Friday, August 29, 2008

it rains in the rainforest

that means im on the computer
living in san josé is crazy
learning spanish

One thing I don´t like about the spanish language is the formal-informal business. For example, when you´re using the FORMAL you, it´s actually the same for él and ella (he and she). That denotes some sort of separation between you and the person you are talking to. So, if I´m trying to be formal, I´ll say ¨do you like this?¨ but actually what I´m literally saying is ¨does he-she like this?¨ but I´m talking face to face with a real person. It´s all kind of weird for me. Can´t we just cut to the chase and be friends already? Why the degree of separation, wouldn´t I actually treat you with more respect if you were my friend and not some stranger?

In reality, there´s no real separation, it´s all in our minds. All humans have so so so much in common, we are all connected whether or not we realize it.

If I was the Spanish language, I would embrace the fact that we´re all connected and there´s no need to have the separation. In the language, the respect would be built in, the way people should treat each other anyway. If I was the Spanish language, I also wouldn´t use the masculine.feminine crap that pisses me off. Things like KITCHEN are feminine (la cocina), and things like GUN are masculine (el fusil). Really hard to get rid of the gender bias in the Spanish language!!

One time, I thought about creating a language. I think it would be really hard to make up my own language. First, I would have to make it up. That would take me a long time. Then, I´d have to teach it to people. That would take even longer! Also, the fact that I am a limited human wouldn´t help, of course I would forget things! Languages are fluid, changing entities. They´re interesting! Like how the Inuit have 16 different words for SNOW? I think of how difficult it must be to translate aboriginal languages, because we just don´t have words because our culture perceives things in a certain way. Language captures a worldview.

Even when you think you´ve mastered something, you haven´t. Even though English may be my ¨first language¨, obviously I am not the master and creator and owner of the language!! When I look in my Spanish dictionary, I learn new English words too! No matter how well you know something, there´s always more to learn. That is what I think is really important about life, never stagnating in yourself, in your life. Just as how when a part of the river is cut off from the flow of the river and becomes its own pool, it turns brown, and starts to deteriote from its original form, which is the emanating, living river. The same thing about There´s a sense of infinity about everything

In my next lifetime, I´d like to be a language. Actually, I think I´d rather focus my efforts on studying the universal language. There is a sense of infinity about the universal language. The language isn´t the truth--the language is only a signpost to the truth. We use it only as a tool. What if you can circumnavigate the signs, they´re limited anyway. That is the language I prefer to communicate in (and study).
the language of eyes
smiles

i look deeply into the eyes of strangers
i know my eyes are green
and theirs are brown
it´s no
i pick up feelings from people from the language from their eyes
keeps me safe from harm
just as how someone can hear a shotgun fire in the distance
so can i hear the inner turmoil of people
it´s in their faces
in their eyes
i think people are too afraid to listen
to whats inside them
the most unexplored territory
the inner universe
exploring your part of it allows you to connect with other people
we are not islands
merely scattered archipelagos
our roots deeply connected underneath the ocean of materiality
one human family

What better language is there to study, besides the one that lives in you, the one that all living beings possess, that which cannot be captured with words. Words are limited. I sutdy the language of Being. Of ISness. People ask me if I´m a student. I always say yes. And they say what. I say, well, I got my degree in Environmental Sciences. But now, I study life. =) Yay LIFE!