an open eye

i missed a step at 2 am
and thought of you,
paused, and remembered
that i had forgotten to breathe;
i'd forgotten that Haifa's heart
is that steady sound
that lingers after
traffic has stopped, long
past the incessant horns
of an impatient Man.
i missed a step before
the sun began to rise, and
realized that i was here.

beginning

in the beginning of the time of Man there existed one word - "Silence". the majority of people scattered throughout the world were able to communicate with each other through different inflections of this primal word; or, they simply said nothing, and held complete discourses with others with the batting of eyelids or raising of eyebrows. people paid more attention to each other back then, and to truly talk to someone, you had to be no more than 1 meter away.

days passed more slowly then as well, and at a more measured pace as things took longer to say - that is if you wanted to be thorough. mankind knew thoroughness back then. for example if one wanted to give a simply greeting such as "Good Morning, how are you doing today?". This would be said something like this: Blink (x2), raise right eyebrow, "silENCE" wink left eye (x2), raise left eyebrow. The mere physical exertion of talking in this way also kept Man soft and simple. It simply took too much effort to use strong "words" with this style of language.

the history books remember the day, however, when new words began to be created - not only new words, but new motions as well. the use of arms and legs to act as forces of verbal expression exploded around the mid-1400s. and as mankind found more and more ways of communicating, confusion inevitably set in as new methods began to be created instantaneously and no one understood another. i believe the record was set in the early 1900s where we experienced an exponential increase in mostly violent forms of communication - 12, 436, 678 every second was the rate set. unfortunately, this number has been increasing steadily since then.

unfortunately, the noise of the world has left the word "Silence" to be relegated to ancient times, and has not realized its place in the advancement of the Spirit of Man. this Silence though has not died; it continues to run its course and looks to overtake the speech of Man in due time.

It was late, late in the evening,

The lovers they were gone;

The clocks had ceased their chiming,

And the deep river ran on.

("As I Walked Out One Evening" W. H. Auden)

(wink, wink)

plotting your life

i am conscious of the fact, even while i type, that am sending something our from the blogosphere that will create a permanent link in the ever expanding, ever connecting reality that is the web. it's a pretty powerful realization that with the time, energy and capability one could begin to piece together threads of your life based on your involvement on the internet - I'm not speaking about getting ones identity stolen, i'm saying that eventually, as humanity ties itself more and more with the use of the web as the main means of communication, our lives could be basically plotted, step by step, year by year. privacy is slowly diminishing; isolation is fading away - yet another check on humanity, yet another force to make people see the need to live a pure life.

as we move to points in the development of mankind where nothing is hidden, i'm reminded of a quote from the Qu'ran that states:

"God grant that I may be remembered with honor by posterity."