Today, we chase clarity. We chase transparency, knowledge – we chase reality without the burden of relativity. Our medium of enquiry: questions - five to be specific. So, let us begin...
LIFE LESSONS
Everyone aims - some aim for the stars, some for the dust on the ground. Some pursue the horizon, some peak into what lies beyond. It makes us what we are, what compels us to live with the most demanding of all entities – time. For we spend it first figuring out what to chase, and then figuring out how to chase it. Chasing is not our favorite pastime; it is our only pastime. Everything else is secondary, everything else is subordinate.
Today, we chase clarity. We chase transparency, knowledge – we chase reality without the burden of relativity. Our medium of enquiry: questions - five to be specific. So, let us begin:
The measure one has of the life one has spent is in one simple question: does it make one happy or sad. Happiness leads to satisfaction and gratitude. Both are not separate emotions, rather separate states of the same simple emotion we call happiness. You are slightly happy – joyous – so happy that it brings you peace – satisfied – so happy that it makes you kneel in front of a higher power or a kinder hand – gratitude.
Sadness stems from misery, discontentment and emptiness. Again, all states of the same emotion – sadness - rather than different emotions themselves. This is hence a fundamental question to provide clarity, one that answers many other unasked questions.
What are you driven by, eluding your fears or the hope of fulfilling your desires. Everyone in life is a runner, the only difference is the direction - some run away from their fears while some run towards their hopes.
I, for one, find both of them predominant in my life. I am a man who is very afraid, hopeful of not being that afraid anymore.
There are only two reasons for not performing an act: you either hate doing it or you don’t love doing it enough to break your inertia of inactivity.
Most people in life do not realize their passions because they do not love their passions enough. On the other hand, some people do realize their passions, not out of love for their passions, but out of hate for them not doing so. Alas, such success proves to be a success without success, a defeat masked in the satisfaction of achievement.
Knowledge demands attention; you either submit to its will out of your curiosity or you stay indifferent to its needs through your ignorance.
Curiosity is a burden; it pulls you in towards the addicting pursuit of understanding and awareness. After all, the more you know, the less you don’t.
Ignorance is bliss; you simply do not feel the stings of encounters you will not fight. Mental battles are fought with the ammunition of information, in the battle of an ignorant individual, the mind simply has no ammo.
What do you pursue? Would you rather do the right thing or that which is necessary? If one were to look for the mettle in an individual, there is no better question to ask. For in the darkest of times, these two parameters are always separated. That which is right seems unnecessary and that which is necessary seems too wrong; you don’t even dare attempt it.
Does the end justify the means? There is no innate morality, no inborn compass of righteousness. But the scale of necessity is ingrained into man by the very need of survival. There is a difference between moral righteousness and practical necessity, but that is a conversation for another day.
Five questions for you and here is where our date ends. Chase away at whatever you pursue mighty human. Happy hunting!
