The tragedy of our lives

Happiness, much like everything in life is transitory. It is a momentary phenomenon much like misery. It comes and goes like tides in an ocean. The important thing is that it is entirely a personal experience, which is not easily comprehensible to a next person. Unless of course, if it is reflected externally in the form of spontaneous laughter, smile or a dreamy disposition.
Why are we so afraid to grow old and why remind ourselves of the passing time? If time is so important, why do we feel that we are always running short of it?

The important thing for me is not to let “Time” dominate my life. I should be the one to manipulate “time” to suit my own purposes. Time, after all is as unstoppable as everything in nature. It will carry me through different stages of life whether I like it or not. Humans have simply identified the passing of time externally as young and old, or past, present and future. To me “ Time” is what you make of it. Time is how you use it and how much happiness you get out of it.

If happiness is to be defined, my personal definition would be living life to the fullest doing something you really enjoy doing at the right time. We are often guided by religion or spiritual guidance in our search for eternal bliss. We even contemplate and introspect many theories but often end up confused and capricious. We often experience regrets even knowing that “regret” is only something like smelling a whiff of a scent in the air. Once gone, a moment is gone forever.

Our fates are sometimes guided by circumstances, though not all of it, I must add. For some, whom I categorized as the determined types, they create their own destinies. For others whom I sometimes call “the lucky ones,” things happen in harmony if they put little efforts. Then, there are those who are the “unlucky ones!”

Making the best out of something in one’s possession is also a way of living. However, it is doubtful if they have the real substance of life. Yet, this seems the most common and logical way to conduct our lives because most of us seldom fulfill our dreams. We just exist and work, hoping and dreaming of a better tomorrow. We end up putting our faiths in our hard work and efforts, for a better tomorrow. We work like automated machines. We may complain from time to time but unable to escape the monotony of life that industrialization and institutionalization has wrought in our lives.

We end up as victims of our own creation -the society. We are like prisoners of our social, religious, political and economic dogmas. We stop seeking our true self, “The I” and sacrifice “To Us.” Perhaps, that is why most of us are so lost today. A tragic end to a phenomenon I call “Life.”

Anand E.