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I am currently sitting in a café – with a cup of coffee, a glass of sparkling water (with zesty lemon and ice) and an almond croissant - and I am trying to read. And then suddenly something struck me - and I was possessed with an urge to put my book down and start writing! (Just for your information I was reading 'To a Mountain in Tibet' by Colin Thubron - sort of prep for my forthcoming trip). And here you see before your eyes the fruits of my writing labour. It happens often you know - this urge to write. Usually on Saturday mornings - in a dainty chic little Cafe somewhere - whilst strong dark coffee is coursing through my veins! I think it must be the coffee aroma that does it. The wafting coffee molecules must surely be reacting with my nerve fibres - and surely the bubbles in my fizzy water are creating an effervescence all their own in my mind...
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. This thought. This so called 'eureka' moment. The thought was the realisation of the amount of background noise there is - in modern life. Let's take a simple example by way of illustration: this cafe. I will now proceed to describe to you the cacophony of sounds I can hear in the ‘Costa Coffee’ in Angel, Islington - LondonTown (the heart of modern day civilization!)
Well: I can hear the regular whoosh of the cappuccino machine, the hiss of pressured steam being released and the constant banging of metal coffee holders as the used coffee is emptied. I can hear the clink of china cups. I can hear the scraping of chairs and the sound of spoons clinking the insides of cups as they are stirred. I can hear the grinding of the gears inside the coffee machine as the beans are ground to perfect consistency - to release that coffee flavour. I can hear the pleasurable murmurs as the fresh coffee is placed next to lips - giving an instant and much needed early morning coffee hit. I can hear the loud guttural exchanges of the Turkish group to my right – 3 men and a woman. One of the men seems to be shouting to be heard. I can hear the two young pretty women friends to my left – talking in almost hushed silence (probably talking about there idiot and useless boyfriends!). I can hear the group of three sitting opposite – I think they may be postgraduate PhD students as one of them is talking about experiments. There is the ring of laughter that rings out now and again, the sneeze, the cough – and above all this in the background is the music that’s playing on the speakers – an Afro-Caribbean woman screaming away to some funky beatnik tune.
And here's a pet hate of mine: people that talk too loud! Like the Turkish group to my right – perhaps some languages are more ‘shouty’ then others? Chinese for instance with its barking cadences. Or perhaps it’s a cultural thing? You might find this funny but whenever I’m sitting in a café – I always feel a morbid dread when a group of people come and sit next to me. Not because I'm a misanthrope mind you. I do like people. But I'm just a little more sensitive to their annoying habits - like talking too loud! Perhaps its because their loud(ings) interfere with the wonderful fine thoughts and ideas that constantly bloom inside that head of mine?!! Anyway, as I was saying - I always make a snap judgment (before they have even seated themselves) as to the type of cafe/restaurant/bus/tube neighbour they will be. If the journey is short it doesn't matter as much. But if you're planning on spending a couple of hours thinking and writing in a cafe, then it matters very much indeed. The type of person that sits next to you could ruin your day!
Before they have even seated themselves I find myself wondering whether they'll be pleasant talking or will they shout out exchanges that’ll ring in my ears and disturb my repose? Let me tell you: I knew even before the Turkish group had sat – what kind of neighbours they’d be. Oh yes. They'd be shouty! As humans we cannot help judging character from facial features, dress and body language. It's a survival mechanism. During our evolution in the African savannah we had to develop quick means of determining character from a distance. If you got too close to a stranger before forming accurate judgement - he might kill you or even eat you. So we all do it - make snap judgements that is. It's part of our human heritage.
One of the men in the Turkish group had the long face of a donkey – scrawny cheeks and small forehead. He had mousy unintelligent eyes that were placed too close together. I knew this man before he even opened his mouth. Ohh, How predictable man can be! I long to meet someone that totally goes against the grain of my expectations. The simple truth is that most people are utterly predictable. Rarely do they think about what they say and how much they say. It’s almost as if they think that ‘more is better’. That in order to be heard and seen and acknowledged, they must spurt forth an endless diatribe, a gushing stream nay a torrent of words. As if any silences will engulf them. People natter too much. The human voice-box should be used sparingly: less is more!
Attention is gotten most effectively when when people say less not more. The same applies to body language. Have you never noticed how James Bond moves? All leading-actor alpha males that you see in movies have a specially choreographed body language. They move s l o w l y - as if they are moving through treacle. They appear unhurried. 90% of our communication is non-verbal. You can attract a woman - create sexual tension - simply from voice tone and body language alone. What you actually say is mostly irrelevant. It's how you say it. Women unconsciously react to these traits. They don't feel attraction towards flatterers and wussies! They can't help it! Attraction is a switch they can't control. Anyway (I was going off-topic there!), most people fidget, they scratch their skin, they move hurriedly – they look as if they are nervous and not in control and they constantly seek attention and affirmation. This is not attractive! Get a grip of yourself mankind!
Learn to live with the attention you currently get
Never compete for attention
Never seek to please all the time
Have a life and interests
Never think highly of others opinion of you (be it good or bad) cos they're heads are mainly empty - so what do the opinions that originate from such a head matter?
Always be courteous and civil in your dealings with people
Never moan and complain openly
See people for what they are: pitiful creatures, living in a world they don't understand, searching for something they know not what
Always show loving compassion. Compassion that is free from self-interest. Nurture a loving kindness for people that comes from feeling pity for all mankind...that is where 'goodness' really comes from. From feelings of pity.
Why do we cry? We cry because we feel pity for OURSELVES (Just think about it!). We cry for OURSELVES...we cry for OUR wretchedness, not that of others
People who walk and move slowly, who talk less, but when they do speak, speak slowly, people with non-monotone voices – these people appear in control and are attractive. All their movements are purposeful – every movement is relevant – there is no extraneous irrelevant movement. Your body language mirrors your state of mind (what you are thinking and feeling). And if it isn't you can fool people by acting as if you are in control - hence, the Peacocks Tail. Most people are insecure. We are insecure about a whole host of things such as: how we look, how we are dressed, what people think about us, whether the opposite sex finds us attractive, whether we are good at our jobs, whether we are smart or dumb. We are afraid of people’s opinion of us – our self esteem is derived from what others think, our reputation, our social status, our honour, our pride. Just ask Schopenhauer! All these things matter to us because ultimately we are human animals and the main thing that is always on our mind is?
Yes... sex!
Sex makes the world go round. It also makes the bedroom rumble and the earth shake. How it could it not be otherwise? Sex is why and how we are here. If our ancestors shied away from sex, if they never gave it consideration – then we; their future descendants, would not be here.
Most people bore me. Oh, how they bore me! How they constantly talk about themselves as if I care! Occasionally I might attempt to stray the conversation into objective territory but it's all useless! Futile! So much of what I say just makes a 'whooooshing' sound above their heads. There are conversations I would love to have that touch the very edges of the known universe and existence – yet these philistines care about petty things. The ceiling of their minds is so low, that when I sit with them in a conversation, I must stoop low and mind my head – lest I bang it on their ceiling and crush my skull! Oh, how I long for company and intelligent conversation where I can fly the flag high and far, as free as a bird - but instead, it seems so limited. I am a prisoner in this world surrounded by common criminals! We have only one life – this life – and what a waste it seems to me to spend it on trifles! There is so much to talk about and ponder – yet men and women prefer instead to talk about stupid pointless things such as relationships, the weather, what they watched on TV last night, what they ate. In short they love to talk about themselves all the time!
Existence is such a rich experience, so ripe and juicy and succulent and bursting with things of interest, yet many times when I sit before my computer – about to write, I don’t know where to start! So I must compromise and select a particular topic and see where it leads….and as is often the case, it leads me on a journey into the inner realm of the human condition. Many times dark and sometimes light.
Life is such an amazing and improbable thing you know! Do you not agree? – It never fails to wow me. I am wowed by its sheer audacity and spunkiness and exuberance. How life takes to the air and swims on thermals, how it dives to the depths, how it eeks out an existence on the fringes – as a parasite for example, how it takes for the moon or the stars, how it seeks its own destruction – how the human mind has sought to understand the world it finds itself in. What is the world? Why is it here? What is this all for? Who made it? How do I live? How can I be happy?
How different are we to our ancestors that lived say 100,000 years ago? Not much. They were anatomically the same as we are today. If you took them and placed them in today's world – so that their children went to school with our children. Why, they’d be indistinguishable from any of us! We're all the same.
Are some people ‘better’ then other. Does education make you better? Does it make you view the world in a more accurate and better light? Look where education got Donald Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney et al in the lie that was the Iraqi invasion. Look where it got us in the trenches of the first world war and the concentration camps of the second. How much does it matter – in the end? And what is a 'true' accurate view anyway? Is the world we see not a simulation of the human brain anyway? A virtual reality make-believe world of fancy? A world fashioned from the excitations and electrical action potentials of zillions of neurons?
My oh my - this coffee has certainly been laced with something! It is exciting my neurons most definitely.
Happy exuberant weekend to you all my dear readers!
