Tuesday 10 April 2012

State of Lucidity

Yasashii Hikarimaru is a seven-year-old boy with a lot of potential. Yasashii loves reading, he reads every readable writing that catches his eye. When the book of the day comes, he leaves the food, the bed and the reality and dives in the pages swallowing lines and images like ramen noodles.
He also loves logical puzzles. He doesn't know why he always keeps in mind how many square tiles it takes to go from a room to another, and it doesn't matter if that habit seems odd to his friends as long as he finds it funny.


Yasashii has no fear for he was brought up to be responsible like big folks. He remembers clearly when mama tells him to fold his clothes or when she asks him to keep an eye on his baby brothers.
"You are a little man and you should behave like one", she tells him.
He also remembers his first day at the kindergarten. He was four back then and his younger brother who was three was crying out loud asking mama not to leave them..
"Mama come back! Mama don't leave us! MAMA!!"
Unfortunately for him, mama was in a big hurry that day, she left the two kids. Yasashii didn't say a thing, he was discovering this new world, he was wondering how come those little kids can't even count to ten let alone to a hundred. Some other bigger than him was sweeping the flowing snot with his sleeve trying to focus on some blocks he had put together in a meaningless form.
That place was not funny at all.
Yet, he learnt some few things there, and the most of all he became a real boy. He became as mischievous and sadistic as any boy of his age. When wisdom vanishes, he flies with his two younger brothers to the forest beyond the graveyard. They spend all day long climbing trees like little monkeys. They pick up insects, frogs and whatever small living things they could find in their way. And, they play soccer on the plains until sunset.

***

One day, mama called Yasashii, she picked her offspring up, kissed him and turned her cheek to have a kiss back. She sat down on the couch and put the little boy in her lap, gave him a warm look and asked :
- Yasashii! Do you love mama?
- Of course!
- Tell me why?
- Because you are mama and if I don't love mama I will love nothing..
- Nothing.. Hmm.. What is the nothing? 
- I don't know.. But, nothing is worth nothing.
- How is that?
- You told me once when I eat too much candy my teeth will decay and that will hurt a lot. But, grandpa told me if I brush my teeth it's okay to eat candy.
- Don't you forget that! And, What about things? What are things?
- They are a lot, but, all things are not everything.
- What do you mean by that?
- Every day in school the teacher tells us about new things that we didn't know.
- Good boy! You have to pay attention, though..
- The other day, in the television the man said that there are things that are real and other things that aren't real; and in the things that aren't real there are things that people think they are real and other things that they know they aren't real.
- Do you mean reality, illusion and imagination?
- Yep! I think so..
- Alright, do you know the difference between reality and illusion?
A reality could be an illusion, but, an illusion is not the reality.
- What makes you say that?
- When we go to collect little grasshoppers in the fields, I was thinking that a grasshopper was a part of the tree, but the other day I read in a book that it is another thing.
- Promise me to keep out of the fields my little child, it's not safe there..
- Okay!


- Good kid! Now, do you know what the brain is?
- Yes, I do!
- Do you know what's inside the brain?
Everything is inside the brain, and anything could be outside of it.
- How could that be?
- The teacher told us that we have five senses and that we use them to make the world inside our brains. It's okay for kids to have only five, but the teacher told us that even big people have five senses too. Five is a little number.. And what about blind people? They have only four senses, don't they? Does a blind person know what the green color is?
- I don't think so, and that's really unfortunate..
- So a blind person doesn't know the truth about colors?
- It depends.. What about the truth itself? How many truths do you think there are?
- I don't know the number and I think it's bigger than a hundred, but, the truth is the one, and other truths are ones..
- How come?
- The other day, Jessy and Jane did a big fight because Jessy said that a crocodile is a big lizard and Jane said that it was a huge ugly fish. I think Jessy said the truth but I don't think Jane lied.
- I see.. So a crocodile and a lizard are the same thing?
- I don't think so.. Similar are not the same, and similar should be the same.
- So they are not the same?
- No they aren't! In school sometimes we write something with a pencil, some other times with a pen, and we use colors too.
- That is right! But what do you mean by something?
- I don't know.. A something is a something.. I only know that nothing gives nothing, and nothing will be nothing.. And also something gives something, and something will be something.
- Indeed..
- And that happens all the time..
- I think so.. Do you know what is time?
- I don't know.. But, time is good, and no time is better.
- No time?!
- If there is no time, people won't be old and die.
- But then, there will be no past and no future.. Do you know what the past, the present and the future have to do with each other?
The past is not the present, and the present is the future.
- You mean the present is not the future, don't you?
- Nope! The present is the future. Today the teacher was very angry at Steve because he didn't do yesterday's homework for today. Now, Steve can't do nothing about that, but he still can do today's homework for tomorrow.
- Was it Steve or it was you?!
- It was Steve I promise!
- I believe you my baby..

"Out of the mouths of babes", said mama and held tight her child.

---
Footnote:
The images posted herein are copyrighted to their respective owners.

23 comments:

Sarra Jouini said...

A pretty unusual conversation between a child and his mother ! I pondered upon " Out of the mouths of babes" the other day and tried to imagine what sort of story would be associated to it ! The language is simple; but subtle as you said. What I mean by subtle is that it carries a "perfect cunning" to use Wordsworth's words. The text is at once fraught with nothing and everything . The cryptic style (If I can use such combination of words) is elusive. I had the feeling that I knew nothing when it comes to what is written in Italic [I plunged into the philosophical dimension of it] (Thank you for making the distinction, it helped a lot ) and then I figured out that it is everyday life with the examples the child illustrates.
Lucky mama, she is having a brilliant child like that !!
PS: Was the name of the child chosen randomly?
If Yasashii means sweet
Hikari means light
and maru means perfection
then..
I guess It could mean Light's sweet perfection OR Sweet light of perfection ; The important thing is that is could refer to the child !
I also wonder if choosing a Japanese name is done in the purpose of accentuating the myth that Asians have different brains than ours. I mean no Tunisian kid would utter such genius ( Check the theory of Nihonjinron )You can visit http://www.tofugu.com/ and know more about it ! The owner of the site is in fact a Vlogger. I saw his video (back to 2008) [ I couldn't find it again on youtube but I downloaded it on my pc and still have it - in fact I was so angry when I watched it because I so love everything related to Japan xDD But there is some truth in it.. to a certain extent]
It is on how Japanese people are so overly impressed when you say for example "konnichiwa" . They believe that only Japanese people can speak Japanese . It is because their brains are different. >.> According to the theory , this is included within the uniqueness of the Japanese culture in general which was widespread after the WWII !

So sorry for the jarida . You reminded me of so many things !!

Deceazed Fella said...

Thank you for the exhaustive comment. I really appreciate it ^^

The simple sentences written in italic revolve mostly around the philosophy of knowledge (aka epistemology) which is tightly coupled to my academic studies.
I wanted to simplify things as much as they could be, by using children speak and illustrative examples from their world.
I will refrain from explaining the concepts behind those sentences as I have designed them. Besides, in my humble judgment, it is early to explain the purpose behind most of the content in this blog (ماسونيّة xD)

As for the name, as far as I know, Yasashii has also the meaning of "gentle person" or "affectionate person". I hope that helped you to make even a wild guess about my reference =p
By the way, few things are random in this blog (paranoia bait =D)

Deceazed Fella said...

I almost forgot something very crucial!
المفاهيم اللي نحكي عليها الكلّ تمشي عليهم قولة الإمام الشافعي رحمه الله
رأيي صواب يحتمل الخطأ

Khaoula said...

i like it ^^ الماكس الي نجم نقولو :p

"if there is no time, there will be no people" :p

Deceazed Fella said...

شكرا على القراءة و التعليق ^^
حتّى و لو كان المحتوى ما نالش إعجابك

I agree with you when you said "if there is no time, there will be no people". In earthly thinking, that line is true ^^
By "no time" I think the kid meant "eternity".. الخلود

Michmécha said...

Tha only thing that I'll say that you made me wonder... would I be able to have such answers? I think I won't !
We are so different but w're friends because I can read the hole thing with the weird feeling that this boy is you ! and I read it with your voice indeed!

As I said the other night the roles are reversed... boys are the ones who ask a lot of questions and moms manage to explain the world with simple words :)

keep writin' :) you rock at it :) and I'm in love with your english :p

Khaoula said...

علاش المحتوى ما نالش اعجابي :/
قلت آي لايك إت
و ما قلتش اكثر لانك افحمتني ههه
و زيد بالانقليزية ما نعبرش مليح (لابد الاحراج ؟ كك)
:p

Deceazed Fella said...

@Michmécha
You're cheating xD
Indeed, the purpose wasn't the dialogue, it was rather the sentences written in italic. The dialogue was somehow a transmission line over which I tried to convey some abstract concepts along with a simple example for each concept, lest they be perceived as obscure.
I hope this attempt was a success!
Thank you for reading and for your support Friend ^^

@Chimère
ما قلتش ما نالش إعجابك المحتوى ^^'
قلت حتّى لو كان ما نالش إعجابك المحتوى
conditionnel passé =p
ربّي يبارك فيك و يسترك و إيّانا في الدنيا و الآخرة

Michmécha said...

Cheating? NEVEEEEER :o

Deceazed Fella said...

You did and I won't point out the evidence xD

Primavera said...

Niiice ! Tunisia's got talent :D

Deceazed Fella said...

من قبل عنّا مواهب في الشطيح و الغناء و الكورة
و الكلّه من خيرات المجاهدَيْن الأكبر و اللي بعده xD

شكرا على مرورك ^^

Primavera said...

lol bien dit :D

chokran 3ala ebde2ek :) tu me donnes envie de réviser mon anglais ..

Deceazed Fella said...

ربّي يبارك فيك و يسهّلك في كلّ ما هو صعيب

Primavera said...

آمين أجمعين ^^

تأبّط خيرا said...

السّلام عليكم

Nice shots, although I don't think a kid could say such things (I don't have one nearby to test it :P)

I have some questions to ask to get some clues :

1 - "an illusion is not the reality" : What thou menen by "illusion" ?
2 - "time is good, and no time is better." : An event needs time to occur, if you want to move our hand from a position to another, it should take some time, that's how we "feel" the time, if there's no time, there's no events, or time here is different ?

Deceazed Fella said...

و عليكم السلام و رحمة الله

Thank you for reading and for the pertinent comment ^^
I don't think one kid could say all those things but this a copy of what I said in a previous response :
"Indeed, the purpose wasn't the dialogue, it was rather the sentences written in italic. The dialogue was somehow a transmission line over which I tried to convey some abstract concepts along with a simple example for each concept, lest they be perceived as obscure."

As for the questions :
1- I defined the illusion as something which is not real and that people think it is real; in other words, it is a distorted reality. There could be a better definition though.
2- I said in a previous comment "By 'no time' I think the kid meant 'eternity'". Yet, in my creed, there are no facts concerning the matter of eternity and the word should be merely taken as it the sole definition to the abstract concept.

تأبّط خيرا said...

Mea culpa, I haven't read the comments ^^'

As for the answers :
1- I am fine with this definition.
2- By the definition of time I gave, there shall not be "NO"time, otherwise there shall not be events. The kid said :"people won't be old and die.", it could that in "eternity" our bodies are not the same as in this mortal world, or the eternal world work on some kind of physical laws that our thoughts cannot imagine.

Deceazed Fella said...

I totally agree with you +1
Given that the concept of causality is a first-class entity in the conception of events, we could safely postulate that the essence of causality involves time. Again, I agree with you when you point out the fact that the eternal existence could have another set of rules which surpasses the worldly human means of reasoning.
The use of "no time" was a reference to the concept of Eternity in Spinozism, but, Spinoza decouples Eternity and Time, thus it would be silly to pretend that "no time" is the exact synonym of Spinoza's Eternity =D

Anyways, the dialogue was meant to be childish and impertinent in some way for the sake of simplification and "realism" =p

تأبّط خيرا said...

@Deceazed Fella :

I see ^^

I did not read for Spinoza and his conception of Eternity, in which book he talked about ?

Deceazed Fella said...

He talked about it in the first part of his opus Ethics.

تأبّط خيرا said...

I will put it in my to-read books ^^

Thanks a lot =]

Deceazed Fella said...

You're quite welcome brother

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