Blessing Around

Alchemy, the ancient mystical art where common substances are transmuted into precious minerals. At least, that's how I first learnt about it, from the books I read in primary school. Alchemy was this pseudoscience, where one could start with a worthless piece of coal, and end up with an ingot of gold. I can't go any further on this topic, without mentioning one of the greatest pieces of fiction, that I've come across. Full Metal Alchemist, a story where two brothers Edward and Alphonse, learn how to do alchemy, and live with the consequences of their actions. Within this mythos, there is a law termed, the law of equivalent exchange.  The law states, "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange". Philosophically this way of looking at alchemy, really does ground the art into everyday life. Although there are exceptions t...

I'm writing this piece after an reflecting on an interaction I had with a friend. He had done away with a vice for quite a number of weeks. Then after a sequence of frustrating events on a Friday. He picked up the vice again. Bewildered didn't even begin to capture what I felt in the moment, when I found out. He was doing so well. Now we had gone back to square one.  The situation was an unpleasant reminder of human weakness. Surely, we all have vices that we struggle with. Habits and tendencies we are not proud of. We all just crumble in different ways and in different circumstances. Taking a leaf from material science, carbon exists in two forms. What we know as diamonds and graphite. Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring substance on Earth, and they cannot conduct electricity at all. On the other hand, graphite is soft and an excellent conductor. Both are made of the same carbon atoms, just arranged differently. As a result of that, their physical properti...