that refuses to bow to the orders of the mind. Yes the mind and brain are different too. According to "Yahoo answers" (who gave it the right? i honestly don't know)..The brain is the organ inside the head that controls thought, memory, feelings and activity.The Mind is the part of a persons brain that makes it possible for a person to think, feel emotions and understand things.... So we have a situation on our hands, the mind wants to regulate emotions according to reality, the heart wants to do it anyway, the end result a moving mammal with more character irregularities than a dog and cat living in the same house. I guess its this conflict that makes us different from other animals.
    Today you follow your heart, tomorrow your mind regrets it, i actually feel sorry for the brain, hypothetically speaking it has to watch on as its two kids fight right under its nose, the heart will always act on impulse and the leave the regretting for the brain. What's worse is that when the heart turns out to be right, it claims all the honour undue. When it's wrong, the fault lies on enviromental factors." The human heart after all only pumps blood" they say. Oh now you remember? With that said i look forward to the day Valentines Day cards will be alittle more realistic.


Till then i remain a non-beleiver.
Yours trully.



Monday, March 18, 2013

Poetry : Building the nation, by Henry Barlow

Building The Nation

                                            By Henry Barlow

Today I did my share
In building the nation.
I drove a Permanent Secretary
To an important urgent function
In fact to a lunch at the Vic.
The menu reflected its importance
Cold bell beer with small talk,
Then fried chicken with niceties
Wine to fill the hollowness of the laughs
Ice-cream to cover the stereotype jokes
Coffee to keep the PS awake on return journey.
I drove the Permanent Secretary back.
He yawned many times in back of the car
Then to keep awake, he suddenly asked,
Did you have any lunch friend?
I replied looking straight ahead
And secretly smiling at his belated concern
That I had not, but was slimming!
Upon which he said with seriousness
That amused more than annoyed me,
Mwanainchi, I too had none!
I attended to matters of state.
Highly delicate diplomatic duties you know,
And friend, it goes against my grain,
Causes me stomach ulcers and wind.
Ah, he continued, yawning again,
The pains we suffer in building the nation!
So the PS had ulcers too!
My ulcers I think are equally painful
Only they are caused by hunger,
Not sumptuous lunches!
So two nation builders
Arrived home this evening
With terrible stomach pains
The result of building the nation -
- Different ways.

END

  The under-dog in the poem, is clear, he's the chauffer.

 This poem is  a political satire, though you may find abit of social satire depending particular character or aspect of the Permanent Secretary's life caught your attention the most.Imagery, euphemism, metaphors,1st person narration and diction act as the icing to the bitter cake. First you sense a bit of pride in the chauffeur, then you realize its a mockery of his life, then it turns comic to the point of no return.
 In a nutshell Henry Barlow and the mysterious chauffeur deserve the credit due, this poem a wonderful  piece of literature that deserves more credit than it has been given.









Saturday, March 9, 2013

Kids for a minute,.. or two

    Let's be kids for a minute, imagine yourself living in a world where dipping your hand in paint and dragging it across a piece of paper was what we called art. The only thing we watched on tv were cartoons and we glared in bewilderment each time the house gathered to watch Oprah. To be honest, each family had that program that every adult in the family watched during our prime tv time. Mine just happend to be The Oprah Winfrey Show. I missed over 200 episodes worth of 2d animations as my family sat down to watch their programs, so i guess i know who to blame for my addiction to cartoons at my age.
   Kids don't have problems , we had people at home to do the worrying, forgetfull minds to do the forgeting and filled with so much innocence we didn't even notice all the violence in the world. What happened to us you ask? (that's if you asked yourself the question, if you didn't, fear not this blog is for you)
We woke up. Believe it or not all the days we spent going to school were only preparation to expose the mammal within us. Think about it who sleeps the whole day and still gets good grades and always has food on the table, sounds like something out of a dream right? My heart-felt sympathy goes  out to anyone who had a rough childhood because no kid deserved that. What makes my sarcastic theory even more realistic is that no one ever remembers how it happened. One day you wonder why everyone watches that program you hate, the next day you associate with it. We all just woke one day with one too many issues to deal with...
\
 
  Don't get me wrong, growing up is a good thing. We get to become indepent and create kids of our own that makes the cycle complete. But the question bobs up, what is growing up? If we are to ask each adult their opinion the responses would defer. To some its a matter of developing a conscience, being afraid to do the things you freely did as a kid and to others its a matter of following your dreams. Growing up is a time when you take responsibility of your actions. The cycle continues each day as kids learn the definition of growing up from the people around them, now that you know its a cycle, are you ready to take responsibility for how the kids around you define growing up? Simply put, Have you grown Up? Food for thought