So, while in a rickshaw crawling at the rate of 5kmph thanks to a nasty traffic jam, sharing the space meant for four with five others, packed in tighter than a tin of sardines, holding down a precariously balanced laptop with palm bases to keep it from doing a Superman impression, listening to Dead Poetic (the only saving grace in this image), is far from your ideal spot to type out reflections on life, that’s exactly what this Friday’s trip back from work saw me doing. I did get a couple of raised eyebrows and amused second glances but even the off chance of being featured on the evening news (It’s not all about you, Hoobastank, running through my head right about now) wasn’t going to keep me from pecking away furiously at the keys.
In case you’re wondering what drove me to this compulsive state or what kind of a nut I would have to be to risk life and limb (exaggerating for dramatic effect, but it is plausible you know, there have been many a recent events of involving overturning rickshaws, which I’m told is because of poor design and overstuffing that results in a high positioned COG (center of gravity). Sounded convincing enough to be true.) to type out this seemingly unremarkable post, allow me to elaborate.
Sitting still for 20min (the time I have to spend in these death traps on an average day when the roads aren’t log jammed) I can just about do, but almost an hour, you might as well bring out the catalogue of torture methods and ask me how I’d want to go. I have to have something to do, absolutely hate sitting still (in case you’re going, Oh me too, hi Ma :D. Though it’s really Dad who’d make us both look like Tibetan monks). Something, anything to keep mind and body occupied, and most of the time it’s pretty frivolous endeavours (to support which I believe I am providing more than sufficient evidence).
Other than the little physical challenge it presented, I must say I rather enjoyed the experience. In fact that was another one of the reasons I whipped out the laptop and attacked the keyboard, I really wanted to see what it felt like and I can safely say it makes you feel all important, kinda a journalist trying to beat the deadline on a record-breaking, career-making scoop.
I must also add a note about my co-passengers who were extremely accommodating, sitting politely while my stuff and I bounced about all over, the extremely tiny (which has me considering a career in those acts wherein guys dressed in fancy outfits fit themselves in unbelievably small spaces), place. But more importantly, what I appreciated most was how my fellow travellers were not peering into the screen, as, much to my dismay and despite claims of being mature adults, I’ve noticed a lot of people attempt to do. It’s one thing if it’s the occasional glance while your sms’ing for example, but I find people very shamelessly keep looking at that tiny glowing LCD display as though peering through a peephole desperate for a glimpse into your life. Our otherwise much appreciated “healthy curiosity”, is slowly mutating into a very unhealthy, and not to mention offensive, attitude of voyeurism (reality TV, micro-blogging all contributing in some little way).
As I sat there, sandwiched between people I didn’t know and probably wouldn’t meet again (or perhaps only on another of these excursions) I began thinking of why we make the acquaintances we do. They say you attract the people that come into your life. But why, you ask? I believe it is to learn from the people you choose to build relationships with. I don’t necessarily mean ground-breaking, life-altering learning, but if you look back at the people that have been part of your life even for the briefest of times, and you photoshop them out, you notice that things and as a result you, would not be as you are today. Now I know that holds good for any event, the Butterfly Effect really, but I really believe it is most apparent with relationships (ephemeral or as eternal as mortality would allow). Because after all, man is a social animal, and human connect is more than just necessary for existence, it’s a catalyst for evolution.
So until I find myself in a pensive mood in another three-wheeled rickety mode of transportation then, happy riding and writing to all fellow experimental kooks!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Hell hath no fury...
Have you ever woken up to a morning feeling an inexplicable, unwarranted sense of anger? I don’t mean the beat-the-living-daylights-out-of-someone sort of rage (or for those more philanthropic, favouring a more masochistic demonstration of fury, the pull-your-hair-out-by-the-roots variety).
To put in a less poetic form, I don’t mean the kind of anger where you can identify who should be at the receiving end or even why someone should be waiting to hear from you. I mean the anger (I think Indignation is word I’m looking for) that is more defensive, fuelled by a general feeling of being wronged, the one that inspires the me-against-the-world sentiment.
(Just to avoid any confusion regarding the identification of this mysterious emotion, I don’t mean the grumpiness of waking up on the wrong side of the bed either.)
Setting aside the why of such an unpleasant emotion on a bright sunny day, what I want to highlight is the effect of such seemingly misplaced ire. If you are able to keep that feeling in check, meaning to say, not find an easy prey, you’ll notice that you go about your day with increased fervour if you may, finding that you do more and better than you would on a regular day.
If you look at it, it really isn’t a rare phenomenon. It isn’t even limited to just anger. All hostile emotions, frustration, hurt, pain, inspire greater motivation, impel us to do better if only to get back at that feeling. Look around, most great works of art, music or literature come to life when the creator is at his lowest best.
Take Lance Armstrong for example, who really brings to life the point I’m trying to make when he says: ‘Once someone asked me what pleasure I got out of riding my bike for so long. "Pleasure?” I asked. "I don't understand the question. I didn't do it for pleasure. I did it for pain".’
So what exactly is happening here? A negative emotion seems to be yielding positive results, casting doubts on its infamous capabilities. Is something amiss here?
Well, not quite. If you sit down and dissect the occurrence, you see that it’s pretty simple actually, just a variation of survival of the fittest, the strongest. It’s nothing but a case of one emotion overwhelming all the rest. Anger simply bulldozes through the myriad of other feelings you may be having at the time: fear, pain, anxiety, doubt.
You’re probably wondering right about now, why there aren’t any ‘good’ emotions in that list above. Well, if you look closely you’ll see all the negative emotions transform to a level of (drumroll)... Anger.
And that, is the where this universal emotion draws all it’s power from. And by extension, where you can draw power from. Assuming of course you choose to, or you’ll find the emotion drawing its power from you.
Not convinced? Alright, think of the last time you were hurt, didn’t you project some degree of anger at the person or object you identified as being responsible? When you were in pain, didn’t you angrily pick yourself up by the bootstraps just to get back at the pain, show it what you're made of? Didn’t you feel frustrated at the uncertainty you felt in some situation?
So you see, all roads lead to our notorious star of the show.
As for the power of anger, even conventional wisdom has it documented, albeit with a little more emphasis on the impact on the fairer sex (that you really can’t argue with):
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
(Especially for the benefit of visitors that don’t agree with the thoughts in this post. :P Just kidding!)
To put in a less poetic form, I don’t mean the kind of anger where you can identify who should be at the receiving end or even why someone should be waiting to hear from you. I mean the anger (I think Indignation is word I’m looking for) that is more defensive, fuelled by a general feeling of being wronged, the one that inspires the me-against-the-world sentiment.
(Just to avoid any confusion regarding the identification of this mysterious emotion, I don’t mean the grumpiness of waking up on the wrong side of the bed either.)
Setting aside the why of such an unpleasant emotion on a bright sunny day, what I want to highlight is the effect of such seemingly misplaced ire. If you are able to keep that feeling in check, meaning to say, not find an easy prey, you’ll notice that you go about your day with increased fervour if you may, finding that you do more and better than you would on a regular day.
If you look at it, it really isn’t a rare phenomenon. It isn’t even limited to just anger. All hostile emotions, frustration, hurt, pain, inspire greater motivation, impel us to do better if only to get back at that feeling. Look around, most great works of art, music or literature come to life when the creator is at his lowest best.
Take Lance Armstrong for example, who really brings to life the point I’m trying to make when he says: ‘Once someone asked me what pleasure I got out of riding my bike for so long. "Pleasure?” I asked. "I don't understand the question. I didn't do it for pleasure. I did it for pain".’
So what exactly is happening here? A negative emotion seems to be yielding positive results, casting doubts on its infamous capabilities. Is something amiss here?
Well, not quite. If you sit down and dissect the occurrence, you see that it’s pretty simple actually, just a variation of survival of the fittest, the strongest. It’s nothing but a case of one emotion overwhelming all the rest. Anger simply bulldozes through the myriad of other feelings you may be having at the time: fear, pain, anxiety, doubt.
You’re probably wondering right about now, why there aren’t any ‘good’ emotions in that list above. Well, if you look closely you’ll see all the negative emotions transform to a level of (drumroll)... Anger.
And that, is the where this universal emotion draws all it’s power from. And by extension, where you can draw power from. Assuming of course you choose to, or you’ll find the emotion drawing its power from you.
Not convinced? Alright, think of the last time you were hurt, didn’t you project some degree of anger at the person or object you identified as being responsible? When you were in pain, didn’t you angrily pick yourself up by the bootstraps just to get back at the pain, show it what you're made of? Didn’t you feel frustrated at the uncertainty you felt in some situation?
So you see, all roads lead to our notorious star of the show.
As for the power of anger, even conventional wisdom has it documented, albeit with a little more emphasis on the impact on the fairer sex (that you really can’t argue with):
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
(Especially for the benefit of visitors that don’t agree with the thoughts in this post. :P Just kidding!)
Saturday, May 23, 2009
How To Lose Friends And Alienate People
Compromise. Scary word isn’t it? It would certainly appear so, given how much we avoid it. That avoidance is as much about being set in one’s ways as it is an attempt to escape bruising of the ego. No one wants to be the one who has to give in, but in every relationship (even the ones with the inanimate, yeah, like your car, when it absolutely refuses to start coz you couldn’t be diligent enough to disconnect the battery when you knew you weren’t going to drive it for over 2 weeks), there’s give and take and every so often you have to cave (and in the case of the above mentioned stationary automobile, you really can’t do much else. You either get right up and get the battery charged or keep it company in inaction.).
If one were to observe the human relationships in today’s times, you’d see no one ever wants to give, not even an inch. We’ve dug our heels in so deep, we don’t even realize it’s quicksand we’re standing in.
Bet you’re thinking, "sure, great line there, but what’s the analogy"? Well, what I mean to say is we’re so busy being adamant (it’s "my way or no way") that we don’t realize the more we resist the deeper we sink. That is to say, the more we attempt to prove a point, the less we even try to have an open mind and perhaps just for a moment actually consider the other party’s proposition.
Why? Coz heaven forbid we could be wrong. But more importantly, someone else sees that.
So where does the silly impracticality of this stubbornness land us?
A place no one wants to be, as Switchfoot puts it: Alone, Unknown, Unheard.
Alright, so maybe that’s a tad too dramatic. But what this rigidity does do is drive people away. Because who can really put up with someone who always refuses to yield. You can’t blame em, coz you’d do the same. In fact you do do the same. And thus, the vicious, unrelenting circle of not relenting.
So, to borrow from Staind, how do you Break the Cycle?
By doing exactly that, breaking the cycle. You find your area of comfort, your safe ground and on that, you accommodate. You might have to step out just a bit in some cases, but soon you’ll be met half way and on that happy medium, you’ll live happily ever after (really wanted to end that sentence with something cheesy. :D).
So, going back to the trusty steed that refused to gallop, the only effort you need to make is to take it out for a ride sometime the middle of the week and what do you know, soon she’s purring like a kitten. :)
PS: I think I’ve infringed enough copyrights in this post to guarantee me more than a just a couple of days in court!
If one were to observe the human relationships in today’s times, you’d see no one ever wants to give, not even an inch. We’ve dug our heels in so deep, we don’t even realize it’s quicksand we’re standing in.
Bet you’re thinking, "sure, great line there, but what’s the analogy"? Well, what I mean to say is we’re so busy being adamant (it’s "my way or no way") that we don’t realize the more we resist the deeper we sink. That is to say, the more we attempt to prove a point, the less we even try to have an open mind and perhaps just for a moment actually consider the other party’s proposition.
Why? Coz heaven forbid we could be wrong. But more importantly, someone else sees that.
So where does the silly impracticality of this stubbornness land us?
A place no one wants to be, as Switchfoot puts it: Alone, Unknown, Unheard.
Alright, so maybe that’s a tad too dramatic. But what this rigidity does do is drive people away. Because who can really put up with someone who always refuses to yield. You can’t blame em, coz you’d do the same. In fact you do do the same. And thus, the vicious, unrelenting circle of not relenting.
So, to borrow from Staind, how do you Break the Cycle?
By doing exactly that, breaking the cycle. You find your area of comfort, your safe ground and on that, you accommodate. You might have to step out just a bit in some cases, but soon you’ll be met half way and on that happy medium, you’ll live happily ever after (really wanted to end that sentence with something cheesy. :D).
So, going back to the trusty steed that refused to gallop, the only effort you need to make is to take it out for a ride sometime the middle of the week and what do you know, soon she’s purring like a kitten. :)
PS: I think I’ve infringed enough copyrights in this post to guarantee me more than a just a couple of days in court!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Gradation
An unusual blend of rock and pop, with a dash of techno... that’s what was running through my mind as Chris Cornell crooned (yet again providing testimony to the marvel that is technology), right into my ear phones.
That got me wondering, what is it with us and classification? We seem to have this inherent, uncontrollable, subconscious urge to want to categorize.
People, food, music, art, emotions... we spare nothing. Heck, we even have categories for the things that don’t fit in any categories! And do we have a lot of terms for them: miscellaneous, fusion, medley, potpourri...
So why are we afflicted with this strong basal instinct to bucket things? Is it just an inherent compulsiveness to group and tie up loose ends or simply a self preservation tactic against the daily deluge of information our senses are assaulted with?
If you think about it, you realize you never really think about it. It’s second nature, like a reflexive response, entirely involuntary. Almost as if the giant mass of gooey stuff between the ears that continues to astound us, were programmed to run the Divide and Conquer approach on everything it encountered, as a defence mechanism.
But categorizing isn’t the issue, no, it’s what keeps us sane. The problem starts when it comes to a particular set of classes, one we know by many names but the most familiar and the one they all come back to: Right vs. Wrong.
Its many derivatives would include the pairs of good-bad, acceptable-inappropriate, correct-incorrect, moral-immoral, and any other synonyms you might find for the same. The names change but the essence is the same: judging on the basis of values, bringing into the process of classification, the dangerous element of human subjectivity. I don’t mean to say that the other classes are perfect, objective or even exhaustive, far from it. They spill into one another all of the time, but here the lines are far more blurred. But more importantly the impact of the classification is of a different kind, it’s no longer only just a tool to help us make order out of chaos, but one that leads us to forming opinions, making choices about people, events or situations.
And that is exactly why I believe we must try to fully respect the fact that the definition of this pair (and the offshoots it brings along) is never going to be the same for two individuals, it would at best, overlap.
The shades of grey have to creep in, black and white just doesn’t quite cut it for this classification. In fact the black and white are intangible, unattainable, un-realizable, hypothetical even and like every other absolute, they’re merely a standard of measurement we use for the rest. The shades, the grey, you see them in not just the way we define the category, but also in how it is interpreted by individuals.
I think that is the key to tolerance, being able to understand and appreciate that everyone is entitled to their own set of values.
Each one is unique, and hence no one is unique. To be less cryptic, we’re all different in the standards we maintain, but the same in doing so.
That got me wondering, what is it with us and classification? We seem to have this inherent, uncontrollable, subconscious urge to want to categorize.
People, food, music, art, emotions... we spare nothing. Heck, we even have categories for the things that don’t fit in any categories! And do we have a lot of terms for them: miscellaneous, fusion, medley, potpourri...
So why are we afflicted with this strong basal instinct to bucket things? Is it just an inherent compulsiveness to group and tie up loose ends or simply a self preservation tactic against the daily deluge of information our senses are assaulted with?
If you think about it, you realize you never really think about it. It’s second nature, like a reflexive response, entirely involuntary. Almost as if the giant mass of gooey stuff between the ears that continues to astound us, were programmed to run the Divide and Conquer approach on everything it encountered, as a defence mechanism.
But categorizing isn’t the issue, no, it’s what keeps us sane. The problem starts when it comes to a particular set of classes, one we know by many names but the most familiar and the one they all come back to: Right vs. Wrong.
Its many derivatives would include the pairs of good-bad, acceptable-inappropriate, correct-incorrect, moral-immoral, and any other synonyms you might find for the same. The names change but the essence is the same: judging on the basis of values, bringing into the process of classification, the dangerous element of human subjectivity. I don’t mean to say that the other classes are perfect, objective or even exhaustive, far from it. They spill into one another all of the time, but here the lines are far more blurred. But more importantly the impact of the classification is of a different kind, it’s no longer only just a tool to help us make order out of chaos, but one that leads us to forming opinions, making choices about people, events or situations.
And that is exactly why I believe we must try to fully respect the fact that the definition of this pair (and the offshoots it brings along) is never going to be the same for two individuals, it would at best, overlap.
The shades of grey have to creep in, black and white just doesn’t quite cut it for this classification. In fact the black and white are intangible, unattainable, un-realizable, hypothetical even and like every other absolute, they’re merely a standard of measurement we use for the rest. The shades, the grey, you see them in not just the way we define the category, but also in how it is interpreted by individuals.
I think that is the key to tolerance, being able to understand and appreciate that everyone is entitled to their own set of values.
Each one is unique, and hence no one is unique. To be less cryptic, we’re all different in the standards we maintain, but the same in doing so.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Of Waste Products and Cooling Devices
I’ve always had a particular liking of the phrase “shit hits the fan”.
No, not of the perverse kind, just how it manages to get the point across so vividly, absolutely spot on.
Though it does create a rather disturbing mental image, but that I suspect is precisely why it works so well. The measure of the true power of a word would be in its ability to allow you to visualize the idea.
Any word that makes the concept tangible, by means of a picture it paints, a feeling it invokes, that to me is one potent word. And of course the same for a bunch of them put together too. Because in the end, the purpose of words is nothing but to convey an idea, a thought, an emotion.
So, coming back to the visual of something disgusting on a collision course with something with the ability to spread stuff around, it’s a terrible shame that a phrase so graphic (in a most positive sense) has a history so unknown.
My search for it “out there” (aka the Internet, the lazy man’s excuse to not get out on the field and dig), yielded next to nothing. It’s really sad how the origin of this oddly likeable idiom is hardly documented, or even known for that matter.
The few attempts at its probable inception range from a mention in the 1967 edition of Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English as a phrase of Canadian origin (no further details, at least none I could locate) to a not-so-funny joke about a guy in a bar needing to go, and, as the unlucky folks at the bar would have it, ending up going in a hole on the floor upstairs, only to return to an empty bar with the bartender hiding behind the bar and as one would expect, using the phrase.
That’s about all I could find, other than a few more PC versions of the phrase involving (weirdly enough) food replacements: eggs, soup, omelettes etc.
And that is where my search ended rather prematurely and quite unsuccessfully.
I guess it’s one of those things that is forever going to be a mystery, one can only hope that it might have had more pleasant beginnings than the usage implies.
Highly doubt that though. In which case I guess we are better off in the dark. (Yup, classic case of Sour Grapes. :D)
No, not of the perverse kind, just how it manages to get the point across so vividly, absolutely spot on.
Though it does create a rather disturbing mental image, but that I suspect is precisely why it works so well. The measure of the true power of a word would be in its ability to allow you to visualize the idea.
Any word that makes the concept tangible, by means of a picture it paints, a feeling it invokes, that to me is one potent word. And of course the same for a bunch of them put together too. Because in the end, the purpose of words is nothing but to convey an idea, a thought, an emotion.
So, coming back to the visual of something disgusting on a collision course with something with the ability to spread stuff around, it’s a terrible shame that a phrase so graphic (in a most positive sense) has a history so unknown.
My search for it “out there” (aka the Internet, the lazy man’s excuse to not get out on the field and dig), yielded next to nothing. It’s really sad how the origin of this oddly likeable idiom is hardly documented, or even known for that matter.
The few attempts at its probable inception range from a mention in the 1967 edition of Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English as a phrase of Canadian origin (no further details, at least none I could locate) to a not-so-funny joke about a guy in a bar needing to go, and, as the unlucky folks at the bar would have it, ending up going in a hole on the floor upstairs, only to return to an empty bar with the bartender hiding behind the bar and as one would expect, using the phrase.
That’s about all I could find, other than a few more PC versions of the phrase involving (weirdly enough) food replacements: eggs, soup, omelettes etc.
And that is where my search ended rather prematurely and quite unsuccessfully.
I guess it’s one of those things that is forever going to be a mystery, one can only hope that it might have had more pleasant beginnings than the usage implies.
Highly doubt that though. In which case I guess we are better off in the dark. (Yup, classic case of Sour Grapes. :D)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Checkmate
Travel light. The two words I can absolutely never abide by, not if my life depended on it. To elaborate, I had to make a one day trip out of the city and I had on me all of two (very well stuffed) bags (and the nagging feeling that I was leaving something behind).
Just so I don’t give you the wrong impression, I’m not a fashionista, a fashion victim or a Carrie Bradshaw in the making. No, far from it. Which is what got me wondering about the cause of my leave-nothing-behind affliction, and my investigation led me to another two words: What If.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the impact of those seemingly innocuous words is beyond just travel bags. I also recognize that it isn’t just me who is subconsciously sorting through the millions of permutations and combinations of potential moves on the chess board of life.
I like making the comparison to a chess match, because of it's uncanny resemblance: the inter-dependency of moves, the endless strategic planning, the ability to only influence and not control what happens around us, the not-immediately-apparent purpose of an event, the little sacrifices along the way that have huge returns, but most of all the fact that try as you may, there are times you just can't predict how the guy across the table is going to move his pieces.
Like in a match, for every situation we are in, a lot of us are mentally taking every route from the fork in the road and deciding what we’ll do when we see that next roadblock there.
Now this is a good thing, being proactive, having a Plan B in place, being prepared for what might come your way, but most of us (though I have certainty only one individual so far :D) don’t realize is that like in the battle of two minds, you can’t cater to every eventuality, you can’t anticipate everything that’ll be thrown your way. You have to give some credit to the big guys up there, you can’t expect to keep second guessing them. I mean, there has to be some reason you’re down here and not rolling the dice (too many game metaphors!) up there with them!
Having highlighted the similarity, what most of us miss out on is that there is one way in which this isn’t like your regular chess match: here everyone’s playing for the same side, yours.
So what you might see as an offensive move from the opposing (for want of a better word) team that causes you to move out of your comfort spot, may very well be exactly where you needed to go to kick that Nasty Knight of the board.
So, I’m coming to learn, sometimes you just have to let go of the controls, because even if you don’t, autopilot’s going to kick in, so you can either fight it and struggle trying to win back the controls, or you can sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
Easier said than done, I agree, like anything worth doing. But in my experience, the key is to take that first step: start by letting go of that one niggling problem you just can't do anything about. As I ponder on the when parameter of the Let Go philosophy, I'm presented with the impractical simplicity of the phrase when you've done enough. That, I'm afraid you'll have to identify for yourself. (Hey, if I were that smart, you'd be paying to read this! :P)
Anyway, gotta run, there is a certain co-pilot I need to try and steal the controls from! :D
Just so I don’t give you the wrong impression, I’m not a fashionista, a fashion victim or a Carrie Bradshaw in the making. No, far from it. Which is what got me wondering about the cause of my leave-nothing-behind affliction, and my investigation led me to another two words: What If.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the impact of those seemingly innocuous words is beyond just travel bags. I also recognize that it isn’t just me who is subconsciously sorting through the millions of permutations and combinations of potential moves on the chess board of life.
I like making the comparison to a chess match, because of it's uncanny resemblance: the inter-dependency of moves, the endless strategic planning, the ability to only influence and not control what happens around us, the not-immediately-apparent purpose of an event, the little sacrifices along the way that have huge returns, but most of all the fact that try as you may, there are times you just can't predict how the guy across the table is going to move his pieces.
Like in a match, for every situation we are in, a lot of us are mentally taking every route from the fork in the road and deciding what we’ll do when we see that next roadblock there.
Now this is a good thing, being proactive, having a Plan B in place, being prepared for what might come your way, but most of us (though I have certainty only one individual so far :D) don’t realize is that like in the battle of two minds, you can’t cater to every eventuality, you can’t anticipate everything that’ll be thrown your way. You have to give some credit to the big guys up there, you can’t expect to keep second guessing them. I mean, there has to be some reason you’re down here and not rolling the dice (too many game metaphors!) up there with them!
Having highlighted the similarity, what most of us miss out on is that there is one way in which this isn’t like your regular chess match: here everyone’s playing for the same side, yours.
So what you might see as an offensive move from the opposing (for want of a better word) team that causes you to move out of your comfort spot, may very well be exactly where you needed to go to kick that Nasty Knight of the board.
So, I’m coming to learn, sometimes you just have to let go of the controls, because even if you don’t, autopilot’s going to kick in, so you can either fight it and struggle trying to win back the controls, or you can sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
Easier said than done, I agree, like anything worth doing. But in my experience, the key is to take that first step: start by letting go of that one niggling problem you just can't do anything about. As I ponder on the when parameter of the Let Go philosophy, I'm presented with the impractical simplicity of the phrase when you've done enough. That, I'm afraid you'll have to identify for yourself. (Hey, if I were that smart, you'd be paying to read this! :P)
Anyway, gotta run, there is a certain co-pilot I need to try and steal the controls from! :D
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Fading Pink
I'm finally ready. Ready to join the legions that have taken to the burgeoning Blogosphere (note the clever alliteration :P), ready to get the presses rolling, ready to share some thoughts on... well... more thoughts.
I bet you vets (who have unfortunately happened to stumble across or have purposefully been directed to this page :D) out there are probably rolling your eyes, looking all too disdainfully at the newbie, wondering how many more of such hopeful novices who think they have latent writing skills, that were all too well hidden till right about now, you'll watch come and go.
Rather cynical start for a first post isn't it? Good. It sets the stage for what I'd like to continue on. If you look around, you'll notice a growing majority, especially the young adults (and fast joining them the pre-adults or post-teens, or whatever is the term of choice nowadays), have this aura of cynicism about them, a veritable cloud of gloom. Now don't get me wrong, I don’t mean that "dark" phase most teens go through revelling in self pity, finding perverse solace in the make believe fact that the world is out to get them. I'm trying to explore just how that very treasured feeling of contentment seems to be rapidly fading from our lives and why we’ve become a society that is so distrustful.
Now here are the few theories I have on why there seems to be an upward trend in this general attitude of skepticism, I leave them unanswered because I’m still trying to sift through them myself:
I don't mean to imply that every deed is an attempt at subterfuge, merely that there usually is a less obvious, subconscious even, reason, good or bad, for the things we do or say.
Then of course there’s Murphy’s law: If something can go wrong, it will. It has truly stood the test of time, held good in almost every situation and you just can’t argue with the facts!
To close, I borrow from a friend who adds a twist to a famous quote: Plan for the best, expect the worst!
PS : For an interesting read, albeit a rather biased view, on this fascinating phenomenon (for those of you I’ve managed to lure to the other side :P), I would direct you to - The Cynics Sanctuary (don't miss the definition at the top).
I bet you vets (who have unfortunately happened to stumble across or have purposefully been directed to this page :D) out there are probably rolling your eyes, looking all too disdainfully at the newbie, wondering how many more of such hopeful novices who think they have latent writing skills, that were all too well hidden till right about now, you'll watch come and go.
Rather cynical start for a first post isn't it? Good. It sets the stage for what I'd like to continue on. If you look around, you'll notice a growing majority, especially the young adults (and fast joining them the pre-adults or post-teens, or whatever is the term of choice nowadays), have this aura of cynicism about them, a veritable cloud of gloom. Now don't get me wrong, I don’t mean that "dark" phase most teens go through revelling in self pity, finding perverse solace in the make believe fact that the world is out to get them. I'm trying to explore just how that very treasured feeling of contentment seems to be rapidly fading from our lives and why we’ve become a society that is so distrustful.
Now here are the few theories I have on why there seems to be an upward trend in this general attitude of skepticism, I leave them unanswered because I’m still trying to sift through them myself:
- Evolution: It’s not like folks back in the past were happy as clowns (who as a matter fact, and rather ironically, I find more scary than funny) on dope, sure they had their share of problems, but by and large they were satisfied, happy. Was it because they didn’t know any better? We might be tempted to think so. It's a known fact that smarter people are less happy. Why? Well, think about it, if you knew what all you could have, would you want to settle for less?
- We take ourselves too seriously: Are we mistaking maturity for cynicism? Have we started believing that to be wise is to be dismissive of frivolity?
- The Irony of Masochism: Nothing conveys this thought as well as an oxymoron: do we enjoy being unhappy? Do we feel guilt in being happy all the time?
- Cool Factor: Allure of the Angry Young Man? Are we falling prey to notion that cynicism sets you apart, lends an air of being oh-so-hip?
- Trapped: Is it but natural that we adapt to the situation we’re in? Is mankind really going to the dogs? In this age of use-n-throw have we not spared man either? Have we learnt better than to expect anything good?
I, personally, am quite partial to cynicism and it’s more socially acceptable cousin, sarcasm, I like reading between the lines, not taking things at face value, analyzing and reanalyzing things, believing we aren’t doing enough and that there’s always a reason.
I don't mean to imply that every deed is an attempt at subterfuge, merely that there usually is a less obvious, subconscious even, reason, good or bad, for the things we do or say.
Then of course there’s Murphy’s law: If something can go wrong, it will. It has truly stood the test of time, held good in almost every situation and you just can’t argue with the facts!
To close, I borrow from a friend who adds a twist to a famous quote: Plan for the best, expect the worst!
PS : For an interesting read, albeit a rather biased view, on this fascinating phenomenon (for those of you I’ve managed to lure to the other side :P), I would direct you to - The Cynics Sanctuary (don't miss the definition at the top).
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