(Note: I did state quite some time ago that my next post would be a review; however, the somewhat hectic schedule up ahead for me and my friends is so packed that I’ve never actually taken the hours needed to pen a quality review.  The fact of the matter is that I may not have time, even in the near future, to contemplate and tirelessly write reviews that require a fair amount of brain-work.)

(Another note: Credits to my pastor for teaching me the lessons I will be imparting to you in this blog post.  You have bestowed some invaluable wisdom throughout the countless weeks I’ve attended our Youth Ministry.)

I’ve seen so many people fret about over the past few weeks that the going-ons at KIS (for those who don’t know, KIS – Korea International School – is the school I attend) are in danger of self-detonating into complete oblivion.  It happens everyday: a piece of homework undone, a project / quiz / test on the next day (or worse, the next block), and – probably the most frightening of all – the looming monstrosities that are the AP and the SAT.

But now that AP tests are scheduled in two to three weeks’ time and May SATs (which, thankfully, I won’t be taking) in merely six days, I guess this worrisome atmosphere is an acceptable given.  So, instead of nonchalantly, almost tactlessly going on about what I usually go on about (music), I’m going to take this blog post to quickly reflect on all of the clutter that’s everywhere.

Some of this clutter is not academic or educational in the slightest.

I am usually – not usually, almost always – a levelheaded person.  In fact, quite often, I’m as cool as a cryogenically frozen cucumber – sorry for that tasteless simile, but it’s true.  I’m so composed, in fact, that people sometimes mistake me for being either apathetic, inherently unenthusiastic, or simply always carefree and untroubled.

Well, there’s certainly some truth in those characterisations.  I can be apathetic or unenthusiastic if I want to be, right?  That’s how my brain forces me to act in a situation; I mean, how can I fix that?  I can’t.  But there are certain worries that I address from time to time.  Personal issues.  Family issues.  And yes, school issues.  And maybe it is indeed very hard for others to see me emotionally collapse, but sometimes I get very close to it.  Being normally cool as that cryogenically frozen cucumber has barely any bearing on how depressed or hotheaded you can get.

BUT sometime ago – I can’t remember exactly how long ago – I learned in our Youth Ministry to be “shameless” in the face of need.  Do you need some time to needily caterwaul out in the most decrepit fashion?  Do you desperately need some emotional consolation from others?  Then be shameless and cry out for it in style.  There’s no need for your hesitant self to wear a thousand affectations and needlessly deceive others who probably care for you.

AND there are still some people who are too shy to throw their daily costumes away and just proudly be themselves.  Good on you; there’s no use forcing needless courage out of people who can’t muster it.  Here’s an alternative.  If you’re losing sleep from commitments that are consequently draining the life out of you – just take the time to cleverly realise that such commitments, or (what my pastor calls) “accessories” do not define you.  Attempting to take such accessories and using them to glorify yourself does nothing but render you an accessory to the accessory, a podium upon which your little decorative appendage goes centre stage.  When you whisper your name to yourself and get a completely different image to who you are now, then you should seriously think about taking a step back, relaxing, and figuring out just who you should try to be.

“… an amazing, magical time in our life when we didn’t know how powerful it was not to know.”

Watch up to about 1:10; you can watch their magnificent performance if you want to, but I’d like to bring attention to one of Bono’s latest philosophical masterstrokes.

Just how many times have we thought about the greatness of ignorance?

Yes, such a phrase – the greatness of ignorance – seems oxymoronic and even paradoxical.  How could ignominy be anything but ignoble, disadvantageous, and perhaps even downright humiliating?

Well, the truth is that sometimes there are the advantages of perceived foolishness.  Perhaps foolishness is the wrong word – ignorance can be a tag attached to the innocent and the callow.

We take education and glorify it; we take inexperienced, ignorant students and witness them develop, with proper guidance, into erudite scholars, knowledgeable in their respective fields.  But isn’t learning – that definitively special process celebrated within the human mind – only possible when we’ve established a foundation of ignorance and naivety?  Don’t we need inexpert children to transform into expert intellectuals in order for education to bear fruit?

Naivety is also the ultimate romanticiser, the agent that nullifies all variables and equations and spawns works of art instead.  Isn’t the naive mind more tentative in the face of absolutes and calculations, as though one is attempting to fit square pegs into round holes?  Doesn’t the naive mind conceptualise the world with beauty – perhaps with mistaken brushstrokes here and there, but with beauty all the same?

Some time ago, I acknowledged that it helps if one removed oneself from all of his intellect and took a breath of fresh air, and ignorance is the first step towards that.  The ignorant human being is man at his most elementary level – untouched by his own defects and imperfections, and in just the way God – or any other Designer for that matter – intended him to be.  And being the buffoons we are, we’ve never appreciated such BEAUTY in the way that we should have over the centuries.