GET BUSY LIVING, OR GET BUSY DYING

 



“We don’t see things as they are,

we see them as we are.”

— Anaïs Nin

 

This morning, I met an old friend after several years. When he told me where he presently lived, I exclaimed, “Wow, that’s one of the most prominent locations.”

“That’s what everyone says; but, not we who live there,” my friend said.

The building, as I said, was located at one of the most expensive areas. The ground floor housed luxurious clothing and jewelry brands. Each floor had just one huge flat… Each flat owner possessed a matching car, as well…

Then, why was my friend saying, “but, not we who live there”?

My friend explained: “Ours may be a hot property and we may be owing flats worth several crores…  But, the irony is, that we can possess only one car even if we can afford to own more… To park our cars, to get them out and to get them in… it’s our daily challenge. Then, there is noise, dust, and endless honking… Visitors have to park their cars almost a mile away and come walking… We dread to think of the emergency situations… My family is seriously thinking of moving somewhere else.”

Earlier this morning, another friend of mine, whose husband held a ‘prominent’ position in one of the coveted companies, wrote this in her message:

“Wanted to give you this update: We have just moved to interior Pune. My husband has had enough of corporate life and wanted to break.”

Prominent, lucrative, luxurious, coveted, expensive… honestly, these are only labels we give to our possessions based on how we view our lives, and what we deeply value…

During the explosive Gen-Z protests in Delhi and elsewhere in the country, we, suddenly, found inside our own house heated arguments… Our house –- yes, it housed only three of us… my wife, our young son, and this 68-year-old man. Each of us had a rocky belief and, accordingly, we were arguing as to how things had to be… But, amidst all this heated discussion, we were not able to – rather, willing to -- keep aside our respective perspective and see things from a quieter perspective… The world appeared, through our rigid lenses, either pitch black or pristine white…

No one conceded… Inside our house, or outside…

No one was willing to heal, or get healed…

“If it’s so difficult for three people inside their own house to see the situation in a saner, calmer and accommodating way, how on earth, could one expect a nation of 140 crores to do it?”… I really wondered.

The next morning, in our three-member family group, our young son left this old reminder for his parents:

 





Yes Sir, when our defenses are down and our hearts are open, we are able to understand why the wise have said, that our perspectives can be either our prisons, or our passports.





 

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic’s.: 1. Pixabay.com  2. Unknown/Anaïs Nin 

Video: TNT

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