The power of knowledge

I believe in knowledge. Without knowledge, you might be taking a risk without knowing it. Without knowledge, you might be making the wrong choice, just because you didn’t know.

I live in a compound where it is safe with securities everywhere. My mom always told me not to leave the compound on my own, so I always played inside the compound with the same old boring friends almost every day. If I wanted to go to the market nearby, I always had to go with my mom, holding her hand when crossing the street even when I was 10! As I was growing up and see all my friends walking on their own, but I had to say I couldn’t go with them, some kind of rage started to fill my body. Hatred and anger started going through my body every time my mom said “No.” when I asked her if I could go out on my own or even with friends from my class. I felt like I was being locked up in some old rusty jail for a year.

I felt horrible emotions about how life was unfair or how annoying my parents were, and most of all, I was upset. I often screamed into my pillow and then threw it not caring where it might hit. I felt anger toward my mom, the world and everything that stood in the way of “YES.” All of my friends who live nearby condominiums were walking on their own, alone. Why can’t I do the same? I always imagined my friends laughing and having good time going wherever they wanted to go. I always envied them and their parents, but I had it all wrong, now I know I made the right choice of listening to my mom.

My mom told me that when I am mentally older and physically big enough, she would allow me to go out of the compound only during the day time and only nearby. Then she told me a story I would never forget. She had spent most of her life living in foreign countries as an expatriate just like me, and she told me about the risks in life as an expatriate. “I was standing in front of my house waiting for my car to pick me up to go to school, but my driver was late. I waited for about 20 minutes before a strange car stopped in front of me. A driver I had never seen came out of the car and said that my driver couldn’t pick me up today, because his car had some problems, so the driver said he came instead, and then he opened the back door nicely and asked me to get in. Then my maid came out of the house when she heard the commotion outside and felt suspicious, so she whispered and told me not to get on the car until she checked the car license number with my father’s company then she went inside. A minute later, I saw my driver driving really fast toward my house and the suspicious driver quickly ran to the driver’s seat and drove off without closing the back door. My driver came out of the car quickly and asked me if I was ok. He said that two strange cars blocked his car and he couldn’t move. “

My mom never thought of dangers and risks that existed, but she was lucky that the suspicious driver wasn’t aggressive. The maid, on the other hand, had experienced burglar in the same house a few years back before my mom lived there, so she was careful. My mom told me that even now that she is older, she is very careful when she walks alone on the street. She doesn’t wear many accessories, she holds on tight to her bag, and she said she is always aware of what kind of people are around her when she is walking.

After listening to my mom’s story, I felt differently than before, now I know and I felt more fear. It is good to know the things that might happen, although I don’t think I would be staying inside the compound all my life, knowing and paying attention to things that might happen is very important. Knowing that there are dangers and risks, I know now that I need to be alert. Knowing that, I am not angry anymore and I don’t have the same feeling about going outside alone as before. This is why I believe in knowledge.

Connecting the world with dance

At first I was chucking as he did his funny dance, but along the way, I felt a connection between the whole world. His dances and the melody of the music connects between every person in the world because the melody is like an unknown language where everyone can feel the same and feel no different than others. I think Matt Harding is trying to tell us that everyone is the same. He tries to explain to everyone the put your self into another person’s shoes by going around the world playing the same melody and his dances to connect everyone. In some countries people dance right next to him even if they don’t know him and make their own dances by following the music. This is an evidence to show that Matt Harding doesn’t have to talk in order for the people to connect with him and the whole world.

Unchanging weather

Marc Chagall
www.artknowledgenews.com/.../MarcChagallRain.jpg

I am the ever-changing weather
Raining when sorrow overwhelms me,
When darkness takes over the blue sky,
When my storm clouds erase light
That’s when sadness overtakes me and
Anger flashes in lightning strikes
Illuminating the waving green hills
Flashing towards helpless cities
Trees igniting
Buildings blazing
But I embrace it and let it pass over me…and

I shine like the sun on cold spring days
Dazzling and sparkling ……
Lighting up the ebony sky

And I am moved to
paint the dark sky with a flashing aurora,
bright colors that pierce the darkness
All painful memories removed
when I see your smile

I am how I am…like the unchanging weather

FOX

I chose the word rebirth because it explains how Magpie lost his identity to fly, regaining his courage to still make life the same as before. In the beginning of the story Magpie felt death as soon as he burnt his wing. Until dog also explained that he himself also felt death when he lost one eye, but overcame his death becoming a compassionate half blind dog who still has the same old life as before.

The crack in my frozen sea

 

I agree on Franz Kafka’s quote, ‘A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us’, because I think it is true that books are tools that can help educate people, give us more of an open mind and even wake us up.

 

This quote makes me feel that books are dominant tools to educate people giving them power through acquired knowledge. I can make a connection with this with books I have read where people burned books in some countries. They were afraid of letting other people know new information and gain power. For an example, a dictator afraid of a riot.

 

I also feel that books give us more of an open mind. There are people who hate reading books and I used to be one of those people. I used to think that watching a movie would be a lot easier and fun rather than sitting in a room and reading a book of the same title. However, I found out that watching movies and reading books are different. First of all, my understanding of the story was very different from the interpretation of the movie made by the producer. Secondly, books describe many things in details and when I could relate to some of them. Sometimes a light bulb goes off in my head which was like breaking the frozen sea within me.

Books also wake us up. I think ‘the frozen sea’ means ‘unknown in our soul or mind’ and a book should be a tool like an ice-axe to let us know what we didn’t know before. It is something that wakes us up. 

 

After I read the book, “The Boy Went To The Girls Bathroom” written by Louis Sachar, I started to like books. I enjoyed all of his books because it was something to do with what people did in their everyday life. The content of the book did not break the frozen sea within me, but the book itself broke the frozen sea within me, because reading was never my favorite thing before. His books influenced me to read more, and because of his books, I learned to read other realistic fiction by other authors and also learned to like other Genre’s, too. I never realized how good it was and how important it was to read a book until I read Sachar’s book. His book was an ice- axe to break the frozen sea within me.

 

My Buddy

Red Blanket


Do you have something you’ve had since you were baby? Many of you probably have had a teddy bear, but I had an Akai Tenten.

Snip Snap Snip Snap “I better get it perfect before my new baby arrives”. Snip Snip Snap Snap “Perfect!!” yelped my mom as she finished her last touch on an Akai Tenten. It was long ago before I was even born; my mom couldn’t wait for the new baby to come. My mom was planning to get me an Akai Tenten. Until there came a day when my grandmother told my mom what she was planning for her new baby. She explained how she loved growing up with her Akai Tenten. It was her best friend for a long time, she explained.

One day, my mom and grandma had a long serious discussion and my grandmother warned my mom, “Giving him Akai Tenten is great but I must tell you that a big one would be a pain in the neck. You used to hold it very tightly near your face, but it was longer than your height. You were dragging it all over the dirty floors, but you didn’t let me wash it either, because you didn’t want to be apart from it. Trust me; the same thing will happen to him.” So my mom cut it into eight small pieces. When I was born, I received an Akai Tenten that was about 50cm in length and about 30cm in width. The texture of it was smooth; my mom had given it to me so that I would not be lonely and that it could be my best friend.

My mom must have called it Akai tenten over and over again before I was even able to speak; because I was calling it Akai Tenten from I don’t know when. When I was about 4 or 5 years old, I realized that Akai tenten meant red blanket in Japanese. In Switzerland and in Singapore, I took my Akai tenten everywhere I went, even to pre-school and Kindergarten, because I felt frightened and nervous. Wherever I went, it was a new place so I held my Akai Tenten tightly in my hand. Without it, I felt alone and sad. That was until the day I entered Elementary school. My grandmother visited Singapore and said, “You are a big boy now; you can’t bring this Akai tenten everywhere anymore. It is time for you to open up yourself and stop taking it everywhere. ” I agreed, but I pleaded that we wouldn’t throw it away, but instead, it would stay at home.

In second grade, I kept up the work on keeping Akai tenten safe at home but one day when I came home, it was nowhere in sight. I cried all day and my mom gave me the same looking extra red blanket that she kept when I was born and gave it to me. I quickly noticed that it wasn’t mine because the smell was different and the texture also felt different. I cried all night until I determinedly walked around my room searching for it. Luckily it was under my bed.

Twelve years have passed and I don’t want to tell you if I still have it on my bed

By the way, how many times did you have to say Akai Tenten reading my story? Unfortunately for those of you who thought you have memorized the word, the word Tenten is a unique word created and told over generations to generations in my family ONLY, but you can use the adjective, “akai” as “red” and all the Japanese would know the word.