It's Nice talking

If there is one lesson life pressed into me early, it is this:  we arrive with hands already closed. If you think I stand without another path, look closer. I have been gathering quietly, piece by piece, thread by thread. The stillness is not peace. It is time disguised, the careful shaping of defenses. You may trust in your mastery of the game, but I have been moving long before the board was set, winning in places you never thought to look. Because when the hour reveals itself, I will not wait to be saved. I have always known I am the only one who can. I am ready to burn in the game I choose to play.  If there is a cost, I have counted it. If there is an end, I have faced it. What rises from it will still be mine. So stand firm in what have stirred. Even silence can become something that burns.

I'm quite lucky to come across art exhibitions whenever I travel.  When we were in Fukuoka in 2023, an exhibit was featured at the Fukuoka Art Museum. They encouraged people to write or draw anything related to the sea. So, I wrote a poem called "I am scared of the sea."  During a recent trip to Taiwan with my family, we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. It was around 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and I could already feel the exhaustion from all the walking we had done. I got curious about a building a few meters away from the memorial hall itself and asked my niece if she wanted to check out what was inside. It was Taipei's National Theater, and inside was an exhibition called "A Love Letter to Myself." Sure, I have written hundreds of letters to many people, and yet I've never really written one to myself. There, I wrote a love letter to myself. And for a moment, I was just there, thinking about what I wanted to tell myself, things that...