The secret (Rhonda Byrne's was a typo :D)

Yesterday, I decoded the secret of life. I didn't realise it then. . That is, of course something to be expected. Knowing is one thing. Knowing that you know, is a totally different ball game. The first rests on your experience and reasoning capabilities, among other tihngs. The second rests on introspection, self confidence and an obsession that forces you to look at things again and again and again..(well, you get the picture..). Sometimes, knowing is enough. However, to know yourself, you must know that you know, what you know and how you know it. You must'nt just be aware of things, you must also be aware of that awareness. Admitted, that taken to the nth level and then (as is inevitable) iterated further to infinity, it gets confusing. Really confusing. But a level 2 awareness is, if you go about it the right way, the definitive step of the series, one that affords you knowledge of the further levels(Of course, to know you know, you have to actually reason out each level separately, which is a simple iterative process, but infinitely so, which makes it impossible (Think about it, and you'll realise this is true)) By the right way, I mean that your mind has to be aware that the transition from level one to level two is actually just a specific rendering of a generic interative step ( i=i++). If done properly, you feel all the levels rush by you and you are aware of them, or at least you are aware of your potentiality for awareness. However, as i said before, to go one level further in your analysis of the levels of understanding, you must go to each level and understand it's implications as a stand alone concept.A very simple example is the famous plot device used to the death in cinema. He knows that she knows that He knows . . .ad nauseam, a good example of which can be seen in Jeffrey archer's 'shoeshine boy', from His collection of short stories entitled 'Twelve red herrings'

Anyway, if i'm done digressing , I think I should move on to the real subject that I was talking about. The secret of life. In life, most of our decisions are based on analyses of situations, based on what would happen if things were to go wrong, of which there is always a good (and to our paranoid minds, overwhelmingly large) probabililty. Now, our confusion mostly stems from the fact, that all the uncertainty has it's source in the caprices of human nature, of people who are deciding on the basis of what they think your decision might be. A very convoluted game, with an infinity of sub games. . Of course, some people may not make decisions after such a detailed analysis of the situation, but not knowing, who is, and who isn't ,making their decisions in a specific way brings us back to square one. Even the most rational and moral individual (The definitions of which I leave to my readers imagination: You know what I'm talking about, even if you can't express it any better than this :P) lives his life subject to the decisions of others, not knowing if the decisions he makes will eventually lead to him being happy.

And Voila ! , I am about to throw open the curtains. . to reveal something, so obvious in its simplicity, yet so cleverly hidden by the inoccuousness of it's paradigm, by how insignicant it seems at the first glance : Blues . . .

The blues, have a very funny way of taking sadness and turning it on it's head, channeling it into something happy and constructive and beautiful. I find it nothing short of magical that when I play the blues, i fuel my music with the saddest and most depressing thoughts that my mind can muster, but inevitably, there is a smile on my face, a crazy, demented smile that is...is just great. . My guitar cries, but my mind laughs, my fingers are tensed with the sadness of a thousand deaths, terminal illnesses and an aching that threatens to suffocate, but my body is joyful, uplifted and quivering with a pleasure that is heavenly and transcendental. . .In moments, I find myself happy again. . So happy, it hurts. . like Magic.

Try it out sometime. Next time you feel sad, listen to BB king, or Muddy waters or The Allman Brothers band, and feel the magic taking you over, washing off the blues,vibrating, bending and sliding it into something crazy joyful. And the next time you worry about things going wrong, remember it'll just make the blues better. . . .

PS: Check out the compilation called chess blues, it's so awesome, they decided to invent a new word for it, but realised that it wasn't possible. .

PPS: Yes, that was a horrible simile, but the problem defies the very basis of a simile, that there must exist sometihng comparable and similar to it.

PPPS: Oh Gawd ! that saxophone.

PPPPS: Was listening to a song called The commisioner , by Arbee Stidham.. . as i wrote this. . .