break this code

The moment you read the title of this post, your attention was probably instantly (though not permanently) caught, quicker than I could count 3, 2, 1. How I found that method of 'capturing' your gaze isn't a secret though - everyone naturally enjoys noticing and deciphering codes. In fact, this is turning out to be quite fun for me to write too, although it's taking up quite a bit of my night. Regardless, my message is that noticing patterns and codes is something inherent for all of us, something really quite natural. Deceptively so, because this tendency isn't one many admit, or even realise. Why am I trying to make this point? (Only when placed in a situation such as this would you be inclined to challenge this thought!) Realistically speaking, it explains a lot about ourselves, and even the world in which we live. Don't think there is any exception when it comes to you too - I'm sure you're already reading this post looking out for clues all over! (On hindsight, perhaps I underestimated how difficult this post would be to write - I spent the last 1 hour between the last sentence and this one - this will not do!) For starters, we humans are hopelessly obsessed with puzzles of all sorts; rubic's cubes, jigsaw puzzles, and even the recent worldwide popularity of sudoku, a number game, is certain proof! Should you find a single newspaper (or even a newsletter) without a crossword or some kind of puzzle on it, would you hesitate at all to inform the local authorities? Everyone uses "codes" or puzzles to attract/lure people (Solve our word puzzle and win a luxurious trip for two to Fiji!); even Survivor and The Amazing Race (reality TV shows) each incorporate many puzzles into their programme. Not only in games or TV can this tendency be seen, however - we humans also love a good mystery, cos it implies a code within that needs to be broken! Typical human nature loves narratives laced with hidden plots/clues, and our minds will unrelentlessly analyse and try to decipher the 'code', down to the very last sentence or act. Even conspiracies (because of their very definition) imply some kind of 'secret planning', and we humans can't get enough of these. Not many a book has stirred up as much controversy as the Da Vinci Code has recently, with its claims to solving the age old mystery of the divinity of Jesus (the whole gospel code thing), and whether he was truly God or just an ordinary man. "Christ the creator" or "Christ the mere human" spells out an important question, to be sure, but another issue surfaces: what happens when we humans read into (or out of) stories/events meaning that wasn't there in the first place - would that not be tragic? Even so, planned codes in puzzles or hidden mysteries in narratives are facinating, along with the sheer excitement of working them out and solving them; it seems like for such things we humans were made. Stepping further, so much of life is a mystery, but perhaps our recognising it as such suggests that it is a puzzle we have the capacity to solve, although not without our efforts.


----- Ting MD----
I got this from my friend's blog. He actually took the time to make this up!