Frankly Put: A Reflection on “Still”
Just a question, do you know what it is like to stand still in the middle of a busy street in the CBD at the peak of rush hour? To be surrounded by bodies, noises and sensations running about and whizzing past you.
I think that is a reflection of life. There are days when everything feels like it is whizzing by and nothing seems to stop long enough for you to catch a breath. If you happen to come from a city, one much like Nairobi, that is the general experience every day. I also think it is human to want to be still, once in a while, hence “vacations”.
What is to be “still” though? What’s it to you to be still that makes your body and entire self crave to be it? “Still” is just one of those words that fascinate me as someone who takes great note of words for fun. To be still… could be static. To be still… could be persisting. To be still… could be frozen.
The saying still waters run deep has always found itself directed as some opinion on me and I can only faintly smile at it. Recently, I’ve been digging through it, if only to play along with the tag. Walk with me through this train of thought.
Still water is clear. At least it should be, given that the lack of turbulence allows for any impurities to sink to the bottom of whatever container this water sits in. The terrifying truth to this is that the clarity of the water can also be the fear factor to it. The deeper the still water runs, the less likely you are to find the bottom of that water even if you were to dive into it, regardless of how clear the water is.
In its depth, still water hosts darkness because there is a point where even light does not dip its toes. Much like the water, we host many a poetic idea of things that are “deep”. One can love deeply. One can think deeply. One can speak to our soul and we call that “deep”. Art can be deep.
However, art’s depth is only as deep as you are willing to swim. If I was to shed some light to this, say there exists a song. The writer, a poet in their right (hehe write… get it? Anyway…) puts together all these flowery words to explain mmmh I don’t know… the taste of an apple and in its literal state, it means something. We will blast it on whatever platform during enjoyment.
In its “deeper” meaning, there will be those who pull away from the crowd, those who pull out their headphones and put the song on loudly because it speaks to them on a level deeper than the taste, deeper than the apple itself. The lyrics seem to manifest themselves in whatever shape their soul wishes to personify them into and they cry bitterly listening to what might just be a run of the mill pop song about nothing.
The awesome thing about this is that those realities can exist simultaneously. Two people sitting side by side. Taking in the same song in two completely different wavelengths. It is also scary that those two perspectives can be breeding grounds for misunderstanding. Nevertheless, I draw parallels now.
“Still” could be something that enjoys the same realities. It is something of a common occurrence in my course (that runs more than the common four years) to be responded to with a “still?” when one says they are still in school. After all, it is a time-intensive course and heck, even in the length of time one is in school, it is still demanding of the time that is within the confines of the start and end of academic years.
If it isn’t something you can relate to, perhaps you could replace the course with work, a hobby, a life situation or whatever. I can’t help but sometimes see in that response, some form of being frozen in time. Like you are static. Stuck in that point they seemed to find you in, move with you and leave you in.
It’s coincidental that I was listening to the Lemme Land Podcast ( yes, I will shout out the boys again, sue me) and in their most recent episode — as per this post — the guest, RAM speaks to how you can tell what point someone comes into your life by the name they call you. I nodded very vigorously at it, thinking of the many nicknames I go by for every part of my life.
In some ways, those nicknames have been frozen in time and even though I grow to be different than I was at the time of their inception, to those people I am still <insert nickname here>. Beautiful isn’t it? It gives some comfort to see how we mould images that life allows us to paint over and over but the image can still be found for those who see it before the reinvention. There is peace to it. Peace? Stillness. Mh segue!
“Still” could also be a state of peace. We do in fact look for that in the “still” we seek. Peace of mind. Peace of body. Peace of soul. It’s odd that not too long from when I am writing this, I had come across a post that talked about love as that “still”. How when a man is in love, it feels like stillness.
It is true, that there is a calmness that washes over a man in love that points all signs to tell him… “that one”. A peace of mind that stands the test of petty arguments and peeves. A peace of mind that permeates into his purpose and allows the man to naturally fall into oneness with that person he “loves”.
Still, (ha!) the world around him feels like it is moving at one thousand lightyears per second. I think it explains the loneliness that some men try to cover up with their careers, with their purpose, with drugs and vices. If ever there is something to imitate even a fraction of the power of that stillness… he will seek it out.
Anyway, what was I saying? Ah yes, “still”! I say all this to say, I think “still” is a cool word… to put it Frankly.
