The Symphony of the Clouds and the Art of Surprises: Delights of the Ordinary No. 44 (S2)
The rumbling and the grumbling of clouds just like our life.
Delights of the Ordinary is for us who are trapped in the world of hustle culture but are quiet at heart with an itching creative bone. This newsletter intersects culture, art and our practical 9-5 job space.
As I walked into my camp late that night, one man, rousing from his blankets beside the fire, asked sleepily, “What did you see?” “I think, a miracle,” I said softly, but I said it to myself. Behind me that vast waste began to glow under the rising moon.
- Loren Eiseley,
Here in Mumbai, clouds are in their perfect symphony - rumbling, gurgling; thundering, thumping like bellowing blandishment up in the sky.
Just a week before, underneath the same skies we stood thawing away in utter high humid hotness that these days we are delightfully thrilled to hear dark clouds drumming in the drizzles and the downpours. Isn’t all of us after the severe scorching sun wait for raindrops and after every stony land we search to see the softer wetter grounds?
And, hence when I write to you every week it matters to me sincerely that delights of the ordinary bring you an extra dose of goodness, heaps of grace and plenty of strength to not merely exist but to capture the enormousness of life amidst a world which is living a machine-like soulless life.
I guess, we are all getting used to the idea of machine learning and AI-generated emails and proposal letters and be amused by all the answers Alexa gives to our silly questions, yet we still have many reasons not to behave like machines.
“While AI can be terribly clever,... [a] machine is not going to create Lawrence Of Arabia. A machine is not going to create the Grosse Fugue. A machine is not going to create Guernica. A machine is not going to create Crime And Punishment. A machine is not going to create the Sagrada Familia.
There’s many, many reasons why that is, but here is a big one:
Because the machine doesn’t care.
We do, you see.
The machines don’t care. They cannot surprise our friends, we can. Machines cannot amuse, we can. Machines cannot live life, we can… machines are very good at solving PROBLEMS, but not very good for solving THE PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM of being alive. The problem of being conscious in the universe.”
I have lived almost my half-life thinking I am a nerd, a Nutritionist, who knows that proteins are made up of amino acids; carotene is the precursor of Vitamin and Vitamin D is actually a hormone and not a mere vitamin, I also know that as a nutritionist I can’t help in diseases like Guillain-Barré syndrome or Myasthenia gravis!
And, with all of this knowledge I am in a phase of life where on a closer look I can find few grey strands on my head, I am pursuing writing quite literally and have quit my job for it. A real mid-life crisis! Or maybe a new beginning. Who knows!
There are moments in life when we are reminded that we are unfinished, that the story we have been telling ourselves about who we are and where our life leads is yet unwritten. Such moments come most readily at the beginning of something new.
- Maria Popova
Surprises can be freakingly absurd or shockingly wild or anything in between like unexpected rains. And this art of surprise only us or life is capable to create. The surprises of life are sort of taking a sharp turn to the left or to the right, reconfiguring our entire future plans, refashioning our nesting place, adding new pieces, discarding others, making more spaces, letting our children fly, chuckling to silliness sometimes, sudden loss another time, some war cries, sometimes to hold peace.
Such surprises only humans can bear. Machines only crash!
The temptation however is, to abandon the wonderment and clutch tightly to everything familiar. Because as humans we seek full control of our lives. Yet, the verity is, that how neatly laid your life is, and how detailed your plans are, there always will be some blind spots, because we can only see so far through our mental glasses.
That is why we have to learn to submit a significant part of our lives to the outcome that is and never will be in our hands. We have to submit to the unknown. To some that unknown is the destiny of stars and to others, He is the one who holds the world - whatever it is, the call is to gather the humility to accept that “when you put something out into the world ( a business, a child, a pet, a work of art) is to confront this maddening yet, liberating thought: we can’t ever control what will happen to us and ours - nor should we try.”
The Way Out!
And so in a way, the only beneficial way out is to tolerate every change as a new beginning - a surprise, a wonderment, a new turn, “to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over. Sometimes the greatest challenge is to actually begin; there is something deep in us that conspires with what wants to remain within safe boundaries and stay the same…” says John O’Donohue (1956 - 2008), the famous Irish writer.
I wish you many many happy rains and many wonderful surprises your way, and even if they are not that very good, you will begin new things, move out of redundancy, wishing newness and surprising yourself pushing safe boundaries a little further from you.
Now, here is what I have got while meandering online and offline and things to share. Hope these sharings are in someway worthwhile:
What I am reading? Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult. A story of a 13-year-old girl named Jenna who is desperately searching for her missing mom who used to study the behaviour of elephants. It has a slightly melancholic undertone, something my current inner vibe isn’t resonating, still reading because the story hooked me and you get to learn a lot about elephants.
What I am listening to? “There can be miracles, when you believe, though hope is frail it's hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can achieve? When you believe, somehow you will when you believe”
Whitney Huston and Mariah Carey’s ‘There Shall Be Miracle When You Believe’ from the movie Prince of Egypt. Here’s the 10-year-old video I found for you.
To Joy scroll versus doom scroll: Art in so many ways is the countenance of society and street art captures that essence at its finest. But how did street art evolve? ‘From style writing to art!’ The mixes of dripping spray colours, bold graffiti letters, stencils to concept art - what captures is the heart of culture, the imagery of what our society looks like. Google Arts and Culture narrates the birth and evolutionary story of street art to where it is now. “After 40 years the movement shines by its constant renewal. Each signature is unique and a new quest.” Click here to scroll through some brilliant street art across the world with its story told.
To End:
the lesson of the moth by Don Marquis from The Best of Don Marquis
i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wireswhy do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no senseplenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselvesand before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevitybut at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself
May the ordinary delightful things keep your spirits high and you do lots of good around.
- Anugrah
In Delights of Ordinary, I happen to write to you, and it is mostly a one-way letter. I hope to see you all around, maybe in comments or messages. And if you are shy and an introverted soul just like me then send me a heart by liking my letters.
Delights of the Ordinary currently is a free publication. Yet it takes me many hours of effort to write and curate it. I may need lots of coffee to keep me going. You can :)
Who am I?
Hi, I am Anugrah. I write Delights of the Ordinary for us who are trapped in the world of hustle culture but are quiet at heart with an itching creative bone and love for life. My newsletter intersects culture, art, and inner health in our practical 9-5 job space. Feel free to share.
Stumbled on my publication? Explore all my previous editions here. And in case you don’t wish to spend time browsing then complement this post with The Antidote for Self-Doubt, To The Ordinary Woman or read about Decision Fatigue and Our Creative Life.