The Open Wound

As I was coming out of a chicken house today, I slipped and scraped my hand on some concrete. Only the skin was off, so I rinsed it and went on with my day, not sparing it a second thought as I was pretty busy. I was only reminded of it again tonight as I gave my hands a thorough cleaning in the shower. It stung and hurt – reminding me of an event that I’ve forgotten about.

I realized as I stood there, watching the water pool at my feet, that it was a pretty good reflection of the my life. Last week I had an occurrence which scraped the skin off of an old wound in me. At first I ignored it, but then, when I had the time to digest it, I realized that I hurt and the pressure under which I currently had to work with just made it worse. My inner being came to a grinding, soundless halt and I was thrown into a quiet which had been my companion for a long time when I was younger. My writing stopped and I found myself aimlessly sitting in my chair, staring at my fish because that was the only thing that made me happy. Everything else felt as if it took too much energy.

The good thing was that I recognized this. Sunday, as I was about to do my weekly drabble, I stared at the screen and realized that I had nothing to say. That there was nothing that I could say until this quiet in me lifted. I saw the signs and obeyed them and packed up my writing computer for the past few days. When I got home, I indulged in whatever mindless movie I could find, keeping the company of Ellen Ripley, Alien Killer connoisseur and Alice, Zombie basher buff. I knew what my soul needed and I provided it.

The reason for this is that as writers, be it professional or not, we tend to use quite a lot of our energy in our work. The greatest stories are built on the anguish of authors. We open up veins and let them bleed all over the pages regularly. And, we can only do that successfully if we have the energy to let it run. I knew that if I wrote more, if I continued on the track that I was – hurling through my fiction, I would’ve burned myself out and forced my hands to be still for weeks to come. Now, I gave myself a break to let the open wound in me heal so that I can move on.

It’s very important. Writing isn’t just about the story – it’s about yourself. About what you can offer and what you have to give to the characters to make them survive.

Because by doing so, you let yourself survive.

Take a break every now and again, and make sure you know yourself. It will safe you in the end.

Chicken or the Egg?

I had to write an article for our work’s newspaper. Due to lack of anything better to write about, I consulted my friend Wikipedia and wrote up this summary of their Chicken or the Egg article. Because I haven’t been blogging as much, and am way overdue for something – I thought to add this here.
Be warned – it’s boring. 😉

Chicken or the Egg?

We’ve all heard the saying: What came first, the chicken or the egg?
As it turns out, it’s one of the oldest debated dilemmas, as it was the topic which evoked a lot of questions on how life and the universe began in general.
These days the statement is used to point out the futility of identifying the first case of a circular cause and consequence event. Inevitably, the question isn’t about the chicken or the egg, but about how one object can come into being without another of which it is dependent on. An egg can’t appear without a chicken, and a chicken cannot be hatched out of anything other than a chicken.
Over the years, a couple of theories have evolved.
1) Proteins – By analyzing protein synthesis in egg production, scientists concluded that there must’ve been a ‘first’ chicken, due to the proteins required to synthesize the formation of the egg’s hard shell. The fly in that theory’s soup is that the protein evolved long before birds branched away evolutionarily from reptiles. Thus proving that the protein was present before and after egg production. Many use this theory as proof of the futility of trying to solve this question.
2) Mathematical – Two scientists, Thurman and Fisher, decided to try and solve this dilemma with a mathematical equation. They examined the US egg production and chicken population from 1930 to 1983. By examining the annual amount of eggs produced, compared to the number of chickens, Thurman and Fisher tried to determine whether the chicken population predicted the number of eggs laid and visa versa. It was found that the amount of eggs could predict the amount of chickens, but the number of eggs could not predict the amount of chickens. Due to this (and a lot of technical thinking) the two scientists concluded that the egg came first. (google Granger’s Causality for clearance…)
3) Evolution – Darwin’s theory of evolution states that species change over time via mutation and selection. Since DNA can be modified only before birth, a mutation must’ve taken place at conception or within an egg such that an animal similar to a chicken, but a not a chicken, laid the first chicken egg. With this theory, both the gg and the chicken evolved simultaneously.
4) Theology – Naturally – God created chickens, and chickens laid the first egg. Therefore, the chicken came first.
5) Cyclical view of Time – In the Buddist belief, time is regarded as cyclical and with repeating ages. The assumption is that time is eternally repetitive and therefore, there is no ‘first’ in eternity.

So, really – none of these answers can be proven true or false. It’s the nature of the problem and why it’s fascinated the mind of philosophers ever since they went to collect their breakfast. The truth is that it doesn’t really matter in my opinion. Chickens are here now, as are eggs. And, for that we should be grateful, because without them – there are many people out there who would not have jobs.

The End.
Or is it?

See Mike Draw.

I was browsing through the internet, looking for information about Malabsorption Syndrome in Chickens (a topic in which I need to do a presentation on for Wednesday) when I came across these two delightful comics.

 

The artist is a man called Mike who has his own blog at See Mike Draw.His other comics are also immensely entertaining, which is why I decided to share it with you. Needless to say, it was a struggle focusing on the serious aspects of chicken production after this.