Castle @ home neither on the land nor on the water - an amphibious nest and Utopia

Castle @ home neither on the land nor on the water   - an amphibious nest and Utopia

 

  

                                                                        

                                                     

                                                                                  

          

Food, Oxygen and Water…What is next ……A Nest.    Home …Sweet Home.

Whenever I think of a nest, my mind gets occupied with the buildings immersed partially in the water, the boats and bridge in the horizon of Geneva, Switzerland.   Not only because Switzerland has world’s best bank but also Switzerland being the most beautiful tourist destination.

The amphibians always attracted me.  Amphibian is an animal that lives part of its life in the water and part of its life in the land.  The crocodile, frog, salamanders, toad, octopus, sea horse, newt, star fish, snake, caecilians and tortoise are some of the amphibians.

The amphibians are “cold-blooded” or “ectothermic” animals, which means they are dependent on external sources like sun to maintain their body temperature.

Some of the Amphibians like the turtle and tortoises live more than 100 years.

A frog can breathe through its mouth as well as through its skin. More than 75% of toads and frogs in the world live in tropical rain forests.  The emerald tree boa can strike a bird or a small mammal in complete darkness. Depending upon the size of the meal, anacondas can go several months between the meals.  It exemplifies the saying like a snake who has swallowed its prey.

The Merchant Navy Sailors can be safely described as having an amphibious existence.  The Sailors live six months in the sea and six months in the land.

A famous quote –

“It is precisely because we resist the darkness in ourselves that we miss the depths of loveliness, beauty, brilliance, creativity, and joy that love at our core.”

-           Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), venerated by Roman Catholics as “Saint Thomas More” in 1935 was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, Statesman and noted renaissance humanist.

Sir Thomas More’s best known and most famous treatise “Utopia” talks about castles in the air.  Utopia is a controversial novel written in Latin in 1516.   “Utopia”, in the novel means an imaginary island with a perfect social and political system.  Utopia was envisaged as an ideal political system in which policies are governed by reason.  An imagined place or state of thing which is perfect is called Utopia.

Utopianism is the views and habits of mind of a visionary or an idealist sometimes beyond realization.

A Utopian Society is a community possessing highly desirable or near perfect qualities.

Utopia can be described as Eden of Garden, Paradise, heaven, bliss, Shangri-La, Happy Valley et al.

The “Castles in the air” - definition is extravagant hopes and plans that will never be carried out.  Just imagine the image of a castle in the sky.  Such an existence is only a Utopian dream.

Castles in the air and Utopia are both side of the same coin.  It is a day dream.

Build a castle in the air means that you make plans that have little chance of success.

Castles in the air are plans that have little chance of happening.   e.g. - “My father built a castles in the air about owning a private jet plane”.  Another version can be “he is always building castles in the air without doing nothing in practical”.

The unrealistic people always build castles in the air.

Build a bridge of friendship and not castles in the air.

While talking about realistic dreams, my mind goes to check the most famous English writer William Shakespeare’s  seven deadly sins or vices in his Drama “Hamlet” like Sloth, Lechery, Envy, Greed, Pride, Wrath and Gluttony.

The above vices are highly condemnable and to be strictly avoided.  The above mentioned sins are observed in bad elements of the society and the people with good and decent upbringing must avoid falling into the trap of such satanic temptations.

Utopia can also be regarded as a fool’s paradise due to the stretching of unrealistic cravings for perfection personified.

The castles in the air created in our visualization is a crime as lethal as Shakespeare’s seven deadly sins or vices.  The illusion is most deceptive and can be regarded as a sin or vice.

              

                                     

A famous quote by Sir Thomas More -

                          “An absolutely new idea is one of the

                            Rarest things known to man”.

We must in our daily life, set realistic goals which will help us in leading a virtuous life.

We must avoid Utopian culture and building castles in the air which has scant respect for realistic terms of existence and always lives in an illusionary world, a fantasy land.