It isn't only the eventful that's worth recording. The fights of life, fighting for meaning, perceived enemies, the ups and downs that fluctuates, they're the ones that we remember best. They're the focus of stories, for they are the ones that moved us. But there were times, like during intermission, where peace was suddenly brought about, which one seemed to yearn for, even if one isn't the person that played out such life. The tranquility of intermission is as important as the mission(s) itself/themselves.

Even if such tranquility is short. Perhaps during their journey, it took a long time to travel from one place to another, and the greatest event happened at both ends. But what about the journey itself? Cut short, you may see them just as travel, a means to an end. Otherwise, why do engineers keep making vehicles that travel faster and faster, if not they held such belief? If the journey had took days, one wonder how much deepness one can grasp between one and those traveling with one. If you could not access the internet and had no other meaningful things to do, or just felt like don't want to do any other things, would you have chat? Or maybe you prefer solitary daydreaming for hours after hours, days after days?

The sun may rise tomorrow, and the urge push you forward, forward, unable to stop, to accomplish your mission. But seeing the sun falling on the edge, casting a beaming orange hue on the landscape, you may decide to settle down for the night. And a lot could happened after the sun falls. Someone may be too tired to do anything and immediately went to bed, slept for 12 hours straight, and wake up the next morning and repeat the tragedy. Others may felt their heart pumping faster, tired of the day's travel, but they can't sleep -- their body may physically need rest, but their mind palpitates. The unsettling mind need to work itself before it can calm down. And you won't fall asleep anytime soon.

So you seek. Seek out the 'thing' that you can do to calm your mind. Listening to music? Breathing the scent of trees camping out in the middle of a rainforest? They soothe your heart, but not your mind. No, they soothe the burnt out mind that had been strained for too long, but they can't calm an idle mind that had been idle for far too long. Our mind can only be idle for so long, after which we need to work, lest it refuse to calm down. Such are why people demand to work less but not demand to not work.

But if there's nothing one can do, what can one do? A conversation is straining. You need to interpret what the other person is saying, and at the same time, if you trained yourself and be aware of, you also need to be aware of the inconsistencies of messages being passed from the other person to you by the imperfect means of words. You need to constantly reinterpret the possible meanings that the other person can say, clarify with them regarding the parts that you think you don't understand, and try to recompute the whole story in your mind as accurate as possible, cross checking with what they had in mind. A passive listener wouldn't do that, as anything that went in from one ear would went out the other ear. An active listener, one that could remember the happenings at least for some time as if it happened to him/her, would take a lot of effort just trying to make sure they got the right impression. Listening is always harder than 'hearing', the former consists of understanding of what is being spoken, while the latter is just words that passed through like waters flowing in a river, never to be seen (heard) again. And for some people, 'hearing' is harder than 'suggesting', for those that can never calm their competitive mind that never stop trying to correct the others as if what they're looking for is being 'correct' rather than just have some fun, even if it means being totally wrong. Well, who cares? A story is just a story, and a story is made to be told, to make someone's life more interesting by introducing uncertainty into their experiences that they don't have the chance to experience themselves; it's not designed to be accurate, but more of entertaining. And how do you feel when you get heard, when you get understood by someone else, when they respect you and decide that your story is worthy of their attention? But listeners are rare because they requires tremendous effort.

The protagonist travel to meet her mission with the other protagonists. But sometimes, during intermission, she wondered whether what she was aiming for is really what she want. During the events, she had no time to think about it; she could only move forward. But during intermission, when the calmness awashes her, and the tranquility of the surrounding slowed down time, and everything suddenly seemed not rushed, she had the time to think. She might be helping with washing the dishes, cooking in the kitchen, while her friends stayed outside and converse, or doing something else. Then, if another local is also washing the dishes and/or cooking, she had the chance to converse. They, from an outsider perspective, might have seen the clouds that wade above her head, not dissipating, and they may ask, "Dear, I don't know what you're going through, but..." And she had the chance to tell her story to a stranger.

And sometimes, your story can only be told to a stranger. You don't feel safe telling it to someone you know, and you don't feel safe telling it to someone whom you suspect knows whom you know. And so, your story can only be told to a total stranger, a foreigner, a tourist, a visitor. They bear the temporariness and distance that you need to tell your story, the story that you held so dear but felt a strong urge to share it with some others but there's no one to share because you fear judgment and losing friendship. But a stranger had no such problem. You won't be seeing them anyways after this, so whether or not they judge you, you'd lose them forever; unless you decide to further the relationship and pull them closer to your inner circles.

Together with the music, suddenly, from sitting straight, straining to focus on the action of the cutscenes, one relaxed, shoulder drooped, backbone curved, eyes half-closed, and just watched, listen, enjoy.

It isn't only the eventful that's worth recording. The fights of life, fighting for meaning, perceived enemies, the ups and downs that fluctuates, they're the ones that we remember best. They're the focus of stories, for they are the ones that moved us. But there were times, like during intermission, where peace was suddenly brought about, which one seemed to yearn for, even if one isn't the person that played out such life. The tranquility of intermission is as important as the mission(s) itself/themselves.

Even if such tranquility is short. Perhaps during their journey, it took a long time to travel from one place to another, and the greatest event happened at both ends. But what about the journey itself? Cut short, you may see them just as travel, a means to an end. Otherwise, why do engineers keep making vehicles that travel faster and faster, if not they held such belief? If the journey had took days, one wonder how much deepness one can grasp between one and those traveling with one. If you could not access the internet and had no other meaningful things to do, or just felt like don't want to do any other things, would you have chat? Or maybe you prefer solitary daydreaming for hours after hours, days after days?

The sun may rise tomorrow, and the urge push you forward, forward, unable to stop, to accomplish your mission. But seeing the sun falling on the edge, casting a beaming orange hue on the landscape, you may decide to settle down for the night. And a lot could happened after the sun falls. Someone may be too tired to do anything and immediately went to bed, slept for 12 hours straight, and wake up the next morning and repeat the tragedy. Others may felt their heart pumping faster, tired of the day's travel, but they can't sleep -- their body may physically need rest, but their mind palpitates. The unsettling mind need to work itself before it can calm down. And you won't fall asleep anytime soon.

So you seek. Seek out the 'thing' that you can do to calm your mind. Listening to music? Breathing the scent of trees camping out in the middle of a rainforest? They soothe your heart, but not your mind. No, they soothe the burnt out mind that had been strained for too long, but they can't calm an idle mind that had been idle for far too long. Our mind can only be idle for so long, after which we need to work, lest it refuse to calm down. Such are why people demand to work less but not demand to not work.

But if there's nothing one can do, what can one do? A conversation is straining. You need to interpret what the other person is saying, and at the same time, if you trained yourself and be aware of, you also need to be aware of the inconsistencies of messages being passed from the other person to you by the imperfect means of words. You need to constantly reinterpret the possible meanings that the other person can say, clarify with them regarding the parts that you think you don't understand, and try to recompute the whole story in your mind as accurate as possible, cross checking with what they had in mind. A passive listener wouldn't do that, as anything that went in from one ear would went out the other ear. An active listener, one that could remember the happenings at least for some time as if it happened to him/her, would take a lot of effort just trying to make sure they got the right impression. Listening is always harder than 'hearing', the former consists of understanding of what is being spoken, while the latter is just words that passed through like waters flowing in a river, never to be seen (heard) again. And for some people, 'hearing' is harder than 'suggesting', for those that can never calm their competitive mind that never stop trying to correct the others as if what they're looking for is being 'correct' rather than just have some fun, even if it means being totally wrong. Well, who cares? A story is just a story, and a story is made to be told, to make someone's life more interesting by introducing uncertainty into their experiences that they don't have the chance to experience themselves; it's not designed to be accurate, but more of entertaining. And how do you feel when you get heard, when you get understood by someone else, when they respect you and decide that your story is worthy of their attention? But listeners are rare because they requires tremendous effort.

The protagonist travel to meet her mission with the other protagonists. But sometimes, during intermission, she wondered whether what she was aiming for is really what she want. During the events, she had no time to think about it; she could only move forward. But during intermission, when the calmness awashes her, and the tranquility of the surrounding slowed down time, and everything suddenly seemed not rushed, she had the time to think. She might be helping with washing the dishes, cooking in the kitchen, while her friends stayed outside and converse, or doing something else. Then, if another local is also washing the dishes and/or cooking, she had the chance to converse. They, from an outsider perspective, might have seen the clouds that wade above her head, not dissipating, and they may ask, "Dear, I don't know what you're going through, but..." And she had the chance to tell her story to a stranger.

And sometimes, your story can only be told to a stranger. You don't feel safe telling it to someone you know, and you don't feel safe telling it to someone whom you suspect knows whom you know. And so, your story can only be told to a total stranger, a foreigner, a tourist, a visitor. They bear the temporariness and distance that you need to tell your story, the story that you held so dear but felt a strong urge to share it with some others but there's no one to share because you fear judgment and losing friendship. But a stranger had no such problem. You won't be seeing them anyways after this, so whether or not they judge you, you'd lose them forever; unless you decide to further the relationship and pull them closer to your inner circles.

Together with the music, suddenly, from sitting straight, straining to focus on the action of the cutscenes, one relaxed, shoulder drooped, backbone curved, eyes half-closed, and just watched, listen, enjoy.