The struggle for life itself
There are certain truths which are very uncomfortable for people to hear and I have been having these realizations for quite sometime now. And while these are truths that were always present, imbibing them and actively living your life with these tinted coloured glasses is not easy
Life is chaotic and unfairness rules in chaos
Life is unfair.
Our eternal craving for fairness, righteousness and justice is such that our human nature tends to make us believe that justice will always prevail. The reality is somewhat disappointing. While the country’s constitution, courts, society and even your parents would tell you otherwise, it’s an inescapable truth that life will be unfair in far more situations than when it is explicitly designed to be fair. The big will rule over the small. The powerful will control the powerless. The giants will step on the ants and the downtrodden will remain downtrodden.
Unless..
..we do something about it.
1. Whole hearted acceptance that life is truly an unfair affair. In other words, the river of life where we sail through is chaotic and we need to accept that. If noting else, you are now
2. To reach a goal you have set out, It’s imperative that the default state of coasting through life I will never reach any destination that I choose, instead reaching somewhere I never planned. Every second I breathe will be spent on attempting to steer the boat of my life. The river throws up several challenges and unexpected at every turn. The truth of the matter is the moment I was born I had inadvertently signed up for struggle till the day I die. I cannot rest even for a moment because there might be some unforeseen problem heading my way. The reader of this blog might say that some people get rich parents and life for them might be easy. Again life is unfair and nothing comes out of cribbing about the state of affairs you are raised up in.
Nobody has all the answers all the time and don’t believe someone who tells they do
An organization’s head, the chief executive in a government, your religious head and even your parents would like to tell you that they have got all the answers to all the questions all the time or at least most of the time. This one took me a lot of time but that is wrong and don’t believe folks who say otherwise. No human can categorically say what the solution to a particular problem is, simply because they do not have complete information of a particular situation. The best example is the pandemic we are going through. At best it’s an educated guess because it is impossible to have all that information. Situations evolve, people evolve and in a chaotic life, it’s foolish to assume that anyone can say for certain how life will be next day let alone next year.
- Your employer tells you that they will definitely pay next month’s salary as usual. That is not a categorical truth and it can go belly up if your employer declares bankruptcy tomorrow.
- Your government promises to ensure that according to the new gun law, you will never have to face a violent crime in your home since guns have been banned for civilians. Again, if a madman knows how to make guns, then laws doesn’t really matter anymore.
- Your parents telling you that if you study well, your entire life will be sorted. I don’t think I need to explain this. Life has relationships, career, health, wealth and a lot more things. It is literally impossible to say any sweeping statements about anyone’s life in fact because life is so so unpredictable.
So when someone tells you that they know exactly where they/you are going. Don’t argue because arguing without any visible reward and recognition even after you win the argument is stupidity and an exercise in futility. There are better ways to waste time. Instead prepare your plan B. Because the moment someone in power says something with certainty remember that
a.) they are actually stupid not to recognise everything is too chaotic
b.) and this is the most likely scenario. They already have a secret plan B if things go south and want to put out the illusion that they are in control. Because most humans by nature love to play in a controlled environment with predictable inputs and equally predictable outputs.
Even the most promising & convincing statements of all time have been broken. Hitler invading Russia. Vijay Mallya promising his employees that he will pay them all their dues. Even your ex saying they will be with you forever.
I have been burned too many times by well meaning & well intentioned people to know that when shit hits the fan, everyone will follow their own agenda/Plan B. Aside from maybe parental relationships, there will always be a possibility of broken promises.
In other words, everyone good and bad needs to have an ever evolving Plan B in their lives for every scenario. Seems very difficult but that is the only way to survive without being capsized in life.
Life is about compartmentalizing
Have you had that scenario where someone close to you died and then you are figuring out how you will move on. Right now for instance, when I am writing this blog, . During times like these, it is extremely tough to compartmentalize that specific part of life which seems to overlap and completely subsume your life. How do you get the remaining part of your life still going on. How do you go to the supermarket to buy groceries. How do you look at your wife while you always have fear in the back of your mind. Is it even possible to compartmentalize even there is nothing you can do.
The answer is Yes. And how do you do it? Well there is no other way. Push yourself and get it done. The only person whose life would go upside down is if you don’t compartmentalize it yourself.