Got Nowhere Else to Go.

“My heart is drenched in wine

But you’ll be on my mind, Forever…”

[Don't Know Why]

As I was eating breakfast, the lyrics of Norah Jones’ song Don’t Know Why suddenly materialized in my head, so I popped my copy of Come Away With Me, Norah’s debut album, in the stereo and listened. It’s funny, but I found myself enjoying the music. I guess when you’ve been accustomed to loud music for a long period of time, it feels good to try out ’soft music’. I felt very calm and peaceful as Norah’s songs ventured into my system. Maybe that’s just the way it’s supposed to be.

“Spinning, laughing, dancing to her

favorite song

A little girl with nothing wrong

And she’s all alone.”

[Seven Years]

I often find myself in solitude on Tuesdays. It didn’t used to be like this; during the early months of the semester I always had a close friend to spend time with for lunch, at least. Now I seldom see her, and I don’t know how she is. I get to send her messages from time to time, but her replies (if there are, at the time) don’t exactly go with what I sent her.

Surprises come in small packages. I was walking along grove earlier, looking for lunch. After I bought a bottle of water from Ministop and prepared to cross the street, a man sprinted from the campus with a police officer running after him. I was so astonished, as were the people around me. I don’t think I’d ever witnessed something like that in my life. Well. Not technically…

They creep me out, things like that. Thank goodness it wasn’t the type of heinous crime that caused policemen to shoot. I would not be able to stand something like that…

Anyway, as I was lining up at Bugong, somebody called out my name. I turned to see that it was Osh, one of my closest friends. He invited me to lunch at his apartment, which I immediately agreed to. When was the last time I was in Osh’s apartment? Seems like so long ago. I miss it.

It’s very different when two people are alone together (admire the paradox), as opposed to when you’re part of some crowd. Two people don’t get shy around each other that much. They focus on each other; and when one is down, the other cheers that person up.

Osh and I didn’t exactly share our woes, if academics and social life don’t belong in that group. But just soaking up in each other’s presence made up for months of not bonding.

There is so much still that I have not told him about my life lately. Yet his presence made me feel at one with him. Maybe because of years of friendship. I don’t know.

We were alone–alone together.

“The sun just slipped its note below my door

And I can’t hide beneath my sheets

I’ve read the words before so now I know

The time has come again for me”

[Feelin' The Same Way]

You know what I’ve been busy with lately? Field Trips, seminars, and film showings. Lots of them. Last week I watched a film about climate change (never-ending topic, but I never cease to be interested in it). It showed what would happen to the world if one, two, three–and so on until six–degree/s was/were added to our global temperature. The film was shown at one of Biosci’s lecture halls at past 7pm. I stayed to finish the whole thing until around 9:45pm. By then, my seatmates were all gone but I was past caring.

The film moved me in ways Al Gore never did.

Do you realize how unfair it is for tribal people to suffer the consequences of environmental degradation when they did nothing to ruin nature? That as First World countries continue to advance in technology, and thereby in their nonrenewable energy consumption, Third World countries continue to get poorer and experience catastrophes that are suited to be experienced by the wealthy countries because they created the bad stuff in the first place?      |run on much|

I’m not saying that every bad thing developed countries do to the environment is felt only by the under-developed countries. Hurricane Katrina, the polar ice cap melting, and a lot of other things occur in places that don’t exactly live on a hand-to-mouth existence. It’s just… nothing is fair!

People who did nothing wrong suffer for those who did all the wrong things. Men and women and their children who already have poverty to worry about have to experience pollution because, duh, they live on the Earth.

The Earth! Which might ‘die’ any day now because people choose to remain ignorant of the issues facing us.

The Earth! Which is our only home unless people find some way to melt all the ice under Mars’ surface and travel all the way there just to die anyway.

The Earth! Which… is, well, you get the point.

I hate knowing something important or sacred and not abiding by it. Because we’ve all read and watched so much about global warming, we should not play stupid and refuse to help.

Contrary to popular belief, the smallest possible thing that you can do makes a big difference. For instance, if you pass up a chance to contribute whatever change you have from your groceries to one of those cylindrical containers on the counter, and the total lacked 25 centavos for full payment of some medical thing, and 25 centavos is exactly what you had which you did not drop in the container, then you did nothing to help.

Small things -> big changes

So let’s work together to promote sustainable development in ordinary ways.