First of all, published poet and contributor Tao Yucheng is still hosting a poetry contest, open to all readers of Synchronized Chaos Magazine.

Synchronized Chaos Poetry Contest: We seek short, powerful, imaginative, and strange poetry. While we welcome all forms of free verse and subject matter, we prefer concise work that makes an impact.

Guidelines: Submit up to five poems per person to taoyucheng921129@proton.me. Each poem should not exceed one page (ideally half a page or less). All styles and themes welcome. Deadline for submissions will be in early March.

Prizes: First Place: $50 Second Place: $10, payable via online transfer. One Honorable Mention. Selected finalists will be published in Synchronized Chaos Magazine.

Next, poet Yucheng Tao’s new chapbook, The Mirror Image of Death, has just been released from Alien Buddha Press! People can order it here.

J.J. Campbell’s new book To Live Your Dreams is also out and available to order here.

Welcome to this month’s issue, Paying Attention.

Across poetry, fiction, essays, memoir, and scholarship, this issue asks what it means to live attentively: to create honestly, remember faithfully, love fully, and choose responsibility in an impermanent world.

Jacques Fleury honors the many contributions of Black Americans to society and argues that the United States still needs to celebrate Black History Month due to their lack of knowledge of essential history and context.

Sayani Mukherjee presents spring as both gentle and haunting, reminding us that loss and regrowth are both intimate parts of our experience. Berdirahmonova Shahlo Sherzod qizi expresses poignant longing for the return of joy and love in the spring. O’giloy Kucharova celebrates the social and natural renewal of spring as Christina Chin’s haikus evoke winter’s precarity and solitude. Brian Barbeito’s work dissolves boundaries and outlines in the dark of night and the way the rain falls everywhere, inspiring an open, receptive state of mind. His next piece evokes a chilly and aesthetically under-defined winter day.

Ma Yongbo’s wintry and tough-minded poetic cycle poses the question of what it means to keep creating when permanence and perfection may be impossible. Lan Xin’s pieces honor restraint, the diversity of life, and working with the natural rhythm of life’s seasons. Mykyta Ryzhykh calls attention to how both death and rebirth in nature bring us out of our ponderings and back to the present moment. Sterling Warner draws upon fresh and salt water and psychological and physical weather Linette Rabsatt’s poems take joy in letting go of the conscious mind and listening to the natural world as a source of inspiration. Joseph Ogbonna meditates on the stillness and inspiration of an early dawn. Gezim Basha, in work translated by Marjeta Rrapaj, celebrates tender love and living an authentic life. Yo’ldosheva Zinnura writes of the need to care for and consider our impact on the environment and climate.

Mehreen Ahmed’s work explores art, creativity, complicity, and displacement. Alan Catlin’s ekphrastic poetry crafts scenes of still life interrupted by violence and chaos. Bill Tope’s short story critiques immigration enforcement violence in the United States through the terror of one wrongly targeted victim. Kelly Moyer’s absurdist, provocative video speaks to the same topic as Leticia Garcia Bradford offers a local perspective and Pat Doyne brings strident satire to the issues of the day. Umid Najjari offers a poetic tribute to those who lost their lives in the Iranian revolution. Sungrue Han’s poems evoke alienation, dislocation, and collective and individual trauma. Mahbub Alam decries human greed and the destruction of other humans and the natural world and encourages care and respect. Virginia Aronson draws attention to modern crimes committed by government agents and by international criminal gangs, suggesting a comparison.

J.J. Campbell brings his signature blend of hard-earned cynicism and exhaustion. Scott C. Holstad snatches bits of sweetness and color from complex and artificial modern life. Türkan Ergör reminds us of our mortality and vulnerability to various human struggles. Like a wanderer tiptoeing through dimly lit rooms in a house, Carl Scharwath’s poetry moves from loss to relief to conscious acceptance of stillness. Allison Grayhurst’s poetic cycle sheds, releases, and re-forms visceral emotions. Dr. Prasanna Kumar Dalai’s work carries the quiet dignity of someone who feels deeply but speaks carefully.

Mesfakus Salahin’s work addresses the alchemical transformation of formless feeling into legible thought through poetry. Shakespeare Okuni’s poem highlights the role of ritual and performance in meaning-making. Alex Johnson sets out a manifesto for artistic openness and an aesthetic that welcomes diverse sources of inspiration. Stephen Jarrell Williams evokes life, innocence, joy, and energy in his restrained pieces. Rus Khomutoff’s piece is at once overabundant, technical, and tender, perhaps more intended to be entered into than understood.

Abbas Yusuf Alhassan’s ars poetica explores the various forms poetry takes in his mind and how inspiration hits him as an artist. Duane Vorhees probes desire, time, chance, and memory. Nurbek Norchayev meditates on nature, time, and the life of the soul. Michael Robinson’s essay is a lived testimony of fear, darkness, illness, strength, forgiveness, and survival. Maja Milojkovic speaks of her personal spirituality and closeness to God. Sarah Adeyemo also reaches for her faith for comfort and the strength to keep loving even through a time of desperation and grief. Patrick Sweeney’s one or two-line thoughts provoke head-scratching and evade easy answers. Texas Fontanella jumbles a variety of words and symbols into a static buzz. Grzegorz Wroblewski’s asemic pieces reflect a mind in motion, jumping and self-editing mid-thought from one idea to another.

Susie Gharib navigates the emotional landscape of power, voice, myth, and lived reality. Mark Young contributes a fresh set of altered technicolor Australian landscapes. Cristina Deptula observes and comments on Dianne Reeves Angel’s memoir of a creative life in film production, Every Restaurant Tells a Story. Federico Wardal celebrates the film legacy of Italian filmmaker Billy Wilder. Taylor Dibbert enjoys traveling despite occasional moments of personal embarrassment. Xo’jyozova Dildora looks to ecotourism as a way to sustainably strengthen local economies.

For travel in a more metaphorical sense, Abdugafforova Muslimaxon Akmalovna reviews Qobilon Shermatov’s fantastical children’s tale The Country Inside My Grandfather’s Stomach. This book addresses issues of personal character, as each person’s “interior” reflects who they are and how they behave.

Other authors look at individual and collective character and moral choice. Eva Petropoulou Lianou’s poems express her hopes for peace, understanding, compassion, and humanity. Gordana Saric echoes that hope, wishing for worldwide love, understanding, and reconciliation. Maftuna Sultonova reminds us of the infinite value and dignity of each person. Nigora Baxtiyorova analyzes infidelity as a theme in Uzbek literature. Xasanova Aziza Kumushbek qizi peers into even more Uzbek literature and finds a timeless warning about how one’s life and dignity matter even more than one’s reputation and fame. Journalist Elisa Mascia interviews Azerbaijani author Jakhongir Nomozov and he affirms the need for authors to master their craft and speak their truth regardless of passing fads or popularity. Solid work will stand the test of time.

Dr. Jernail S. Anand suggests that a complete education not only teaches technical skills but also how to be a decent human being. Kodirova Shakhzoda highlights the cultural importance of Uzbekistan’s cultural values of compassion, courtesy, respect for nature, and courage.

Dr. Barbaros İrdelmen mourns love lost to human and societal pettiness, and to death. Bill Tope and Doug Hawley co-present a tale of loss, guilt, and redemption. Mehrinoz Tursunova’s bittersweet love poem prepares for an impending separation. Eshmatova Marjona Kamol qizi outlines ways social service systems can intervene to support children from dysfunctional families. Nurboboyeva Dilshoda Nodir qizi evaluates the psychological effects of divorce on children and suggests ways to help them through the transition.

Dildoraxon Turg’unboyeva reflects on childhood memories and her love for her departed grandfather. Gulsevar Mirzamahmudova honors her hardworking migrant laborer father for his care and determination, reflecting on how she misses him.

Malohat Ahmadjonova expresses love and gratitude for the hard work and dedication of her parents, who made sure she dressed well and received an education. Mashrabxo’jayeva Feruzakhon offers gratitude for the steady love and care of her parents. Nurullayeva Nigora Nurmurod qizi’s poem expresses her love and care for her mother, who has given her so much. Ismoilova Sarvinoz reflects on how much her parents have loved her over time and how she wishes to return the favor as they age. Shafkat Aziz Hajam fondly remembers the freedom and wonder of childhood, made possible by his caring parents.

Islamova Dilnoza Khamidovna gives thanks for a caring and steady friend as Rukhshona Khamzayeva shares her gratitude for a dedicated teacher. Zarifaxon Holiboyeva reflects on missing her family and her classmates in a young student’s piece full of tender affection. Toshpulatova Mehribonu Sherbek qizi rejoices in the love of her sweet sister. Alisherova Hurmatoy reflects on the power of her lover’s kind words to calm her spirit. Graciela Noemi Villaverde draws on elegant nature-inspired imagery to express her love. Chinese academic Bai Gengsheng pays tribute to his loyal and hardworking wife, acknowledging that her steady support over many years made his accomplishments possible.

Aziza Xasanova compares waiting for the unfolding of love to allowing a fig tree to leaf out in its season. Lan Xin’s epic, mytho-romantic piece affirms the choice of embodied and temporal love over transcendence and divinity.

Ozodbek Narzullayev’s verse expresses adoration for his country as if it were his lover. Jahongirova Gulhayo Jahongirovna’s rhyming poem pays tribute to a man of deep loyalty, patriotism and integrity. Abduganiyev Shexrozbek discusses the inter-related nature of the Uzbek national concept, legal system, and spiritual values in shaping the culture.

Kudratova Nozima Bahromovna explores the narrative style of Uzbek writer To’gay Murod. Madina Jorayeva’s essay highlights the contributions of translator and critic Ozod Sharafiddinov to Uzbek and world heritage and literature. Shahnoza Ochildiyeva translates Ozod Sharafiddinov’s essay celebrating and analyzing the literary value of poet and translator Abdulhamid Sulaymon og‘li Cho‘lpon’s contributions to Uzbek literature. Nargiza Masharipova celebrates the cultural interchanges made possible by the migration of the world’s peoples. Sultonaliyeva Go’zaloy outlines some of the factors encouraging and driving migration. Ubaydullayeva Saodat celebrates the literary artistry and truth-telling of one of Uzbekistan’s greatest poets, Alexander Feinberg. Xayrullayeva Zahro suggests ways to preserve the high literary quality of the Uzbek language and not lose it to abbreviations and modernisms. Rizoqulova Parvina Ramzovna analyzes the relation between language and culture.

Munavvar Tlewbaeva speaks of the comfort she finds by reading books by authors who understand and write of her feelings. Odinaxon Qodirova highlights ways to encourage young people to read. Yusupboyeva Madina rejoices in the persistence of reading culture among young people. Turgunova Kh. suggests strategies for teachers to effectively communicate with young Generation Z students.

Karimova Navbaxar Mahmudjanovna suggests strategies for encouraging creative thinking in children. Jorabek Muhammadolimov raises awareness of how too much scrolling and flipping online can lead to difficulty concentrating. Choriyeva Oynur warns of the consequences of overuse of smartphones and the Internet. Roziboyeva Asilakhon speaks against digital surveillance and fear-driven self-censorship.

Isroilova Sarvinoz Maxmud qizi discusses how to use educational tools to teach young children mathematical concepts. Barnoxon Baxtiyorjon Yoqubova considers strategies for integrating physical play with learning arithmetic. Amirqulova Gulsevar discusses digital innovations in education. Daminova Sevinch Tuychi qizi highlights the enlightened wisdom and teaching of Uzbek children’s educator Abdulla Avloni. Lazokat Ortigaliyevna Pirmatova relates how participating in competitive mental arithmetic helped her to develop confidence and the ability to think on her feet.

Nilufar Ibroximova suggests how new Uzbek textbooks could be crafted and used to help young children develop critical thinking. Norquolova Madina highlights the value of learning a second language. Haydarova Mehribon outlines various methods for learning the Mandarin Chinese language, coupled with history and background of the tongue. Mansurova Shahnoza parses the finer points of verb conjugation in French as Xurramova Farangiz compares the process in French and Uzbek. Masharipova Sayyora compares proverbs in French and Uzbek and how they reveal cultural values. Nilufar Mo’ydinova outlines techniques for learning German through approaches from the field of translation. Najmiddinova Mekhrigul Najmiddin qizi delves into the intricacies of language translation. Abdurahimova Anora’s essay considers the impact of one’s first language on the process of learning a second language. Mengboyeva Baxtiniso Mamatqobilovna highlights the value of language teachers’ maintaining a culture of competence in spoken language.

Several contributors work and research in the language of other academic and professional disciplines. Lutfullayeva Shaxrizoda Faruxjon qizi outlines the current state of pneumonia diagnosis and treatment in young children. Mansurov Abdulaziz Abdullox ugli highlights the importance of preventive dental care in children. Fahriddin Akramov’s essay describes treatment for a variety of neurological conditions. Mamatqulova Mukarram Nuriddin qizi speaks to the life and academic stresses students endure and how to protect their mental health. Nasulloyeva Feruzabonu Akmalovna discusses the nature of scientific innovation and how to encourage it in Central Asia. Durdona Sharifovna Roziboyeva discusses the effects of the Herbst dental appliance on the upper airway.

Eshmurodova Sevinch explicates methods of improving deposit mobilization policies in commercial banks. Iroda Sobirova outlines basic principles of supply and demand in a market economy. Sobirova Iroda Abdulaziz qizi highlights strategies to foster innovative entrepreneurship. Mamadaliyeva O’giloy asserts her power and determination to become successful in academics and business.

Baxshilloyeva Nigina Bahodir qizi offers inspiration to young women seeking to live their dreams. Axmetova Dilnura Po’lat qizi outlines the historical and contemporary role of women in Central Asian societies. Sevinch Farxodova highlights the importance of gender equality and initiatives to that extent in Uzbekistan.

Shahnoza Pulatova Makhmudjanovna outlines and describes how Uzbek society is modernizing politically, economically, and socially. Dilafruz Muhammadjonova expresses fervent pride in and hope for Uzbekistan and the desire for the nation’s youth to rise up and take their place. Priyanka Neogi outlines ways to overcome depression and apathy and keep working towards one’s goals. Ziyoda Murodilova highlights the importance of internal motivation and determination for students to achieve their goals. https://synchchaos.com/essay-from-orzigul-sherova-4/Orzigul Sherova presents, in a similar vein, her secrets to success through passion and hard work.

We hope that this issue inspires you to create your place in the world with intention and joy.

Her Sister’s Funeral

On the day of her sister’s funeral, long after the service, Bailey sat in the rain while the workmen backfilled Emily’s grave. In deference to Bailey, the men said nothing. Only their shovels made whispering sounds as they moved the soil. Four dozen metal folding chairs had been set up to accommodate the mourners but they were now empty and slick and shiny with the rain. Bailey watched plumes of her frosty breath as she exhaled on the frigid February afternoon.

How could Emily have died, wondered Bailey for the hundreth time. She had been only seventeen, two years younger than Bailey, and an honors student in her high school, where she had been a senior. In just three months, Emily would have graduated and joined her sister at college. She had planned to study nursing, like Bailey.

But Bailey knew exactly how her sister had died. She had accepted a ride on the back of her mother’s boyfriend, Chris’s motorcycle. Emily was afraid of motorcycles and absolutely refused to ride them. Unlike Bailey, Emily was rather timid. And Chris, Bailey knew, was forever on Emily’s back to “open up” and “experience life” and all that nonsense. He was always trying to change the girls into something resembling their mother, she supposed. What was up with that?

Chris had seemed alright, a good companion to their mother and he hadn’t been a bad guy.  He had a sort of endearing goofiness. He was tall and had coarse red hair and a really ugly red beard and Clark Kent glasses. When he and Mom were going out, he’d say stuff like, “Don’t smoke crack” and “Don’t burn the house down.”

He had finally convinced her little sister to ride along with him and then, on icy streets, Chris was showing off on his bike, taking turns too fast, and the bike spilled over. Emily’s helmet wasn’t fastened properly–and that too was Chris’s fault–and it came off when she fell. She struck her head on the pavement. It was horrible.  At the funeral home they had had a closed casket.

Chris had barely a scratch, but Bailey’s precious sister and best friend, was killed instantly. Her mother was stricken, but she never blamed Chris, maintaining that it was a “call from God.”  What bullshit, thought Bailey bitterly. She knew who was responsible. Damn him. And Chris and her mom were set to get married after Emily left for school, and finally settle down, but for Bailey, things would never, ever be the same again.  

Bailey hated Chris and by extension her mother, his enabler, his apologist, his piece of ass! Bailey shook her head. She could never go back to that house. It was no longer her home.  Chris had practically taken over, insinuating himself into their lives over the past three years. He had already driven her brother Brandon from the home. Two years older than Bailey, he was living across town with his girlfriend. Bailey would catch her train for school tonight and never return. She was on a full scholarship and didn’t need anything from them. She wouldn’t even say good-bye, she vowed. The wind was stirring; Bailey felt cold and she huddled closer inside her jacket.

She dissolved in tears, her rage giving way to sorrow. She had thought she was cried out. Everyone cried, all the time. Except for Chris. She hadn’t seen him shed a single tear and worse, he had never taken responsibility for the accident; he’d never once even said he was sorry! For that she couldn’t, wouldn’t forgive him. Ever. And dismay gave way to anger once more. She looked up suddenly and there, pinioned against the darkening sky, like a statue, stood a man, tall, in a green Army jacket and with coarse red hair, a really ugly red beard: Chris.  

“Bailey?” he said softly. She turned away. He stood before her.  

“What do you want, Chris?” she spat bitterly.

“I came for you; your mom’s worried,” he replied.

“I don’t care,” she said harshly. “I hate you!” She bared her teeth.

“I know,” he said quietly. “So do I.”

She startled a little, looked up at him suspiciously.

“Ever since the accident,” he added, I’ve hated everything about myself.”

“Are you going to get your bike fixed?” she asked with a touch of cruelty.

He shook his head no. “No,” he replied, “even sad old dogs like me can learn new tricks. I just pray it’s not too late.”

“Don’t worry, Mom’s forgiven you already,” she said spitefully.

“She knows I’d never purposely do anything to hurt someone she loved. Someone I love.”

She glanced quickly up at him again. “You really do love her, don’t you, Chris?” she asked, almost desperately.  

“I love you all,” he answered. “And I loved Emily. And Bailey:  I. Am. So. Sorry!”

She peered closely at him.  There were tears swimming in his sky-blue eyes, which were easily his best feature. Bailey took a deep, shuddering breath, and said, “I believe you, Chris.”

With tears continuing to fall from his eyes, he held out his big hand. “Let’s go home, Bailey.”  They walked, hand in hand, from the cemetery just as the light rain transformed into large, beautiful flakes of snow.

Bailey and her mother Sue didn’t speak about Emily or Chris for the next week.  

Bailey finally had to know. “Mom, did you and Chris break up?”

“No,” said Sue, “but he said he needed some time.  It was hard for him to face me.”

“Do you want him back, Mom?”

“Bailey, you don’t know how much I depend on him.”

Bailey didn’t respond, but called Chris the next day.  Chris came over within the hour.

“Bailey told me you missed me, Sue,” Chris told his girlfriend.  “You have no idea how much I missed you.  I thought after what happened, you’d never want to see me again.”

“I need you more than ever, Chris, replied Sue.  “I just hope if all of us stick together we can get through this as a family.”

“Before this happened I wanted to marry you,” Chris said. “I still do, but I don’t know what Bailey thinks.  She may not want me around.”

“Chris, it’s enough for me to know that it’s what Mom wants,” Bailey told Chris when he put the question to her later.  “I think we’ll all be better together.”

Without another word, Sue called Brandon.  “What would you think of Chris as a stepfather?” she asked her son.

“Come on, mom, you know I always liked him.” 

Chris, listening on the extension, smiled with relief.

Chris and Sue got married by a justice of the peace the next day with just immediate family and Brandon’s girlfriend, who was flower girl.     

Quiet Devastation

Oppressive delusions

Begin to serenade the mind.

Backward glances– unfinished —

Blur as visions whirl with pleasure.

In a sky transfigured

Transparent and wavering

Memories of water evaporate–

Damp hands summon quiet remorse.

Alchemy mutates a life of meaning

Into splintered icons beneath the Earth.

Somewhere a telephone rings,

Whisperwood 

The forest closes like a book,
each tree a story I cannot read.
The path dissolves into moss,
soft and secretive underfoot,
while shadows stretch long fingers
to tangle my thoughts.  

The trees do not ask,
nor the rivers accuse;
they only carry me forward,
their silence a solace
as I learn to wander,
to trust the song of the unmarked trail. 

Unsettled

My reflection blinks one heartbeat late,

Caught in the death dream.

It lifts a hand-

Not mine-

Fingers dripping, spelling my name backwards

On the inside of my vision.

Leaning toward the glass that leans back hungrily,  

I try to step away; the mirror whispers:

You are the echo I invited

To keep from being alone.

Leaving the Modern World 

I am learning to sit in silence, 

To find the divine in the ordinary: 

The creak of a chair, 

tick of the clock, 

The rhythm of my own heartbeat.  

The modern world will not stop me;  

I will stop for myself.  

Carl Scharwath has appeared globally with 210+ publications selecting his writing or art. Carl has published five poetry books and four photography books. He was nominated with four The Best of the Net Awards (2022-25) and two different 2023 Pushcart Nominations for poetry and a short story.

actualizing the 'evening' answer
to The Riddle of the Sphinx


     *


what I heard was not what was being said


     *



he'd spit in his own Pepsi if you asked for a sip


     *


aisle seat for the sorrowful ballet


     *


not in the script, the gull that flew past the bay window


     *


my incessant blathering wore out 
her hammer, anvil and that other bone
I can never remember


     *


limping toward unknown archipelagos
with a notebook and two childhood prayers


     *


brown blood in the hambone
and the first-class relic


     *


words everywhere, the oceanic fears of the illiterate


     *


maybe Gutei just needed a minute to think


     *


he's where it widens and slows with Sarah Vaughan


     *


it's hard to be alone in the hereafter

A film project on film history legend Billy Wilder

Victoria Wilder, his daughter, was awarded the “Courage for Freedom Award”

I met Billy Wilder with Gloria Swanson in Hollywood on my birthday, January 24, 1974.

I told him that I had postponed my first meeting in Rome with Federico Fellini, scheduled for the same day.

Billy Wilder observed me carefully, as if his eyes were a camera: he wanted to understand my true essence, revealing an urgency, since, perhaps, he wanted to be the first great director to discover me, before my meeting with Fellini.

Wilder had filmed, only two years earlier, “Avanti!” with Jack Lemmon, his first film in Italy, in Ischia and Sorrento, and since I was Italian by birth, the conversation shifted to this film, but without Wilder giving up on his intention to decode my essence, with his increasingly “investigative” gaze.

Although very young, I had a fairly precise idea of ​​what elements of my personality interested Wilder and which later interested Fellini.

In this scenario, Gloria Swanson had limited herself to mentioning Marlene Dietrich, who had introduced us.

We were at Paramount Pictures, and can you imagine that nothing happened related to the famous scene in “Sunset Boulevard” in which everyone recognizes “Norma Desmond,” the “forgotten” silent film diva played by Swanson in Wilder’s film? 

Something quite similar to that scene happened, due to Swanson’s long absence from Paramount, including that of Wilder, whose last film with Paramount Pictures had been “Sabrina” with Bogart, Hepburn and Holden, ending a 12-year business relationship between him and the company.

Some people waved at Wilder and Swanson from a distance, and while Swanson reacted almost “without reacting,” Wilder responded to the greetings, without taking his eyes off me, to explore my slightest reaction. 

And I couldn’t help but utter this sentence: “I’ll tell Fellini about what’s happening here now, but after we’ve known each other for a while.” 

Wilder understood the “chess move” I had made and extended his hand towards mine, appreciating the ambiguous “subtlety” of my statement.

Swanson, expected this reaction from Wilder, observed everything with detachment and a certain irony.

A few days ago, Victoria Wilder, Wilder’s daughter, pointed out a very important detail about her father: she told me that her father always appreciated being recognized and greeted, even though this was inevitable due to his enormous fame.

In short, this aspect of fame never bothered him.

The scene in the Paramount Studio from his film “Sunset Boulevard” was always within him, and Wilder deliberately made that scene immortal, since, I understood, it embodied himself and the essence of cinema. 

During the truly incessant greetings from the Paramount staff, being Italian, I was offered a “cappuccino,” and Wilder, in response to what I had said earlier, told me: “Federico, Fellini will immediately adore you if you ask him for a ‘cappuccino ‘ because you’ve created a scene that, if I had seen it, I would have included in ‘Sunset Boulevard’ . Yes, from how you picked up the cup, to when you brought it to your mouth to sip the ‘cappuccino’.”

Obviously, we all laughed.

Beneath that sentence, there was something much broader, which I will include in the film about him. Yes, I am proposing to make a film about Wilder, since I am building a mosaic with the pieces of memories I have of him, added to what Victoria Wilder told me about her father a few days ago, on my birthday. 

Victoria Wilder , introduced to me by Lady Silvia Gardin , was delighted to receive the “Courage for Freedom” award from my hands, created by Francesco Garibaldi, a descendant of the hero Garibaldi, which commends Mrs. Victoria, a great collage artist, for having had the tenacity and perseverance to collect rare and precious testimonies about her father, the only one who had the courage to reveal the true identity of the Olympus of fame: Hollywood.

But there is very important news that has just recently emerged: after the death of actor Gianfranco Barra, part of the cast of Wilder’s film “Avanti,” the only Wilder film shot in Italy, the entire film archive was given by Barra’s heirs to Graziano Marraffa, president of the Italian historical film archive.

This archive contributes to the rediscovery of the celebrated director and gives more urgency to my initiative to make a film about him, which, by depicting Hollywood, clearly illustrates the dangers faced by anyone who falls victim to the most popular obsession of our times: fame.

Engagement and Disillusionment 

Engaged here means the engagement of the mind with the mind. In order to keep the engagement of the mind with the mind intact, it is important to be happy with your mind. Despondency is despair, grief, heartbreak.          

In the case of engagement, if the mind’s desire is fulfilled, if the mind does not get hurt, sorrow, or suffering, the mind is right. The attention is the same remains A close connection of mind with mind keeps the focus fixed. Enthusiasm increases in the mind, it remains cheerful. Therefore, there is no need to grieve, nor to suffer. You have to keep going, seeing that the cut does not open in the mind and feet. No one can be given a place to occupy the mind. You have to move forward in connection with your own existence. Therefore, the power of the mind is very important.  Flowers should be kept in care. The juice will be in the mind, let the mind move like that. Mind connection provides the juice to move forward in life.

Understanding of mind and spirit with mind. Persistence, hope, desire, self-strength, mental strength move the mind forward. From connected thoughts, one has to increase concentration and move forward in life. Sparkling, shining light keeps life in full flow. All is the result of mind freshness. Intelligence and mental connection with the mind, kinship of one’s own soul with one’s own soul can keep oneself in order, must reach the right goal.              

Despondency means to be broken, hopeless. The mind is burdened with pain – it increases the sickness of the mind. The mind breaks down, becomes useless. The distance between the mind and the mind increases. The connection between the mind is lost. There will be both engagement of the mind and disorientation in life. But if you give importance or keep alive the depression Mind will be hurt, mind power and self-power will be lost. Which is very bad for everyone. Even if you are depressed, you should do what you need to do. You should see your dreams.          

Symptoms of depression or anxiety:

1. First understand yourself – I have suffered, I am suffering. 2. Loss of enthusiasm for work or creative work. 3. No way forward. Signs of getting out of depression: 1. To identify the pain of the mind, find out the cause. 2. To find a way to shake off or erase the pain of the mind. 3. Staying away from those people who have caused grief. 4.Walk and talk in such a way that no one gets hurt. 5. Talking and discussing the matter with a close person if necessary. 6. Dancing-reciting-pictures-art- listening to music, creative work including yoga and joining social service work.

7. Persistence, strength, patience and courage to make new plans and move forward, to overcome adversity. 8. Mental preparation is always necessary. I will be fine. I will be strong in any situation, my actions I will take it forward. 9. I will not let injustice happen to me. I have to protest for injustice. Sometimes I have to fight silently. 10. Even if you are disappointed, you have to give yourself hope. Must go to work. 11. Stay away from negative thoughts and activities. 12. It is one’s duty and duty to mend one’s broken heart. 13. Have confidence and trust in yourself.              

Both good and bad are in our hands there is self-view, self-action, consideration, self-perception, Dreaming, thinking, choosing direction, staying positive is all is in good standing.   

Amb. Dr. Priyanka Neogi is from Coochbehar. She is an administrative controller of United Nations’ PAF, a librarian, a CEO of Lio Messi International Property & Land Consultancy, international literacy worker, sports & peace promoter, dancer, singer, reciter, live telecaster, writer, editor, researcher, literary journalist, host, beauty queen, international co-ordinator of the Vijay Mission of Community Welfare Foundation of India.