We humans often like to think more about the past and the future than the present. I am fascinated about how much our minds ruminate about our past and in particular on childhood. We feel happier thinking about our childhood. All efforts are made to move closer to that age. Whether it is artificially changing the color of our hair or falsely reducing our age, we enjoy the younger feeling. This is indeed an irony because as kids we wanted to become older as quickly as possible. We used to become happier by the thought that we are growing taller and/or moving into higher grades or standards. As kids, we used to always look upto teenagers. And as teenagers, we used to look upto college going students. And as students, look upto the salaried class and bussinessmen. And in turn I find that, money earning adults envy the carefree lives of undergraduates, teenagers and kids. This is a classic "grass is always greener on the other side" problem. You don't realise the value of something you are already enjoying but envy the lives of others/historically yours. Comfortably, god has atleast erased memories of us being babies. Imagine, the world if we can remember that as well!! The thoughts of us having food as a baby is dangerous to even contemplate :P. Is it really worth spending that much thinking about younger days and trying to become younger ? I feel it probably is not. There is enough to be busy about and enjoy in the present than to yearn about the past.
On the other hand, thinking and dreaming about the future is probably a wise thing to do. Many a life has been wasted just living the moment and not caring about future. Teenage single mums or drug addicts are extreme examples of that. Thinking about the future makes us become responsible. It allows our future "present" to be a better existence. Unlike in the "past", to make the future greener is in our hands. After all, working towards a greener future in childhood is what makes us enjoy the current greenery.
I feel becoming younger in thoughts is more important than hiding the age and indulging in similar annoying activities. Getting excited by simple things, laughing out loud at silly things, hanging out with friends, having many hobbies, playing sports just for the fun (not for health reasons) etc. All these are always possible irrespective of our ages- isn't it ? So, next time say out your age proudly like a kid and try to make people be surprised by how old you are. Grass is always greener on the other side. Should it prevent us from enjoying the grass on our side ?
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5 comments:
nicely written patches of your thought clouds...agree with you totally excepting the fact that my fields have become barren - no grass...just bloody dust!
Nice style of putting down a practical reality.
You know what?
I liked the "Bloody dust" part by Taufiq.
Haha.. If you see only bloody dust, you should start growing grass and make your lawn look green again. Or move to a different place and start growing grass where it grows well so that you don't envy anyone else's grass at any point :).
"laughing out loud at silly things" - haha, you are an expert at this Sriram, you should give lessons to others on how to do this - it's a great stress-reliever :-)
You have become a philosopher at very young age Sriram. Nice post da, although every one knows what you said, not many people practice it. Some times a gentle reminder acts a an eye opener.
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