Wordplay: The Reading Spot

"The trouble is that you think you have time." - Jack Kornfield It was at the age of three that Thomas Gray first said the word "happy". A few months later, he discovered what the word meant. But he was six when he first discovered what "joy" meant; the sun shining brightly in the sky, snowballs flying in his direction, a warm smile plastered across his face. He remembers vividly, to this day, how his mother taught him to make snow angels, and how his father helped him onto his feet, every time he fell into the snow. He didn't remember much else, but he knew that joy was that warm giddiness that he felt in his tummy, that stayed unfazed in spite of the cold winter winds.  He felt happy an ample amount of times after that winter, but he never really felt joy. Thomas Gray was not always a man buried under a pile of work. In his young years, he was full of dreams and aspirations, and even the sky wasn't the limit. He had a list of things he wanted to ...

S.O.S. *** Claire is seated outside the manager's room, flipping through the pages of 'The Daily Affairs'. She's already read the day's edition, but having nothing particularly better to do, she decided to give it a re-read. She's not much of a 'politics' enthusiast, nor is she into 'sports'. The national and international affairs are the only sections that catch her eye. Now, the newspaper isn't a 'happy' read, so Claire wasn't expecting it to be all rainbows or sunshine. Still, she felt the shivers caress her as she read the increasing number of med. student suicides; most of them occuring due to research failures. She has always considered herself to be among the lucky ones, since she, once upon a time, wished to enter the research field herself. Luckily, just one month into it, she'd decided it was too much, and too unbalanced, for her liking. Thus, each new 'research failure' added more fear into her mind, because...

"Never question the relevance of truth, but always question the truth of relevance." - Craig Bruce *** Disclaimer - What you're about to read consists of mainly my opinion, and I urge you to not assume that this is the absolute truth. This is just my take on the subject, and you are advised to give it a read, and then a thought. An unbiased, open-minded thought. So, don't blindly believe in the contents of this post, and don't outrightly dismiss them either. *** Have you ever asked yourself, "What would happen to the world if I died right this second?" For starters, your family would be devastated, and overcome with grief. Then your friends, boss, colleagues, neighbours, regular passers-by, relatives, etc. would all become aware of your absence, and your life would be concluded with a short send-off, also known as a funeral. While the immediate impact of your passing on loved ones is undeniable, let's delve deeper into a more profound inquiry: ...