History is our crude attempt to analyse the past with the limited evidence we have. And we, human beings,try our best not to make the same mistakes, but then we always do.
Poetry Translation
重逢
之一
燈火正輝煌 而你我
卻都已憔悴 在相視的剎那
有誰听見 心的破碎
那樣多的事情都已發生
那樣多的夜晚都已過去
而今宵 只有月色
只有月色能如當初一樣美麗
我們已無法回頭 也無法
再向前走 親愛的朋友
我們今世一無所有 也再 \
一無所求
我只想如何才能將此刻繡起
繡出一張綿綿密密的畫頁
繡進我們兩人的心中
一針有一針的悲傷 与
疼痛
Our Reunion (I)
The light is scintillating, but you and I
Are both worn-out. During this momentary gaze,
Can either of us notice the resonance of our broken hearts
For all the events that have slipped out of our hands.
For all the evenings that have gone beyond our reach.
But tonight, only the moonlight alone,
Retains its beauty just like way back then.
Neither can we retreat back to the past, nor
Can we head towards the future. My dear friend.
Despite of our lacking, we
Desire for nothing.
I want only to figure out how to sew up this instant,
And fabricate a painting with richness and intimacy.
Stitch it up into our hearts,
With each stitch of agony, and
Pain.
Language
Is language innate or learnt? This is a really interesting topic and I think a debate on it can go on forever. Personally I think language is partly innate and partly learnt, but more predominantly learnt. There are examples of people from different areas speaking another language, for example, me. I’ve been learning English for about 14 years and I do think i can speak and write in English reasonably well. And I also have friends who aren’t Chinese but speak and write perfect Chinese, probably even better than I do. These examples have deeply rooted the thought that language is predominantly learnt into my mind. Although I also believe that there are genes which affect our abilities of learning particular languages from our ancestors and parents, the genes are not as significant comparing to our motivation or dedication to learn different languages.
Another thing I learnt in TOK was the power of language. I have never noticed the association of words such as ‘blacklist’, ‘blackmail’ with the colour ‘black’. When Mr. Saha brought it up in our TOK lessons, I felt that this association is quite wrong and unfair to the colour black, but everyone has kind of accepted it. When we think of ‘black’, we often associate it with bad, evil and unpleasant things, but why should it be the way we think?Why should we accept this definition without questioning it? Why can’t other colours such as ‘white’ or ‘blue’ be associated with those negative things instead of ‘black’?
Sense perception
‘All your senses might not be real’, that was what i learnt in TOK. But i was not surprised at all because our brains produce all the senses. Our sense organs are simply detectors that helped transporting signals to our brains. And it’s normal for some people to have brains that function slightly different in which case they might be colourblind. It’s the same with other senses such as smelling and hearing.
So what can we rely on if our senses are not reliable? ‘Nothing’, that’s true indeed. What would you do if the rest of the world tell you that apple is blue while you see red apple? Would apple then be red or blue? Would you insist that apple is red? Or does it matter? To you, the apple is red and to the rest, the apple is blue.
Simple as that
As I’ve mentioned in my first post, there’s a possibility that our reality is created by a computer and none of us is real. The idea is presented in the film ‘The Matrix’. If the things we can see, feel and touch are not real, what’s the point of living? One can get too obsessed with this idea and eventually lose the motivation to live. So i think it’s absolutely crucial not to get too deep into this matter.
My TOK song
Damien Rice – Older Chest
“Older Chests”
Older chests reveal themselves
Like a crack in a wall
Starting small, and grow in time
And we always seem to need the help
Of someone else
To mend that shelf
Too many books
Read me your favourite line
Papa went to other lands
And he found someone who understands
The ticking, and the western man’s need to cry
He came back the other day, you know
Some things in life may change
And some things
They stay the same
Like time, there’s always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I’ll be fine
Just give me time
Older gents sit on the fence
With their cap in hand
Looking grand
They watch their city change
Children scream, or so it seems,
Louder than before
Out of doors, and into stores with bigger names
Mama tried to wash their faces
But these kids they lost their graces
And daddy lost at the races too many times
She broke down the other day, yeah you know
Some things in life may change
But some things they stay the same
Like time, there’s always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I’ll be fine
Just give me time
Time, there’s always time
On my mind
Pass me by, I’ll be fine
Just give me time
Time is a really important aspect in our pursue of knowledge. Our knowledge is limited because of the limited time we have but it is also this limitation which allows us to cherish and appreciate knowledge. Although the idea of time and the opinion of Damien Rice expressed in this song have very little to do with knowledge, I think the passing of time can already be a TOK topics
I think time is closely related to perception and i truly believe that different people would have different perceptions of time. Even though we created units for time such as seconds, minutes or hours, there’s more about time.
Think about it, given that a normal 2-period lesson would take 1 hour and 15 minutes. The 1 hour and 15 minutes in chemistry,English or maths would pass quicker than the 1 hour and 15 minutes of Mandarin but only through my own perception of time. And you would feel time is passing much quicker if you’re having a good time and the opposite if you’re having a terrible time.
Time is precious because it is limited and it motivates us to achieve something in our lives in the limited time we have. If you knew you had unlimited time to achieve your dream e.g. famous football player, musician and so on, would you still practice everyday in order to accomplish what you want ?
Time is also cruel because it is limited and no matter how hard you try, there is no way you can defeat time. ‘Time is contagious, everybody’s growing old’ (lyrics of Coconut skins by Damian Rice). Sometimes you wish you can have limited time but you just can’t. We are all going to get old one day. But again, it reminds us to seize the day, and try not to have any regret when we look back into our lives before we die.
my first impression of TOK
i’ve finally successfully created my wordpress blog which took me a long time. To be honest i don’t really have an opinion on TOK at the moment. But i kinda like the idea of exploring the concept of knowledge because after all, how do we know what’s true and what’s not. Life could be just a programme of computers as depicted in ‘The Matrix’. Who knows.
TIOnyKB 