2015: 365Unfiltered - Dust to Dust

Faith and Fear

Venture forth into the unknown. 

Embrace that which is unseen. 

For our time here is short. 

Mankind is but ash to ash, dust to dust.

The streets are ash to ash and rust to rust

2015: 365 Unfiltered - Gulliver

Castle in the Sky

How weary the climb we all must make. 

How lonely the trek we all must take. 

Till we each reach Laputa up high. 

Our very own castle in the sky.

Forever keep climbing...

2015: 365 Unfiltered - Heart on a Sleeve

Traveler on Hard Road

Follow me –

Until we find,

The world as we want it to be –

Somewhere beyond a rainbow,

Where worries and cares –

Disappear.

A world where stars and skies collide.

Where heartbeats and dreams live.

Forever –

Crystallized.

A wise man once said, "Creativity is Intelligence having fun." 

I've realized that it's easy to be creative when you are having fun. It's a wonderful feeling. I'd like to ride this train till the end of line. I would love if you would travel this road with me.

2015: 365 Unfiltered - Atlas

On the Shoulder of Giants

A glorious burden

It sometimes seems that as a society, we are enamoured with the myth if you want to call it that, the archetype, if you will, of the entrepreneur. That myth often has a very singular form. The sole entrepreneur against the world; the start up created in a basement or garage. Think of Facebook, Snapchat, Google and how they started, or at least, how we are told they started.

2015: 365 Unfiltered - The Reality of Being

Nomenclature

What are we? Who are you? Who am I?

Most often, the answer to that question will begin with a name. When someone says “tell me about yourself”, we often start with our name. It seems trite to say, but it ought to be said: there’s power in names. The need to have the ability to self-identify is a powerful driving force for all of us. Take away a person’s name or their ability to choose/keep their name and you erase them. If you tell someone everything about who you are without ever telling them your name, that disclosure often feels incomplete, devoid of intimacy, sterile, barren.

Despite the power in names, it’s ironic that for most people, we never get to choose our names. Our names are given to us, assigned, and the most that happens for some of us, if we even consciously think of it, is that we come to make peace with the names we were given. We come to accept them as a part of us even though we never asked for it, like a birth mark you can’t be rid of, even if you wanted to. Ask yourself: if you could change your name, would you? What would you call yourself if you were given that choice?

The ability to decide our own names is one of the fundamental things that makes us different from all other creatures.  That sense of personal freedom to chart our own course begins with this. To know our names, the names we have chosen for ourselves, whether as an affirmative act or by accepting the names we were given, is  to begin to know who we are. 

But names are not static, they are dynamic, fluid, they exist in a state of ebb and flow. The name you identified with yesterday may change, you may see yourself as someone different, better, but always, it comes down to choice. Did you choose that name? Is it yours?

We may have multiple identities, fluid and interweaving. We may be called something different by our parents, friends, enemies and everyone in between. We may have different online identities, but each name is no less real. In a sense, the name itself is the least important element of a confluence of abstractions and existential quandaries (who am I? What does my name represent?), but as long as you in some way chose that name for yourself, that is sufficient. In the moment, you are secure, your existential dilemma is resolved because it was a conscious decision, either to take that name or to keep the one you were given.

All the different names we have: our ‘real’ names, our online names, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter handles, that combination of names is a mosaic of who we are. Each one is an important element of what makes us ‘us’. We all need to be able to affirmatively embrace our names. We have the power, if our names cause us grief, or anguish or pain to create new identities for ourselves, to create new beings.

But with the great power to create ourselves through nomenclature, comes the great responsibility to respect the choices of others in how they choose to be named. Respect who they are and they reciprocate. If we were all happy in our names and we respected the choices of others, maybe then we can begin to be happy in ourselves.

There’s power in pseudonyms. They are often just as real as our true names, but there’s something powerful too, about shedding anonymity (or the facsimile of anonymity) and stepping out into the disinfectant glare of the sun.

Who am I?

My name is Andrew Arthur Juldeh Kaikai. I'm just me.

Can you feel the sun washing over me?
Can you see the sun watching over me?

Deluxe

No strings

The only thing that motivates me is the desire to share a bit of myself with the  world. So, I have and I will continue to do so. At the link below is a collection of every bit of poetry I have ever written, and a bit of prose to liven it up. It may not be the greatest thing the world has ever seen, but it doesn't have to be. I'm satisfied that it's the best thing I have done.

Technicolor Dreams (2014 Deluxe Edition)

I hope you enjoy.

They remain forever yours,

Lloyd Webber

Houdini

Nocturna

Find me in the dead of night, 

knock on the door. 

I’ll say, you were right. 

I wish I had never lied. 

I wish I had surrendered to light

Are you there? I wish you would remain

Out of my mind and just out of sight.

Love, out of reach

Synchronicity

Crystallized

Amid frozen dreams and falling skies,

A rush of blood flows to the heart - 

Till its walls fall – leaving us alone.

Follow me –

Your heart beats like mine.

Synchronous.

Around us lies a world,

Loud and incoherent –

With its clinging and clanging,

Drowned out by hearts

Beating as one.

Free from the chains

Of this world and its ties –

That bind.

Follow me –

Until we find,

The world as we want it to be –

Somewhere beyond a rainbow,

Where worries and cares –

Disappear.

A world where stars and skies collide

Where heartbeats and dreams live.

Forever –

Crystallized

Heartbeat as one

Once Upon a Dream

ICARUS

A Man did Fly

Oceans pull us down.
If we fall in love with the sun - 
We fall from the sky.
But - in these dark days,
There is nothing left to learn
Except how to fly.
So - teach me to fly, 
Or cushion my fall below - 
To hell’s dark fire.

Writer's Note
I've never understood the Myth of Icarus, or maybe as a young boy, reading the story of Icarus and Daedarus, I took the wrong lesson from it. 

Yes, Icarus flew too close to the sun, but briefly, if only for a short while, he flew higher than any man had ever flown before. He lived more in those few seconds than if he had lived a thousand more years.

Yes, Icarus flew too close to the sun, but he still flew.

What Dreams are Made of

The Mythology of Creation and the Creation of Mythology

“The Mythology of Creation and The Creation of Mythology: The very act of creation (and is that not what myth making is), is a shared act. When I write "the sky is blue", there is a world of meaning behind it, but more importantly, there is a world of meaning still to be created by those that read such simple words”

All dream...but not equally

There is a strong connection between dreams, storytelling and myths. If myths and the making of myths (and is that not what storytelling is?) are a way for humanity to resolve its existential dilemmas, dreams (unconscious mythmaking) could be said to serve the same purpose. We make meaning of our world by the mythmaking process. In dreams, as in storytelling, we make meaning not just of the world, but of ourselves.