Consciousness Needs Expansion

It's 2008. Happy New Year. Sorry, the excitement is absent. It's just another day here. If mere existence calls for celebration, so be it, otherwise the only change I see is in dating records with a different digit. Time's flying by, the feeling of being limited, roped and tied, walled, being a citizen of a small world looms regularly. Will I ever take in a deep breath and experience the doors of my mind open up?

Meeting a random stranger, vicariously living another man's life (albeit for a few moments), reading an article about an act of courage in Iraq, watching a movie about the penguins on Antarctica, learning about how the internet will be after 5 years... and all of a sudden the selfish thoughts about my meager existence are brushed under the rug by something more magnanimous, more powerful and more interesting than anything I am regularly pre-occupied with. Consciousness needs permanent expansion. Confined in a tiny world and life becomes painful, growth-inhibiting and even self-destructive.

My baby sister leaves to complete her higher studies and take up a job. Her journey is far and long. Being my preachy self, I've tried to brainwash her to figure life is more than a project, a team, an apartment, a job, a salary, or a bank balance. To live her time well, she needs to travel, read, observe, meet and greet, get involved, be passionate, be excited and motivate those around her, appreciate, love and enjoy, not consume or save as much as to invest, not in stocks and bonds, but in ideas, relationships and experiences.

I know it's easier said than done and easier instructed than put into practice. I, for one, have missed the bandwagon many times. This time round the bandwagon resurfaced and I was temporarily rescued from my tiny world, so I felt the urge of committing the feeling in writing.