In the hindi movie 102 not out, a 75 year old father is shown to have bound himself, his happiness, his purpose of life… To his US based son who is extremely selfish and insensitive…
Attempts are made by that father’s 102 year old father to bring him out of that zone and make him realize the abject folly of his blind pursuit… And show him that there are many other wonderful things in life which are mesmerising and source of immense delight… If only he were to free himself of his self imposed misery…
The movie is about how to live life by letting go things that are depressing or bound to fail and find happiness in other things…
Then there are movies (and you choose which one comes to your mind) about how the main character pursues their dream against all odds, perseveres and finds their aim… The never give up mantra… Be it for love, money, a skill, a competition… Anything… The thing though in such movies is that in the end the main character always wins… So the rule is, you don’t give up till you win… Even if the path is full of hard work, failures, etc…
Do you see the dichotomy in these different messages…
When should one let go… And when should one persevere? How do you know if its enough and the pursuit is futile or whether it is something that is surmountable if you just keep pushing? That it is worth the chase of life or the road to lifelong misery?
My posts on victims of own expectations and the cult, both offer a diverse view on a similar irony… People possessed achieve something wonderful when they succeed… And suffer miserably when they dont…
So should one be possessed with a purpose or not?
There are so many people – in fact most of us – who ain’t obsessed… We are flexible and we are able to adjust even after the gravest disaster that destroys current sources of happiness of our life…
Possessed and obssessed people are leaders… But then is flexibility to move on also one of the key attributes to sustainability…
So probably, we should be driven and dedicated… And yet still have the ability to drop and pick something else up if it doesn’t work out…
Does that mouldability come at the cost of our integrity and make us hypocrites at worse or not 100% dedicated at the least? How can one move on and drop something from their mind and heart easily if they attached themselves to it completely? And if they haven’t been fully absorbed by it, how is one then completely devoted and driven by it?
I don’t find any easy answers logically to such things… But I know it’s possible based on my personal experience… I have found myself immersed in things before… at which time, everything else in life was immaterial… And I have been able to snap out of it and move on as well… Maybe emotional amnesia is just one of the symptoms of my inherent moving on nature…
How did I move on though… What helped?
Does the presence of an alternative goal / chase make a difference? Or one who has bound themselves to something are so blinded that they find no appeal in any alternative?
Maybe just the passage of time makes a difference… We grow up or rather out of it maybe… Wisdom… Grey hairs… Knowing what is worth fighting for… What is worth living for…
However look at kids… They are in fact better at moving on… What tempers they throw if they dont get things they want… How enamoured they are with the things they have yearned… And how quickly they can move on to something else as well… They make friends easily and fight and get over fights with them easily…
But adults can’t do it so easily… So guess letting go isn’t a function of age either…
What is really then that I am trying to conclude… Nothing really… This are just rambling thoughts on a topic… And like many lives, its also going to end without any specific end or conclusion… Just a journey of meandering thoughts…
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