Skip to main content

Riding Brainwaves

For some reason, some people just can't get a decent night's rest because of too much brain activity. The thoughts come unbidden and there's just no escaping alertness. So, let's explore.

What makes our lives change? People. They bring us into this world, they feed us, they clothe us, they sell us merchandise. They make us happy, they make us sad, and on occasion, they make us want to tear out our hair. They work with us, they work against us; they like us, they hate us.

Can you imagine what your life would be like without anyone else in it?

In your current situation, would you eventually succumb to a mindless routine? Living without company day in and day out, no one to share your joys or stifle your despair, would you continue keeping track of time?

Or would you feel more freedom? There would be no one to worry about, nothing would be politically incorrect, you wouldn't need to fight anyone for anything. The world would, as they say, be your oyster. (Why do they say that?)

I think it might be a combination of both. So many things would be so much easier, depending on how you wanted to live. To live as we do now would be impossible because the workforce required would be nonexistent. However, if you don't mind surviving on bare essentials, it would certainly make for an interesting adventure. For awhile.

It's funny - we work, and work, and work. Once in awhile, we take what's called a holiday, to apparently recharge our batteries and do whatever we want. But do we? If you really could do whatever you wanted, would you? Would you have the money? The time? But what if what you wish for is impossible? One day of pure solitude, as we just discussed.

What you wish for might not be so extreme, but it might be out of reach. So, then, what are we doing with our lives? I'm sure many people can't get what they wish for, for one reason or other, unfortunately. Do they simply go through the motions then? Work, eat, sleep, repeat. There has to be something else.

I guess that's when you take what you can get. That little piece of chocolate cake for dessert, finally buying that shirt you were eyeing the other day, getting a laugh from rewatching a favourite movie. Perhaps this is why people need to believe in something bigger.

But then, even if you do, your daily life wouldn't really change all that much. It would just be in your mind. You'd still have the daily grind to face, the same people in your inner circle.

Ugh. And I'm not even close to the mid-life crisis age.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Chinese New Year

I spent this past weekend in Toronto, sinfully stuffing my face full of Malaysian food in celebration of the new year. The image above shows a 2006 Australian Year of the Dog coin, commemorating the event quite fittingly - since the gift of money has its own part in the New Year's traditions. Now, although I may have eaten more than my share of glorious food, I also helped in the preparations of the feast! It was weird, baking with an electric mixer after having no such technology in Waterloo - I actually took a minute to stare in amazement while it was mixing the batter. Sad, I know. On Saturday night, I went to a friend's house for New Year's Eve and then later, to First Markham Place. Apparently, there was a countdown to midnight - which I'd never heard of before... and then realized why no one did it. As we counted down (in Chinese) - "sup... gou... bat... chut... lok... mmmm..." - and hit 5, a bunch of us burst out laughing. I can't really descr...

Machu Picchu to Cusco

We survived. Our day started slow with breakfast and then killing time until our train departed at 1:30pm. That's what we thought would happen.  In reality, a landslide along our train route stopped all trains. Luckily, this happened before we were scheduled to depart, so we definitely dodged disaster. We ended up waiting only 2 hours to board a train out of Aguas Calientes, but this delay was only the first of many, which was not unexpected, since no one was prepared for the landslide.  Instead of our train taking an hour to reach Ollantaytambo, it took almost 2 hours, most likely because they were only able to clear one track along the route. Then, since we had to transfer to a bus in Ollantaytambo, and there was a backlog of passengers needing transportation, we got stuck in line/traffic. It took us almost an hour to get out of Ollantaytambo, with the streets completely jammed. We finally arrived in Cusco around 8:30pm, three hours later than the originally scheduled time. ...

Reflections on Peru

Before I get too in the weeds, I think it's worth noting that after at least a decade of traveling to developed countries, Peru was bound to be a very different trip. It was our first time traveling to South America. It was the first time I was traveling with my in-laws. Also first time traveling to high altitude locations. Lots of firsts! The first thing we noticed was the transportation - we travelled on a South American airline (LATAM) for the first time, and found it to be a good experience. They automatically checked us into the flight 48 hours prior - I can only assume this is because they don't overbook their flights. On international flights, they provided blankets, pillows, and a light meal to all passengers (which is no longer part of the base fare for North American airlines). Of course, we did have that unfortunate experience on the flight back (also with LATAM) where one of us got food poisoning - so they don't get a perfect score. The great experience also doe...