Hmm.

There's one line in Naruto that always keeps me going back to the series despite the slow uploads of (free) episodes online. It's the saying that if you think about someone who is away hard enough, the person will return to you.

It was never meant to be corny; as cliched as it sounds. The idea takes the same existentialist concerns as the story about the tree and transmutes it into a medium that is easier to digest; visuals and life scenarios. In case you didn't know, the story about the tree is simple-- a tree falls in a forest, but no one hears a sound. Has the tree fallen? Likewise, ones existence is thus similarly verified only by another's confirmation; the easiest of which lies in our cognitive memory.

Is it logical that once you stop thinking about someone, the person's existence is nullified? Scientifically, it's bullshit. George Bush exists (the fucker) whether or not we think of him, whether the tabloids keep up their daily rampage and paparazzi snap pictures of him eternally falling off his walker. Everyday, he goes about eating breakfast, mulling over his time at the white house and praying Obama screws up a foreign policy so he can share his burden of being one of America's worst presidents with someone else other than Warren Harding. That shows, obviously, that no amount of black thoughts from the Iranian troops is going to render George Bush dead tomorrow morning, and that people exist despite you thinking extra hard about doing away with them.

However, thinking about someone is a constant reminder of the person and several attributes you want to commit to memory, and while the act of thinking about someone is probably not going to bring any dead people to life at the moment, it is a powerful way of reinforcing ties and bonds that need some strengthening. This is because our body functions in a complex series of events, and thinking about someone is more likely to trigger a follow-up action that reinforces what thoughts and feelings are kindled in association with the memory. For example, I would be more inclined to give my mother a call if I look at a parent across the street and think "Hey, I miss my mom" in comparison to the times when I don't think of her. The thought subject is my mother, the stimulus being a parent in real life, and in engaging in such a thought feelings of nostalgia and fondness are kindled which results in a strong primary emotion; loneliness, that results in an action to deal with the emotion-- calling my mother.

I was pleasantly surprised when Val messaged me today; I thought she would have forgotten all about me, or at least not bothered. It's now near 2 months to my departure where a new phase of life would begin in London. And while I do hope that people here will continue to think of me, I should do my part and not forget the people who have made my life a little more special in their own unique ways; because time (and place) is not an excuse while i have a living, breathing memory that easily surpasses the abilities of man-made computers.