Falling water

I’m aware that coherency isn't really my greatest virtue as a writer but even with that remark being made the following text is remarkably random. Feel free to grow tired with this rambling.

I’m completely obsessed with waterfalls. Yes, waterfalls. I love them. They’re beautiful, mystical and wondrous to behold. They remain in the same place for ages and yet live in constant movement. The sound of falling water is as enchanting as are the foam and wavelets in the pool below. I regret to say I've only seen some small waterfalls and I guess they've been more like high rapids than actual falls. I’d love to go to Iceland, Italy or New Zealand (among dozen other places); as far as I know they've got wonderful falls there and at the moment my travel fever is practically impossible to handle. I should never type words such as 'Most beautiful waterfalls' in Google search box. Never.

As I've written several times more than actually would be necessary I love nature. I’m especially fond of water – I don’t fully understand why but that’s the way it’s always been. I adore lakes, rivers, fountains, brooks, seas, everything. There is something so deeply soothing about water that both seeing it and touching it seems to have a healing effect. One of my favourite things to do in summer is to go for a late night swim (in Finnish we have specific compound word for ‘swimming in the moonlight’, I guess that says something about us) in a lake located in some quiet woodland area. It’s unbelievably relaxing to float and look at the darkening sky, to feel the mist slowly rising from the water around you and to hear the voices of the night birds and the water itself. Those moments are, in my opinion, as close to magic as a simple human child can get.

As a suitably labyrinthine conclusion to the equally labyrinthine text I could say that to me water stands for harmony and healing whereas waterfalls stand furthermore for utmost beauty if not sacredness.

Evanescence

Sometimes I’m just so sick of them. Computers. Phones. Technology in general. A coffee machine I can manage. Today my flash drive (or computer; my anger grows just because I don’t even know which device I’m supposed to be blaming for this shit) let me down in a way most unforgivable. I tried to re-send an essay (a fascinating one, it is the one I wrote about Tolkien’s poems) to my teacher since he wasn’t able to open the file I had sent him earlier but all of a sudden I noticed that the entire folder had disappeared. In that folder were all my literature essays, notes, presentations, everything.

I reckon it’s unnecessary to explicate the next step but in favour of the reader’s convenience I’ll do it nevertheless. I’ll move out of this God-forsaken sorry excuse for a city (that I called nice in my previous post; I do realise I’m slightly agitated at the moment) and find my dwelling in some distant, deserted area far away in the woods. I’d go to our summer cottage but oh, right, we don’t have it anymore thanks to  Thor god of Thunder. In fact life as a woodland loner has always been a dream of mine so saying any of this isn’t actually surprising. I’d live in a small hut or a cottage (or a treehouse, even better) deep in the woods or by a lake, I’d have plenty of books but apart from that very little belongings. There I’d dwell in unbroken serenity and grow old with the trees.

I may not be the brightes light in the harbour (at least when it comes to intelligence measured with mathematics) but I still realise this isn’t really a plan most likely to be put into practice. Hence I think I’ll just go and play with the only reliable device within these squares, that being the Moccamaster. Perhaps I’ll find comfort in caffeine.

Saint Valentine's Day Special

(The slight touch of irony in the headline is intended. The rest of the text is supposed to be sincere.)

Since I have a severe intolerance of all things pink and fluffy I’m probably the last person to write about Saint Valentine’s Day except when it comes to fun facts (such as there are quite a few Valentine-named saints the Catholic church has recognized and most of them were brutally martyred). However, in order to escape all the illusion-oriented, naïve, pretentious propaganda-in-pink I decided to take a moment to reflect on things that genuinely are important to me.

1. J.R.R. Tolkien. You know why.

2. Nature

I’m not saying I don’t like the city I currently live in. It’s nice and compact, neither too big nor too small. The lakes and parks are beautiful and I like the atmosphere in general. This is a nice city but it is a city nevertheless. Every time I go to the countryside after spending a long time here I feel like I've been holding my breath for weeks and finally get some air when I step out of the car. I need nature; it is as simple as that.

3. Animals.

I love all kinds of animals but especially horses and cats are very close to my heart. I took riding lessons and helped to take care of horses for seven years but then school started to take too much time and I had to quit. I didn't do that lightly and I still miss horses very much (especially the one in the picture – I took care of him weekly for several years but he was put down in 2012). I believe that having a hobby that so essentially includes working with animals is an engagement and deserves both time and effort – therefore I don’t want to start riding again quite yet.

Picture by Noora

This fabulous creature is our cat. He lives with my parents

which is good since I don't believe he'd like it in a city any more than I.

4. Night walks

This is, once again, one thing I most definitely do not enjoy doing in the city and I think it is understandable. On the countryside it is one of my favourite things to do no matter whether it is winter or summer. I love the light summer nights and the dark starry winter sky equally much and I enjoy long walks across fields and forests. Cheesy? Absolutely, but I don’t even care. Besides, it is Valentine’s Day and I’m entitled to be just as cheesy as I please.

5. Music

I don’t know anything about music, anything at all. All I know is that I enjoy it, especially instrumental, slightly folk or new age style music. I’m very fond of Scottish and Irish music but generally my taste varies a lot. Lately I've been listening a lot to this wonderful song by Secret Garden, I find it simply enchanting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7p6N_5Lcbw

6. Scotland

Does this one require an explanation? Didn't think so. Should one grow roots in a foreign land it is not likely to happen in one summer – and yet it did.

Ballater

Stonehaven

7. Writing

Everything I've got to say about this one sounds ridiculous and hence I suppose it’s better to remain silent.

Reunion

’What on Earth was I thinking? Probably nothing and that’s the problem.’ That’s what I was thinking in September just before my first philosophy class. In fact that thought still crosses my mind every once in a while – not just in those surreal moments when I’m sitting in a classroom staring at a blank piece of paper not being able to organize my thoughts. I fell in love with philosophy in high school and last autumn I finally had the courage to take my first uni courses. I'm glad to say our reunion was more than happy. As bizarre as the lectures can be I still think attending them is one of the best decisions I've ever made (not that there are many).

I don’t quite understand why I’m so drawn to things that, as fascinating as they are, can’t possibly help me to get a job in the future. This far I've had courses in Finnish, literature, phonetics, linguistics, theater and drama studies and now philosophy. Perhaps I’m choosing all these wonderful-and-yet-useless (sorry for the rather harsh choice of words) courses on purpose in order to avoid becoming a decent tax-payer in the future. Perhaps I just love studying so much that it’s all I want to do in my life.

I’m not going to feel bad about adding to my schedule another subject that might prove to be not-so-hot-stuff in the labor market. The course grades in my diploma may be useless but learning itself never is. Learning philosophy is as fun as it is partially because it lacks the pressure that always comes with things that are supposed to be beneficial in some way (meaning I’m taking the courses as optional studies). Learning philosophy once again reminds me that studying is a privilege, not something done of necessity. That’s what university should be all about.

P.S. To be honest I'm not quite sure I'm actually learning philosophy – most likely I'm even more confused than I was before I started. Be that as it may, I'm still enjoying it and I like to think that's the very point.