Chasing super models
Everyday I’m bombarded with messages. I see people more eloquent than me, more passionate, more disciplined, smarter ….you get the drift. No amount of rationalization could remove this feeling eating up on the inside of me.
I wondered if everyone were to go after something special is it even special anymore? There is nothing new under the sun, whatever’s thought about or created has already been done before as a wise man said 2500 years ago.
Then I thought about love. The fact that everyone (almost, atleast for some time) finds it doesn’t in any way diminish its power. Each person finds someone unique to love — there’s more than enough to go around. It remains special and powerful because ultimately it is intensely personal.
The same goes for finding that special cause in life or work — the fact that someone else has found something seemingly more rewarding and is being celebrated has no bearing on the rest of us (someone else marrying a super model has no impact on the love between me and my wife). The cause, if it has to matter, has to be intensely personal too. There’s no point in blindly chasing super models.
The beauty of finding someone you love is that they love you back — you feel secure, valued, challenged and energized, you become more of the person you were meant to be or thought you could ever be. The same holds true when you find the right cause, it unleashes capacities in you that you didn’t know existed — you become more alive than ever before.
But love can hurt you too, very badly. There is the danger of it being unrequited or being betrayed or even dying out. Is the answer then to not risk falling in love? Nahh — the risks are merely a test, a test to see how much of ourselves are we willing to sacrifice, what are we willing to lay on the line? Otherwise am I not just seeking people/causes to exploit just to satisfy my desires? A cause that can fulfil you can also destroy you and I’m not just being dramatic. This is to test both our motives and our capabilities. The destruction need not be permanent though, but a call for us to build ourselves up to be worthy.
The racehorse with blinders is a good analogy, but incomplete. In life we are both the racehorse and the jockey. But I digress, the answer then is not just that we have to find something we truly love, but also to realize that if done right, it will be an intensely personal journey, ie, it might only make sense to you (in the beginning) and only you can drive yourself to put in the hard work everyday and find the strength needed to pick yourself up every time you fall.
Sounds bloody tough, unforgiving and without guarantees I know, but can you imagine a life without love?
