Category: Weekly state (Page 28 of 30)

History favours the bold, not the stupid.

Within the next 17 minutes, to be exact, another week will be completed. A lifecycle we cannot escape. However, we keep turning. As long as the air enters and leaves us, we are bound to finish the week. So here I am, trying to me it work. Being tentative.

This week is all about trying. What’s your connotation of trying? When you hear the word, what happens in your mind? Do you see something failing or succeeding? Do you see hard or easy labour? It is actually stupid of me to ask, everyone is defining comfort and hardship differently. For some, a doctors appointment is a hard thing to do. Maybe it is hard to remember that your Papa Shanghai has prepared another dish for you, hot from the stall of spicy thoughts. But don’t you worry, I’ll be here.

To reach a cycle of full completion is never really necessary, don’t you think? We are bound to keep going. Not necessarily with that same task or assignment, but with everything else. Air keeps flowing, the thoughts keep rambling and I keep on serving those dishes. Maybe we can find inner calm within this thought. Perhaps it’s time to change “trying”. Let’s be tentative, we are not complete. And let me say this, writing, it’s being tentative. Doing your job is tentative. We are trying, we are probing. Maybe, in the end, trying to make a sense of it all.

The only thing important is how we go on about this trying, tentative behaviour. Are we experimenting, discovering, uncovering, probing, researching our next moves, our next seconds? Or are we intimated by what my come around the corner.

The air keeps flowing, make the best of it. Turn tentative and trying around, for your sake.

And while I finish this, I wanted to check for my dearest customers. I know who you are, kind of. I see you coming by my stall every week. And let me just say, I value you and cherish your attention to my tiny space in the food stall of ideas which is the internet. So for all of you, I have prepared something special. It’s still in the works but I would like to reward you with the most spicy of dishes. Short stories, the hotpot of Papa Shanghai’s mind. So I’ll create a special section for all of you. So reach out to me, if you feel addressed. I will forward you the secret phrase for this very special tiny VIP menu.

Take care of yourselves out there. Papa

Good evening, it’s your favourite cloud!

Can you see me? I am here, floating in that tiny corner inside your room. I am small, but present.

You know, sometimes I wonder how this all started. How it all came to be, that I am immaterial and you are there, in all your glory? Who’s really detached? Is it me, just made up of some rather strange thoughts? Or is it you, stopping for a moment to search for me?

Well, you certainly know Papa Shanghai. Usually writing here, but never really revealing. Well, let me tell you something. I have seen Papa hanging out and I have realised, he is just like me! A little detached, but interested. A little bit physical, a bit abnormal. We are figures, roaming space and time, watching you and everyone else. Being concerned with ourselves but always reflecting on our on position in the hot wok of humankind.

So this week, I was given the chance to be here. Isn’t it wonderful? Quite powerful, actually. For me, not for you. Although, have you ever heard from the mind of a cloud?

So I want to ask you some questions. And don’t worry, I will hear the answers. I am not a human, I am a cloud. I’ll be there!

Have you ever felt, despite being in a cloud-constellation, such as a big group of people, completely detached? Have you ever considered yourself an entity radically different from everyone else despite being anatomically identical? Have you ever felt the ease of detaching from society? Have you ever felt weightless despite suffering from gravitation? Was it you that made you weightless or was it someone‘s doing?

Do you want to be weightless?

It was a pleasure meeting you. But I have to go and bother someone else now. Float on!

I am sorry. Papa Shanghai has fallen, deep, very deep.

I am sorry. I promised novelty and mystery, a new way of how all of these reviews work.

I am sorry. I have promised to deliver, on point, every Sunday. A new dish.

However, that being said, let’s look forward! Let’s get started and switch it up. Cut through the waves. This image doesn’t make any sense actually because you don’t know what I am talking about. Let me elaborate. So, I have been thinking about boats a lot. They go out into a very dangerous terrain that rules Mother Earth! It’s water. (Why is it called Mother Earth then, you ask? Let’s discuss this another time). So boats venture out there, going there way. In a vastly energy-consuming way some might say.

But while they might be at the mercy of the ocean in a storm, they are also cutting. Some would say I am exaggerating as they just push the water. To you I say: sit down! Just joking, a fair point my intellectual friend.

Let’s cut through the waves together, don’t just push things. Cut, clean, like a scissor when it starts that smooth glide that gives you comfort.

So, what I will cut, is to say sorry. Because there won’t be any mistakes. Not because I won’t make any, but because I will just simply call them deviations. You are welcome.

In any case, I hope your week was great. It’s great to see you here again. Ciao, Papa.

Well, well, well…. If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions. You probably expected something big, didn’t you? Another turn of the earth surrounding the sun, a marvel to be astonished by! It is, in fact, only a footnote in the vast menu of takeout dishes of yours truly, Papa Shanghai.

Today marks the 10th review of my week and possibly yours, if you are close to my these days. 10 times I have spat out wisdom, idiocies, revelations and completely useless statements from the spicy wok of my mind, ruled by equilibrium.

Some of you might be less balanced, particularly today. But for every incline, there is a fall. Whether it be emotions, affections, wealth or spices. So let’s start thinking, a little more broken down, inducing your rise from the fallen.

I have planned to re-organise these reviews because simply counting them is neither creative, nor really appealing. I am still searching for a cure. Wouldn’t it be nice to start the next 10 reviews with a little Chili? A little bit more “bling”, more shine!

So in the spirit of making a counter-point to this day (and yesterday), and to offset the sensation of marvel that anniversaries have, this review is underwhelmingly unspectacular. But rest assured, glamour, spice and wonder will again enter the stage. To give a little introduction, here is a musical, inspirational teaser:

I’ll hope you still stay here, for a while. I still see you.