Boundaries

We’re all like fish in an aquarium, all trapped, limited by boundaries, engrossed in trifles. There are two types of fish in this large glass water tank, one completely unaware of the world outside, unaware of the limits of his world. His universe trapped in that glass tank.

Then, there’s the other kind, that has noticed the world outside and it’s possibilities, it yearns to be free, he knows and is aware of his imprisonment.

Which fish is happier?

What can the fish that has realized what lies beyond do? The pain that comes with realisation is a tragic irony.
I pity the fish that realizes his whole existence is pointless.

Lapse

What is the present? How infinitesimal an amount of time would you call the present? If you said 'now' is the present, well, since the time you initiated the action of thought , that 'now' is now in the past. Saying today is the present is absurd , because most of it is already in the past, the same with defining the present as an hour or a second.

The most suitable action then , would be to define the present in terms of some infinitely small instant in time , where reality freezes as a still frame . The previous frame being the past and the next frame being the future. This would obviously involve time ceasing to be continuous and rather a sequence of framed instants , that when played together seems continuous. Like a flipbook animation.

How small is that one instant ? Can it be measured, or does time cease to be. Time , is a measure of change. If change ceases to be, then so should it’s derivative.

So if time, in the present, doesn’t exist, what were we questioning? (well, alright, what was I questioning).

The past is of certainty, and the future of uncertainty, and the present transcends both, it remains the domain of free will.

Faith, hope, love and us

For some reason, we, as a society seem to consider a man’s belongings to define him. A father is defined by his son, a rich man by his money, and a poor man , by the lack of it. The beliefs that a man has, often define his views on life, and hence how we perceive him. When we take away his possessions, he has nothing to define himself by. That something which would make him, HIM.

If every man were to be robbed, we would have an ocean of people unable to define themselves, and would that bring sorrow or misery, I do not know.

We often let our beliefs philosophize our outlook and hence, we tend to perceive occurrences differently. A lot of people believe in offerings to deities or saints, as a way of making life easier, a hope that there is a force greater than us defining our futures. There isn’t anything wrong with hope, in fact, the last thing we should be robbed of is hope. Evil be the thief who does so. It’s interesting where faith and hope seem to coincide into a symbiosis. A relationship that moves people to adorn stone with garlands, and tie cloth around trees.

When showing me a piece of silk , that she had bought for the marble idol of a god, my mother asked me if he’d like the silk (implying the personified statue), and I couldn’t help but reply that, marble does find silk more comfortable than cotton.
I found the idea funny, but to her , it was the only way she could attempt to make her child’s unseen future less fearful, by giving herself hope.

Humans tend to move towards a solution or an action that gives them greater hope for success. Stopping someone from pursing that action, is denying them hope, and I find that immoral in principle.

Then there is another symbiosis that is very entertaining – hope and love. I know rational people that end up stuffing their pockets with, and dangling from their necks, charms for luck and love. They become conducive to trying anything that gives them hope, because, crushes do have a tryst with desperation. A desperate man is a believer, because hope motivates him to be. If he’s not trying everything , he isn’t doing his best.

I remember this episode on HOUSE M.D, where the patient was a lady, and having informed her husband that she was dying, Dr House sees him praying.

House: I was told you didn’t believe in God.

Husband: I don’t. I promised my wife I do everything I can to fix her, if I don’t pray, then I don’t do everything.

Hide and Seek

She put her face , up against the tree ,
where others could see, promised not to peek.
Fought back her tears -
they had made her seek.

She knew what happened next,
began to count,
clenching her eyes shut,
hoping they would be found.

She tried hard to listen,
strained her ears for any sound.
A giggle perhaps, a muffled whisper,
just to know they were around.

In the silence she heard,
faster, she began to count.
She knew they were gone,
wished they could be found.

They left her alone, against that tree,
hiding, waiting for her to turn around.
For her to seek;
they would never be found.

Strings Attached

They gave him his lines, told him what to say, yet, it was the parts where he never spoke, that got to you. He sees their laughter, their joy, something that was always theirs but never his. He sees how they look at him. They try to hide their faces behind his turned back, but sometimes, that isn’t good enough. Some pity what he’s become, a waste of human resource. Some say they fear for him, because they only see what he could’ve become.

Nobody sees the other as a human being – a body built on and from alchemy and science. They don’t see, why, being mortal, any reason is a reason and just as valid.

He made false promises, for them to leave him alone, but now, he finds himself lonely. Why is it wrong to not know what he wants? Will he ever find purpose in what people so readily hold dear?

The most painful, was being judged by those restricted and lesser minded beings, fitting their frame of beliefs around him, wondering how to judge him. He is, to some of them, one who lost his path. “Why don’t they get that their progress doesn’t make sense to me?” . The one life they hold dear, he finds meaningless. They ridicule his disinterest, but he knows – they’re afraid he’s gone too far. He hates the advice they dispense, when all he’s looking for is empathy and an answer.

Ethics and Morality

What is ethical, is often right. The definition of something that is ‘right’ is that it be most apt for the situation. So what is morally right, is what is most ‘apt’. The problem with this arrangement, is that it breaks down with the question “what is apt and from who’s perspective?”. Since perspectives differ, and one can stand to lose, or win from an outcome – what is the ‘truly’ moral thing to do?

As the Zeitgiest changes and evolves, so does what is moral and right. There are a greater number of people now, who see that discriminating homosexuality is outrageous, than say two decades ago. Eventually it will be “morally right” to treat them as normal individuals, while currently opposing their freedom happens to be “morally right” .
Ethics and morality then , seem to be absolutely relative. Is there a possible reference that people could use (other than the book), to discover absolute and timeless morality?

It makes rational sense, to link morality induced altruism to selfishness. Self preservation and self benifit. There is nothing that is absolutely right or wrong- just measures of apt-ness.

Astounding evidence that morality is relative, is the change in paradigm that accompanies development. Humans are designed to survive. ( like any other organism). We will live with our past, with the greatest errors, and justify them. Any preconceived notion about the ethical nature of an action , is bound to change after the action has been performed. We stand apart and preach righteousness, feel superior, and when we fall, we manage to justify it morally.

Ethic, has the power to make cynics or idealists of people.

People will be kind and considerate, completely giving and altruistic when it doesn’t cost them to be so. On the phone, we extend support, compassion and care, often failing when it comes to the actual act. It costs lesser to be nice on the phone (and hope that the person doesn’t need your support after all), than to actually go do something nice.

Humans are, on the face of it, animals, and are subjects of predictable, pre-constructed behaviour. If realized that all of nature has a primitive driving force of self preservation behind it, human complexity, can be deconstructed to simple acts of selfishness.

Happiness and it's Pursuit

All conversations regarding the nature and meaning of life, and it’s purposefulness , seem to end with the question of happiness.

” I believe life has meaning and purpose, and I help and love, to make others happy. All cynicism can do is to make people desperate and cold. ”

How do you identify with the emotion of happiness without the presence of it’s opposite?Could it be that the level of happiness that we are able to perceive depends solely on the depth of sorrow we have experienced?Could it be that happiness is fleeting, not eternal and infinite, for then it would lose it’s meaning? A crest is defined by a trough. Similarly is happiness defined by its opposite?

It is rightly so, that cynicism has no place in the betterment of life, and whether life be devoid of purpose or otherwise, the search for happiness provides it with pseudo-meaning , enriching life. Perhaps cynics loose the desire for happiness , for their melancholy is now their joy, but the shallowest of pursuits finds a place of great depth in the living.

This pursuit of happiness, manifests, into animals, the contentment from intercourse, food, territory . But, among us, humans, it has driven our lives further, making it, in some ways higher and separate from this arbitrary world.