Imagine. the possibilities

Let your mind wanders. Don't let your inhibitions limit your creativity and restrict your desires. The world is your oyster. Your mind is your playground.

Classics. not vampires or chick lits

It is a pity that classic novels are sometimes unjustly classified as dour and difficult to read, at times associated  with literature that are oh, so boring. I guess having to go through Macbeth and tasked to decipher into layman's English language as a school project would surely put one off literature for ever. There are so many classic novels that I would love to read and hope to do so before my eyes fail me. I became aware of these classics when I found some of these old books tucked behind cupboards and shoe racks in the house when I was a kid, some pages eaten by cockroaches and rats and caked with dust. Books such as 'The old man and the sea', 'Jane Eyre' and 'The Black Dahlia' just to name a few. They belonged to my elder siblings but I never determined if they were books required for school literatures or hobbies.

The earliest classic that I remembered reading was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I read it so many times even though I struggled with some of the words or their meanings. That was also when I began to romanticise about 'the Byronic hero', an idealised but flawed character, which was first exemplified in the works of Lord Bryon. In Jane Eyre, Mr Edward Rochester, the master of Thornfield Manor, became my first Byronic hero, 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know'.

Here are some of my favourites. 

1. Daddy Long-Legs, Jean Webster (1912) - follows a young girl named Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, through her college years. She writes letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never met whom she addressed as Mr John Smith.
2. Jane Eyre’s, Charlotte Brontë (1847) - ill-fated love for the brooding Mr. Rochester endures in this story of a strong-willed heroine who refuses to compromise herself.
3. Little Woman, Louisa May Alcott (1868/69) - a 2 vols. novels which follow the lives of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March, a charming, intimate coming-of-age story about family love, loss, and struggle set in a picturesque mid-nineteenth-century New England life.
4. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger (1951) - fleeing his Pennsylvania prep school, Holden Caulfield holes up in New York City and rails against adult phoniness while trying to lose his innocence.
5. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck (1931) -  a Pulitzer Prize winner follows Wang Lung’s family from their early struggles to live off the land to their final disintegration as they move to the city.
6. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes (1612) - originally published in Spanish in 1605, Cervantes’ satire about a gentle visionary who becomes a knight after reading too many chivalric romances is a universal tale of idealism versus practicality.
7. To kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee (1960) - small town Alabama in the 1930s is the setting for this novel of a child’s brutal introdution to racial prejudice and adult injustice.
8. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (1959) - a dramatic story of Paris and London during the Reign of Terror contains some of Dickens’ most memorable characters—Madame Defarge with her knitting and the self-sacrificing Sidago. 
9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (1884) - Justice and honor are celebrated in this story about Huck’s adventures on the Mississippi River with the runaway slave Jim.
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (1891) - a work of classic Gothic horror which tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward who expresses a desire to sell his soul to ensure the portrait Basil has painted would age rather than himself. 
11. Watership Down, Richard Adams (1972) - The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its compelling culture and mythos.
12. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Jules Verne (1869) - tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax
13. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway (1952) - Santiago realizes the dream of catching a giant marlin, but he must battle the sharks for two days to bring his prize home.

Life. and choices we make

I think living a full and fulfilling life is about having the right to make choices, by doing what you want. The ability to move on and not look back with too much regret. Discard the excess baggage that weighs you down. Learn from our mistakes. The Spanish American philosopher, Santayana's said it perfectly, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

I always wondered why this inscription was in Jim Jones' camp: "Those who do not know the past are bound to repeat it." It is ironic considering that Jim Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, best known for the November 18, 1978 mass murder of more than 900 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana. Maybe most of those tragic victims did not have a choice especially the children who were forced to drink the cyanide concoction. Maybe it is a reminder to us not to ever repeat such a terrible misguided horror.

Being positive, close to family, have friends around, a fulfilling relationship and of course, a bit of money in the pocket, we have to be realistic for heaven's sake. Maybe you'll think I'm a lucky lady, sitting at home drinking tea and eating almond cookies.

Everything we have or don't have are the results from every choices we make. 'Make things happen, not let it happen', that's my motto in life.