Wednesday, July 25, 2012

My blog rises



A friend recently told me that he's a blogger, who is still blogging. Mind blogging to me, as most friends I know stopped blogging. I too had stopped. He encouraged me to start blogging again, so I shall reignite my 3mins warm blogging skill again.
Haiz...what to say...suddenly hit upon an idea while showering earlier (my bathroom is my inspiration sanctuary...)
Recently, saw The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) which is yet another masterpiece of Christopher Nolan, so I'll share a part of this movie with my perspective...

Beware of some spoilers ahead...        

When Batman was imprisoned in the desert prison, there was a well like opening (meaning look like a well, not that they like it), high up the prison ceiling; which prisoners can choose to challenge climbing out of of the prison, like some ninja warrior reality show, complete with a safety officer on 24/7 standby to secure a safety rope to the challenging contestant. No one succeed to climb out of the well hole because of a broken linkway, that the best SAF IPPT Standing Broad Jump (SBJ) jumper will fail at, and crash painfully against the sides of the wall a few times, before hanging on the safety rope in despair. It was mentally painful, as that was Despair at its best.

The opening was there, with customer service to string the safety rope was, to provide Hope. In Greek mythology, Hope was the most positive evil out of Pandora's box, but was still considered evil. Hope helps one to go on with life, but over dependency on hope may lead one's life in vain. In TDKR, one of the lau jiao prisioner mentioned, that there cannot be true despair without hope. Batman attempted to jump out of prision a few times, but failed. Then the lau jiao told Batman that the reason why he couldn't pass the SBJ, was because he's afraid of death and advised him not to be Kiasi and climb without the safety rope, so he'll really need to jump like there's no 2mr!
It worked and he passed his SBJ, climbed out of the prison well and went on to save the city.

This story line goes well for Batman, as he's the only superhero in Justice League (DC comics version of Avengers) without super powers. Only super human kungfu, sadness and wealth. If it's Superman, I'll go "he's lousy, cannot fly meh?".

The hope and despair part reminds me of the Yin Yang School of Thoughts. There's no good without bad and vice vs. If one uses "watch plum quench thirst" (望梅止渴) strategy to try walk out of a rough patch, without managing to walk out of it, the thirst would be unquenchable. The higher the hope, the bigger the disappointment (希望越高失望越大).

Confucius recommends the middle way (中庸之道). Buddha was enlightened by the veena strings that shouldn't be too taut or too loose.
Lead life with a normal heart (平常心)...
Which is easier said than done...
Practice makes perfect.