Smoke and Mirrors

This funny video, 'How to gift wrap a cat' brings home to me how all of life is smoke and mirrors.
With different background music and normal film speed, we could have, very easily, been led to believe that the cat thinks he is being dressed for coronation.

But a life built on illusions may not be as bad as it sounds--we live it everyday, at different levels, and for the most part, with good intentions. Sometimes we are not even aware of the illusions we have accepted as part of our life. Even in this video, both man and cat may well be deceiving each other, but both are symbiotically happy. And perhaps, that's all that matters in the end.

In memoriam: Amutha "Ammu" Subramaniam

I am posting this poem in memory of Amutha Subramaniam (1992 - 2010)

TO BLOSSOMS by Robert Herrick

Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,
Why do ye fall so fast?
Your date is not so past,
But you may stay yet here a-while,
To blush and gently smile;
And go at last.

What, were ye born to be
An hour or half's delight;
And so to bid good-night?
'Twas pity Nature brought ye forth,
Merely to show your worth,
And lose you quite.

But you are lovely leaves, where we
May read how soon things have
Their end, though ne'er so brave:
And after they have shown their pride,
Like you, a-while;--they glide
Into the grave.