Creating My Happiness

Tabularasa or blank slate, that's how most of us enter this world. Interplay with life adds layers to lives. In short, my life is like those of others. Yet, I take inspiration from the most unusual source; the scissors!

This implement is an example by itself. In modern English, it's a "plurale tantum," or a word that has a plural form while representing a singular object.

I create happiness by living in the best way I can. This includes scissoring ahead one blade at a time; through art, through craft, and through life.

Sharp! Cutting! Diminishing! Minimizing! Subtracting! These words feel like opening a wound, and are used in somewhat unhappy and incompatible contexts.

Truth often lies in contradictions. Life themes unravel, much like a thread from a spool. I use scissors to cut me out of the mental box of thought.

With a fresh perspective, the first thing I discover is a cover-up. It begins at birth with the word pain.

Entity, Identity, Me.

To cut...

The infinitive associated with this tool conjures a negative thought. Yet, it is with the umbilical snip that individuals emerge. Sometimes, excess joy anesthetizes pain, and truncation is a celebration.

Welcome to the world!

Take the case of the great emperor Julius Caesar. Many believe he was the first one to be born via C-section. However, historians believe scissors have rescued many mothers and children from dying before 1500 in probability through this procedure. While Julius Caesar gets the credit, it's worth noting his name comes from the Latin word, "caedare," which means "to cut."

If you want to learn life's lessons, let scissors be the teacher.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors," an early exercise in fair play begins with these three items. The same scissors increase creativity with every snip it makes. Preschool crafts segue to classroom subjects. "The whole is made up of parts," idea is reinforced with snipping. This covers the math lessons on fractions and life lessons on sharing.

Snip, snap! Snip, snap!

Unwanted growths and warts all gone. The blades work as one fashions and refashions self. From cajoling crying toddlers in hair salons to jaded adults needing a makeover, this tool performs duty like a stoic.

In the kitchen cutting herbs, in the garden cutting food, scissors aid in satisfying hunger. From farm to table, the role of scissors is often forgotten.

"Clothes Make a Man", "Fine Feathers make Fine Birds."

Life often highlights the superficial. It takes effort to refocus on other players.

"Snip-snap!" This is what I hear before the machine runs neats threads to clothe the wearer. Cut the shape, snap the threads, trim to fit, scissors also helps make the man, woman, or child.

Did I just hear someone say scissors shred to destroy?

I disagree this is true in all cases. Sometimes one must shred to make whole. While building a home, sharp blades have come into good use in almost any part of the exercise.

Food, clothing, shelter; three things needed for me to survive are ably aided by the scissors.

"Divisive..why would someone say that?"

Remember, childhood skins and scrapes, bandages and stitches? The scissors held together creatures and things through a lifetime....only by division!

Scissors are ubiquitous and representational. Even in the virtual field, the scissors tool trims to conquer.

We could do all with some trimming now and then. After all, decrement and increment are two sides of a coin. Cutting toxicity in self and cutting out negative influences are ways to take out mind's gangrene. An imaginary pair of scissors helps augment positivity. Words can be toxic, a mental pair of scissors can truly edit out unpleasantness and augment a positive mood.

In this light, I must revisit the coin stance. Are there really two sides?

The path of life is not straight. Those mental scissors are useful to temper joys, sorrows, and bonds. A true Yogi does the duty without expectation and drama. Taking deep breaths with regulated inhalation and exhalation, the blades of the scissors go snipping and snapping. The scrapbook of life is made of vignettes thoughtfully shaped, culled, and worked on by scissors.

Verily, this is one of the survival tools in the Army Life knife, but its job never ends.

Here's my plea to the scissors before I reach the final point.

"Please lay upon my body some fresh cut flowers. Replace decay with fragrance, freshness, and hope. Cut the inauguration ribbon to set me free on my new journey. I curtsy in advance to your final courtesy."

No matter what people think, scissors never judge. This tool will in perpetuity, sever only to serve.

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