What matters?
- Sridhar Venkateswaran

All of us are born in this world without any prior consent and forced to lead the monotonous life that damages our adventurous soul. Our whole existence is a laughable irony; we conveniently ignore the soul (which might be the only reality for all we know) and indulge ourselves in pleasures of the physical world, the validity of which’s existence is still under unhurried scrutiny. And to make things dramatic, some people are so concerned about their colour, texture and size that it cracks me up to even think about them. Why should it matter to anyone even if my skin tone is dark? I’d like to hear their opinion on Cartesian Skepticism! Staying with the topic, what matters and if it does, why?
According to me, the single most important thing that matters in any person’s life is his/her mind. The mind is such a complex and beautiful thing; constantly thinking, readily coming up with opinions and ideas, vigorously working to outsmart its counterparts, having a storage of up-to 2.5 petabytes (we still bicker about lack of memory) and doing so much more of which I have no idea. It doesn’t take a biology student to appreciate the beauty of our mind. I am proud to say that I don’t entirely fill my brain with rotten ideas or hold unscrupulous opinion on others based on their appearance. My opinions on people is strictly based on knowledge they have (don’t jump the gun and judge me now, having an opinion is not the same as judging). Everything else in this world is open to radical skepticism except the existence of our mind. Quoting Renè Decartes: I think, therefore I am. Imagine if our bodies are just a perception and it is just our mind hanging in mid-air in a reality higher than ours. In that case, a cat wearing a body armor and combating The Mountain (GOT reference) would have better chances of winning the combat than someone passing us off as an intelligent mind in that metaphysical world of floating brains.
