LET THE ROAD TAKE YOU

Pic.: Chetna Shetty

"If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things,

then I should have said,

'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life.”

-       Arthur Ashe

Some people can charge you with energy, life. Kannan, who must be older than I am (I am 57), is one of them. You can feel he is coming from yards and yards of distance… You can feel his energy. And, he can regale you with his stories – most of them revolve around his countryside adventures… “When it is pouring, I get into my car… and drive for miles,” he told us this morning in our Tai Chi class, “I love the interiors, the rustic landscape… simple life, simple people and simple pleasures. You shouldn’t plan too much, just get into your car and go… Let the road take you!”

I loved the last line: “Let the road take you!”

Kannan had to battle Prostate cancer. He had started Tai Chi as per his doctor’s advice. Yes, he has immensely benefited from it, as he himself claims. But then, there is one thing that keeps our sanity when we have to pass through our respective harrowing times… For Kannan, it could be during cancer; for someone else, it could be during something else… And that thing is: our attitude of gratitude!

Yes, this one thing is enough to end all our self-pity and blame-game.

Many years ago, in one of our Workshops, a middle-aged lady narrated her pain in the class and asked that familiar question, “Why me?”

“Why not you?”, the teacher asked the lady…

It took the next one hour for us to grasp the significance of that counter question: “Why not you?”

You know who Nick Vujicic is and what he does with his life… “It is not a life without limbs,” he goes around the world inspiring people, “It is a life without limits.” He keeps drilling into our hearts this, “Don’t complain about what you don’t have; be thankful for what you have.”

It is tough, sir. It is tough. Complaining comes to all of us so easily, so naturally. Gratitude doesn’t come to us that easily, that naturally. So, someone like Nick or Kannan should come around us to shake us hard: “Come on, if it is pouring hard outside, don’t sit and crib…Choose to enjoy the rain… Get into your car and drive… Let the road take you!”

There is that famous letter attributed to Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon star of sixties and seventies. During his second heart surgery, due to the infected blood he had received, Arthur had contacted AIDS.  Those were the early days of AIDS; the awareness was almost not there. So, in his lonely days, he received thousands of letters from his fans offering wishes and prayers. One of them read: “Why did God have to select you for such a bad disease?”

Let me rest my case with the Legend’s legendary reply:

50 Million children started playing Tennis,

5 Million learnt to play Tennis,

5 lakh learnt Professional Tennis,

50 Thousand came to Circuit,

5 Thousand reached Grand slam,

50 reached Wimbledon,

4 reached the Semifinals,

2 reached the Finals and

when I was holding the cup in my hand,

I never asked God
"Why Me?"

So, now that I'm in pain…

How can I ask God "Why Me?"

GERALD D’CUNHA