G Spot
What are you doing?
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo
“WHAT are you doing?”, my niece Ashang casually asked me yesterday, and without waiting for an answer, a follow-up question, “Why do you do the things you do?
The first question requires a simple answer. On second thought, it is a most complicated question. I asked this from friends, and i got varied answers. One friend said, “cooking breakfast”, the other said, “in bed with a man”, and another, “trying to make sense of what I do!” Anisha said, “enduring my allergies.”
To a cousin, surprised even to be asked, “Huh?! What am I doing? I am mopping the floor, cooking breakfast, helping my son with his school assignments, looking for my husband’s socks, preparing for work, what answer do you want? And what kind of a question is that?! And in the morning! Don’t make me think, right now, be kind!”
I get answers in the now (cooking breakfast, in bed with a man, enduring my allergies), and answers that have something to do with the future (trying to make sense of what I do!), and a flurry of reactions to the question (my cousin’s retort). Depending on the state of the mind and the context of the person being asked, the answers could be as deep as the ocean, or as shallow as a vanishing river.
To the first question that Ashang posed, I gave a very long silence, my mind in re-direct mode, answers evolving, answers unknown. A profound question cannot be given instant answers. Suddenly, illumination. I live, I love, I cry, I die sometimes, I do some things that others do, including things that others don’t.
To the second question, “Why do you do the things you do?” I don’t know! What kind of a demented question is that? I just do!
The things we do
I do the things I do
just as you do the things you do
and even if I think I know
why I do the things I do
i am not even sure if I know
what I think I know
others thought the world was flat
and now it’s round, our habitat
it is not the centre of the universe
it’s the irreversible reverse
for all your wit, you will never know
even if, your piety makes you think so
in the end, you really don’t know
and what you know is just a shadow
(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)
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