To the world and back

24-25 Sept was not just another weekend.

Ok ok, sure, 24th was kinda like any Saturday from the block, but Sunday was real kewl, 'coz I got the chance to visit the zoo!

Man, do I sound like a kid (maaaaaaaaaaa *bleats*)

But it had been an awfully long time since I last visited my animal friends at the zoo and I had been wondering how are they lately.

It wasn't cheap though, the price for the entrance charges came in shades of red and green. Yeah $10 + $5 = a whopping $15! Yikes!

Anywayz, it was incredibly fun to wander around within the perimeter (read: cage) of the zoo compound. Imprisoned by $15, I sought a fantasy enlightment to relieve distant boyhood memories of fun and happiness, of joy and childlike dreams with the animal pals. However, it was sad some of them were no longer able to help us achieve it. There seemed to be fewer animals. I assumed they were somewhere else, somewhere hopefully not six feet under.

But nethertheless, it was still a beautiful, or rather, enchanting experience. I would not imagine a mere walk in the park would live my spirits as I watched the animals at play and rest, with most of them prefering the latter activity. It warmed my heart when, as you watches the animal, it peers back at you, and for a single moment, contact is made. Eye contact, that is. But the split second of the gazing of the animal's eyes at mine gives me the joy that it acknowledges my existence, as much as I acknowledge theirs. This really made me feel in touch with loving arms of Mother Nature, bringing me right into the heart of nature, where politics and economy no longer exists, where technology is redundant, where the world was once beautiful.

My favourite animal had to be the giraffe. Whilst I was there, this really adorable long-necked spottie was sashaying around her enclosure, not minding masses of tiny onlookers admiring her oh-so-natural catwalk. Her long eyelashes and big black eyes sure complimented her leggy feature. Ok, I have to admit that I am not sure if she's male or female.

I was also melted at the sight of a pygmy hippo nudging her dearest whilst she struggled about in the water. The baby hippo was so small and so vulnerable, quavering its tiny ears from time to time, whilst its mommy stayed right beside it, providing it with the shelter and safety that it required. Unfailing to fulfiling the role of Mother as she would do for her child.

The tendency for me to attribute animal behaviour to human characteristics is overwhelming, since I cannot imagine how different they are from us, as are we not, part of them? It is not a mistake to follow that tendency but having the heart, and mind, to treat animals as equals, with as much right to live as I do.

As I left the zoological gardens and all her natural wonders, I could only imagine, I had not entered the animal kingdom with that 15 bucks; I had entered the Kingdom Animalia the moment I was conceived. $15 only brought me back to a place I had forsakened in my pursuit of my dreams. Ironically, a place where my dreams had all begun.

gattaca

It was a great movie. I was touched not merely emotionally but the whole living pressence of myself, my life and all thats me.
The movie, though encircles the solving of a mystery murder plot of a dead space facility employer, reveals the undying truth in life; the way of the living.

It tells, of, a world so unlike of ours, yet runs parallel, where friends, hidden from sight but true to the heart, who would reveal, in times of the desperate, not to forsake you. Friends who would give you their all, not to discriminate, not to judge your physical being or social status, but value the self within, beyond what the mind or flesh can reveal.

It tells of a man, not allowing life to define him, but harness beyond what life could do for him to reach for the stars. The sacrifice, of everything he once stood for, of his identity, of his all, to fulfil life's aspirations was something deeply-felt in my heart. How many of us, choose to fulfil our life and sacrifice our dreams? Can dreams really be something not even life can replace? The man chose a path less taken, one that would mean that existence, a mere genesis in the creation of a state of mind, having left redundant, in its place, the quest for a dream come true.

It tells, of a soul, born to a world handicapped, yet not built to resign to fate, and fights all odds to achieve all that which was beyond his horizon. Knowing that one must fight on, in this long march of life, and problems are mere stones in the way, keep walking and they are left behind, further and further behind. As Vincent, the character spoke, "I never swam back".

The story melted me from within. Some things in life can't be altered; what you are borned with, what you have gone through, but more importantly,
Can't forsake the dreams you have.

Not for others,
not for your life,

Do it for your destiny.