OVERFLOW

Writing is the overflow of the soul. You can never give what you do not have. It is difficult to write about something you do not actually feel and very hard to say what you do not actually mean. It is like being forced to sing when you do not feel like singing, or to dance when you cannot find any reason to dance. Our professor in literature spoke to us saying (it was something like this):

"When you feel lonely, sad, forsaken, depressed, mistreated, ignored or rejected, and when all you want to do is to kill yourself, then go to a corner, get a blade get a pen with a blade and paper and pour your heart out as you write, wriTE and WRITE! Before you know it, you have created a masterpiece! A work of art!"

After all, that was the very way how Hamlet was born. And Hercules. And Oedipus. And the sphinx. That is how Pygmalion and Galatea came to life. That is how the face that launched a thousand ships came to be. Through it, Snow White found her Prince Charming, and Juliet lost hers. This is how Prince Cor (Shasta) regained his kingdom and how Macbeth lost his. This tells us why Smirgo (Gollum) killed his best friend for a ring, and why Sinbad (almost) gave his life for his best friend. And what else? For time would fail me to tell you of the minotaur, or of Zeus and Hera, or of King Arthur. They are all the expression of man's creative mind. The overflow of his soul - of his dreams, ambitions, of his anger, his love, and his fears. Our hearts (not our physical hearts of course) have a limited capacity to contain things (both hatred and joy). When this capacity is filled, our hearts tend to let out the excess, via tears, screams, dancing or writing. Now, this excess needs to be let out, otherwise, it can be dangerous, and oftentimes, fatal. A certain Man once said:

"Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." (1)

Still, another wrote in a certain place at a certain time:

"I believed, therefore I spoke. . ." (2)

It is therefore understood that your written words are your thoughts made flesh. Now I hope that I have made it clear by now that writing is the overflow of the soul, as words are the overflow of the mind, tears-the overflow of either extreme grief or joy, and screams-the overflow of anger or hatred. Now, let me tell you of a Man. He is also an overflow as the ones that we have been talking about. But unlike them, He is not the product of man's creative thinking or imagination. Jesus Christ is His Name-the overflow of God's Love. Not just the excess, but the whole of it. He Himself is Love Personified (3). Okay, you may take His Story as "a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference - that it really happened!" (4) ". . .and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" - John (5) My friend told me that a friend of his once told him: "You know what, it is crazy and sane to think that there is a Being beyond nature, a God, and what's more, a loving God. The very thought of it gives me goosebumps."

Well then, Call me CRAZY!

Footnotes: (1) His-story (2) Heart Talk (3) The Beloved (4) God in the dock by C.S. Lewis, 1979 (5) The Gospel

To Know, or not To Know

Warning: This article could make you think, it may open your mind to things you'd rather not know.

"For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." - King Solomon, Ecc.1:18

On their free time, people sleep, others watch television, some read, still some, do nothing. But me, when I have free time, I think. This was one of those times.

On the way home from my university, as I analyze the phases of my life, I had a strange, yet convincing realization:

It's not about the ability of our minds to think, but rather, it's about the ability of our minds to keep itself from thinking.

Let me illustrate this in a more understandable way. Imagine yourself shooting a basketball. You are not thinking as you shoot, you're simply shooting and you are making your shots, no big deal. But as you see your shots go in, you begin to get conscious. You begin to ask yourself things like "What if this next shot doesn't go in? What if it doesn't hit the ring? What if I miss? What if, what if?" Thinking of these things will increase your tendency to miss the shot. Well, that's just it.

When you do an act of charity, you feel joyful, because kindness brings joy. But as you become aware that others are watching you, it becomes harder. Look, it's easy to say: "Don't mind what others might think", but to really apply it is the more serious part.

The late C.S. Lewis pondered that we humans have this dilemma:

". . .either to taste and not to know, or to know and not to taste. As thinkers, we are cut off from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, loving, hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality, the less we can think. You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor Repentance while repenting, nor analyse the nature of humour while roaring with laughter. But when else can you really know these things? 'If only my toothache would stop, I could write another chapter about Pain.' But once it stops, what do you know about pain?" (1)

You see my friend, most people who ask for knowledge do not really know what they're asking for. But the truth is - Life is Beautiful. It;s meant to be enjoyed, to be tasted, to felt, to be lived, much less to be understood. After all, God is Life, and He did not command us to understand Him with all our hearts, soul, strength and mind. He just told us to love Him. (2)What's easier to do?

"Of making many books, there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh."

- King Solomon, Ecc. 12:12

So, do you still wanna know it all? ;-)

Footnotes:

1. Myth Became Fact by C.S. Lewis, 1944

2. Mark 12:30