Part 9: Introspection

What does life mean to you?

Is there any real purpose for your existence?

Or are you just meant to be a pile of living tissues taking up square foot areas on this already over populated planet which crying for some free space?
If yes, then do you feel you deserve to live any more than the ant you stamp upon so callously as you walk, quite often not by mistake but just because you can.
And you feel proud to call yourself a Human being! The jewel of God's creation… the being who is probably at the top of nature's food chain… FOR WHAT?
You go about living your day to day lives… cribbing and crying for what you don't have as you overlook and undermine the vast abundance of gifts and resources that you have been blessed with. Nothing ever satisfies your desires… your passions… yours wants!
And all you've perfected in your centuries of so called evolution is your ways of begging…asking…demanding…for more than what you already have… for more than you would ever require.
And all this craving for what?
The planet means nothing to you as you ravage and plunder its resources without the slightest bit of remorse for what you are leaving for your future generations… a barren wasteland!!!
And all the flora and fauna around you have also just become means of fulfilling your greedy desires… you speak about their preservation in your white collar gatherings while your bulldozers plow down fields and forests to make place for your metallic monstrosities. And you shed your pseudo tears before other phony individuals like yourselves about the cruelty to animals to gather their admiration while at home you cannot possibly get sound sleep unless you lie on your stand wearing crocodile boots and coats made of mink fur…
And lastly your family and other fellow human beings mean nothing to you… Your parents have become a burden for you today… they are no longer fashionable to have around.
The Old man whom you once called Dad and who held you when you took your first steps, today has to stumble towards his walking stick for he has no one to hold his hand while he walks.
And the woman who held you close to her heart… never letting you go… who came running every time you called… who toiled day and night over the stove to cook for you your choicest dishes… who never needed a reason to shower all her love and affection on you… the woman whom you called Mom… she now waits by the corner of her bed waiting for you to atleast walk up to her in the course of the day and ask "how are you?" She does not want you riches and fame… nor do you expensive automobiles and gadgets impress her… all she seeks is a glance of affection from the apple of her eye.
Your children seem to spend more time with the friends and their video games and probably your housekeeper who takes care of all their needs because you are too busy today. You give them every comfort that money can buy…everything…except Love and your time.
And your fellow human being out there in the society… do I even dare mention about him.
Who you ask?
And why am I not surprised!
How would you know him? He is just the man by the street corner who lives on scraps out of the garbage heap and that little shabby kid who runs between traffic lights to sell you your news paper and that watchman who is such a nuisance as he keeps coughing all night on that cold December night when you would like to enjoy a cozy night's sleep in your soft bed under your imported blanket and that mentally deranged girl woman who keeps smiling at every one in her tattered clothes on the road and then looks up at the sky and then at the stones and starts talking to them… probably because she is mentally unstable and left out there on the street because no one needs her anymore… or probably because in "Your World" the sky and the stones seem to be the only ones who would listen to what she has to speak

Is this your life… the 24 x 7 that you live? And in the end… even after all this self centered egocentric way of living, you have the audacity to look up to heavens and ask "Why God can't I ever find true happiness?"

I fail to grasp the meaning of such existence.

If this is what life means then I find the sound of a click followed by 3 inches of metal casing going through my head much more soothing.

But then again I look out of my window at the garden below and see a little boy struck down with polio at the tender age of 7, struggling with his crutches as he tries to pluck a flower for his little sister sitting in her pram. And as he finally gets it and gives it in her hand, she smiles and jumps to give him a hug. And he hold s her in his arms and smiles with joy like he's conquered the world.
What has he found that makes him want to go on?

Or when I meet the sweet lady living down the street always playing with her children in their garden - two daughters – the apple of her eyes. A sight which makes the most beautiful of paintings by the Michelangeloes of the world seem worthless. This makes it even more difficult for me to keep a smiling face as I chat with her husband over a glass of beer at the men's club on Saturdays. "Her cancer has spread all over and the Doctor hopes for no more than 2 months" he tells me as he tries his best to stop that tear from rolling down the corner of his eye.
And yet when I see them together… all I see is love. What have they found that keeps them going?

Or again as my colleague at work pins up the crayon drawing made by her 15 year old son. "Yesterday he made this for me all by himself. The doctor says he is making good progress and will be able to speak clearly in a year" she says with a smile. Whats so great in this you ask? A 15 year old son drawing with crayons… well it is a big deal if you are the parent of a child whose brain has not developed with his age.
What has she found that makes her want to go on?

Is this what life is?

Our world is filled with both types of people. People who happen to live and People who make life happen.

Which one are you?

I for one would not want to belong to the first half. Don't get me wrong… I don t mean to say that your life must be filled with great sorrows and trying circumstances. No… never.
Then what am I trying to say! Do I have a point?
Well…yes I do!
Life for each one of us is a different experience all together. But as we rush through it like wild horses, wouldn't it be nice to slow down a bit. Life is about living and not just winning.
Take sometime to look around … at the world that you live in ... at the people who love you and make your world complete and appreciate them.
Take care of the world around you TODAY and you'll have a world to gift to your child tomorrow.
And when you bump into that shabby old man while walking on the street, don t brush him away with a scorn. I am not asking you to adopt him and bring him home with you (not all are saints). All I ask of you is to gift him a smile. It won't cost you a dime, but might be worth a fortune for him.

"Life's roads may lead you into strange people today,
Be nice to them, share a smile…for you may never again walk this way."