Que Importa... What does it Matter?

What's so important?
Is there anything so important?

Ultimately. No.

There comes a moment when the realization dawns that Life is, in fact, just a moment.
A moment in the passing of innumerable more.

The only moment that is real is the present moment.
The moment gone, never retrieved.

The moment coming, becomes present even as we think of it.

No reality except that minuscule iota of time that's Now.
All that we think is Real is merely our Brain telling us it is.

Then what does it matter?
Why get tied down with attachments?
Why get torn down by loss?
Why celebrate or mourn a moment?

The moment is passed.
The next has come.

Let nothing stop you.
Move on.

Love.
Live.

Lonely Recluse's Top Five to Lose Someone!

        Once upon a time, a certain Lonely Recluse needed to get rid of someone who threatened to liven up their dreary life. Now any recluse can identify with the need to maintain status quo in a life sans merriment.

These are the results of extensive research done by the Lonely Recluse to preserve a lifestyle. 
Followed in the right order, they are good to get a vampire off your neck.

#5. Tell them they are your soul-mate at introductions: 
Well begun is half done! 
Most people would be sent scampering down the street just by this one small gesture of camaraderie.
If they are still standing, the job is tougher but far from impossible.

#4. Become their shadow: 
Follow them everywhere. 
Majority would run for it if they need to dodge you to go to the bathroom.
The ones that don't mind would be tougher cookie but we can crack that.

#3. Share a secret: 
Tell them your deepest, darkest secret. The type you don't tell even to yourself.
There may be those who wouldn't mind your shadow under the toilet door but there aren't many that can carry a burden of knowledge.

#2. Share even more: 
If they are still standing after one secret, tell them even more. 
Crowd the voice mail, the inbox and the mailbox.
Tell them about your dog's diarrhea.

The survivor of a bombardment of that kind should be a keeper but then, we are talking of losing, not keeping, this person. 
So let's move on to the fail-safe.
The one that works almost every time.

#1. Soak them in tears: 
Open up your insecurities. 
Cry till your make up (if you wear any) and their shoulder dissolves. 
Pile up every emotional need on them like they owe it to you.

If #1 fails then even the Lonely Recluse can't help you. 

This one won't leave your side even in the afterlife. 
These strategies can't really work because they were devised for mere mortals. 
No other worldly beings were harmed in the conduct of this research.

You have met your match indeed. 
Learn to live with it.

Hermit, Not Ascetic!

Semantics. 
Some would say.
What's the difference?

I say there is.
It took me all my life to realize I am one and not the other.
It took me all my life to realize it is not required to be one in order to be the other.

I am a Hermit.
I like to stay away in general.
Glorified introvert?
I like to say,"I respect personal space. 
Most of all, my own personal space.
I extend that courtesy to the second and third person."

I am not an Ascetic.
I follow my spiritual goals. Tenuously.

I do not deny anything in the process.
I do not deny responsibility.
I do not deny pleasure.
I do not deny myself.

Denial is voluntary ignorance.
How can there be spiritual growth where there is ignorance?
How can someone master something they never experienced?

Spirituality is not about denying that a vice exists. 
It is not about acknowledging a vice to condemn it.

Spirituality is about rising.
It is about acknowledging the vice and then rising above it. 

It is not about turning the other way.
It is not about crossing the street.
It is not about avoiding the temptation altogether.
Spirituality is about learning to stay strong in the face of it.

Hence, I say, I am not an ascetic. 
I can never be while I tread the path of spirituality.
I doubt you when you ask me to take the escapist route of being one.

I stay a hermit. 
Stand on the sidelines and experience by observing.
I am not attached to what I see but I am not closing my eyes.

I see.
I experience.
I learn.
I grow.

Violence.. All there is to it.

The Boston Marathon Bombings brought it back in the news.

The drama of capture of the suspects played out on competing international news channels.
The drama of blaming someone played out everywhere else. 

Some resorted to the Anti-Islam refrain. 
Some blamed misguided youth. 
Some blamed government policy.
Others tried to stand out of the crowd by sympathizing with the suspect, perhaps just to hog some conspiracy generated limelight.

Twelve years on, as they begin digging for human remains under the rubble of the mighty World Trade Center once more, I wonder.
I wonder, which side am I on?
As a 'Responsible' youth of the Twenty-first century, I must have an opinion to voice.

What is my opinion?
What am I supposed to have an opinion on?
Terror?
Religion?
Government policies?

I try my best.
I ask, 
"Who died? 
Who was maimed for life? 
Who will never be loved by a loved one? 
Who didn't get a chance to say Goodbye?"

In Iraq, was it Saddam? 
In the Twin Towers, was it the US policy makers?
In Afghanistan, was it bin Laden?
Were any drones brought down at the finish line of the Boston Marathon?

No.

"Who was it after all?"
The one who died at all these places was Someone Innocent.

Each of these incidents, like numerous others across the globe, is summarized in one line.
An act of violence against Someone Innocent.

Violence, in the name of Someone Innocent of the violence they brought upon themselves.
Each time, at the receiving end, Someone Innocent.

Each act of violence creates another group of wronged innocents who will be the reason for violence on more innocents.

Someone innocent paying for another innocent.
That's all there is to violence.

What can be my opinion on violence?
There is no logic to it. 
No morality. 
No reason. 
No justification.

No argument.
It's just that.
A downward spiral.
An act of violence.