The so-called “self-made man” isn’t “self-made”: in reality, they have done so based on stable Government policies, functioning civil-society, garbage-collectors doing their jobs, postal-services doing their rounds and the millions of regular average people going about their mundane lives.
Scarring is inescapable. Everyone’s carrying scars. With each passing year, the scars grow. Some scars deeper than others. Some scars heal. There’s some healing & regeneration here or there, but by & large the scarring accumulates with time … The Lifetime of accumulated scarring, while immensely painful, imprints unique mosaic patterns on our body & soul: a unique metaphorical signature representing the sum-total of unique circumstances/situations & ups & downs, unique choices, results & consequences that a person has gone through – all adding up to the person standing in the present moment.
It’s almost as if Life is playing like a grand jigsaw puzzle, with the pieces being assembled over a temporal-spatial dimension. Falling into place bit by bit, as Time moves its sweeping hand forwards. Relentlessly. And you look back across the grand tapestry of randomness that’s your small little Life, and notice the special moments gone by. It’s with the benefit of hindsight and with historical context that you come to appreciate where you were born (which family & country you were born into)who you were as a child or a teen or a young adult, how you gradually came to be where you are through a meandering up-down journey, and how your Life unfolded in such an utterly arbitrary way, but with so much splendor & vibrancy nevertheless.
You have to keep finding new raison d’être. Fresh reasons to Live. New things to look forward to. Fresh items on To-Do lists … Once more unto the breach, dear friends … And miles to do/explore before I sleep (for good). And (keep finding) new reasons to keep living before I sleep (for good).
Earlier, I would consider bowing my head as a sign of weakness: that I’m somehow submitting to blind-faith or dogma. Now I realize that it’s a sign of maturity & wisdom. I’m acknowledging limits to my own knowledge & intellect. I’m accepting that things are fundamentally not in my control. That I can’t mathematically calculate my way out of every situation or optimize inch-perfect strategies to everything in Life. Bowing my head to something larger than myself is a way for me to keep my Ego & Conceit in-check.
Quite like the tetra-pods take a ferocious constant beating of their Lives at the hands of the choppy waves, and continue to stand still. Resolute. Resilient. Stoic. Imperturbable. Calm. Insouciant. Zen. Patient. Persistent … So too, must we weather the choppy waves of turmoil in our own Lives. And somehow keep standing, tall & strong & immovable as an Oak Tree.
I wish for Time to be frozen sometimes. To give me some space to think & ponder – on how my Life has turned out, on where all I went wrong, and what all I did right, on the choices I made (often subconsciously), and how those choices manifested themselves in-terms of consequences (some consequences occurring many years later after the choice), and so on …
A while back, I had read my friend’s blog-post (“On dealing with jealousy“). I’ve loved writing, since school. I remember eagerly looking forward to the essay-writing assignments. All the other students used to copy from ready-made essay books available in stores; not me. In school, I was proud of my writing prowess. Naturally, I assumed I […]
It always comes down to that question. Time and again. You try to find something, anything to take your mind off of it. You try to find answers to it by trying to immerse yourself in some new activity, taking up a new job or changing your vocation. Or maybe you develop new hobbies or polish existing […]
I was discussing the Fundamental Loneliness of the Human-Condition with my Mother a few months back. And as usual, I was trying to explain things using big, fancy words in an animated way. And she gave this ridiculously simple but utterly beautiful Mumbai Local Train analogy to eloquently explain with simplicity and profundity. She said (paraphrasing her): […]
Arbitrary Impermanence 