If you were a penguin

Ideas come and go. We can choose whether to keep them or to let them go and conquer the world.

People say that there are no longer new ideas. That everything has been already told and retold. But I am sure of one thing, each idea has corners. Some of them even have corners to their corners. Well, I believe that this is how creativity appears (whether you see it in clothes, books, movies, buildings to live in or work in and even in ice cream cones).

The ones that manage to see the corners I was referring to above are what I call creative people. Their role is not at all simple. They are the ones who are able to show other dimensions to things, and to present them so as it is easy for us to understand. Huh, thing of the things you might have passed by if there was not for a creative to show you another meaning to them?!

I am curious and I like the feeling I get when I discover meanings or messages in different artistic creations. For example, I like to paint. Every time I did that, I managed to put an end to my acrylic adventures without endangering the integrity of the walls to my room. But my paintings are surely not as beautiful as the ones painted by Kandinsky, one of my favorite abstract painters.

Still, that does not mean that I have thrown away everything I had painted. Some of them are so exquisite in their naivety that I had to keep them. And I am proud of having painted them. One is even proudly displayed in the hall of my apartment. So that the people visiting me have an idea in what kind of house they enter. I managed to get to that point in painting, and I the fact that I have tested my talent makes me very happy with the result. Moreover, I am not at all discouraged by the fact that in this whole world there are creative people whose arts cannot be rivaled. We can live one with the others, and I am really sure we can inspire each other.

I have spent these days in the cold. No, nobody locked me inside a refrigerator and neither did those spending the time with me put on the air conditioner (even though my skilled voice could cool them or warm them, according to the season. Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you that I have a wonderful voice. I keep putting off going to a singing course for fear that I would plant the seeds of envy in other participants’ hearts. But I sing daily and I never miss a chance to show off my talent. I also have fans. Yes, I have. I am sure I have. Well, I must have. I receive so many encouragements not to have any. It’s just that the encouragements are not made out loud. For you know, I also have the gift of reading the minds.).

So, as I was writing, the other days were spent in the cold, accompanied by a book with a penguin, Micha, as one of the main characters, living in his owner’s apartment, Victor. In English, the book is called ‘Death and the Penguin’ and is a beautiful combination of self-irony and the quest for the truth.

Well, it is something adorable in the shuffle of the penguin’s feet which makes one think of one’s priorities. Is it that you have adequately set them?! Is it not that you have hurried to take the others as example for your own priorities?! Are there any priorities that you have never even thought about and which could be important?!

It is said that animals have a simple way of living, following their basic needs. I happen to remember this saying anytime I am upset or stressed out, and realize that the reasons that make me that way are not that important. And thus I verify the fact that it is far easier to exaggerate. So let’s make it all simpler.

If I were a penguin:

-          I would see the time as a balm. I would let it flow over me, without making a fuss or complaining about the fact that it is slipping away. Actually, I would be totally ignorant regarding it for I could not know how to measure it, and thus it’s passing by would not influence me.

-          I would be happy to take step after step. Every step I took would be marked by the joy of walking. The plain or bumpy terrain would not cause me any displeasure.

-          I would not treat the food as a source of worry or presentation. For I would be not preoccupied with getting fat or getting the best picture of the food I put in my mouth.

-          I would not worry that I hurt someone’s feelings if I said no to something I did not want to eat or do.

And you, what would you do if you were a penguin?