CW 25 2020 | Of Persistence and Experience
Originally published on Wordpress
Side note: CW stands for ‘Current week’. Since daily posts are not feasible at least in the current state, I need to be able to track / tag my posts in some format at least for the ‘future me’ to refer them easily, so kindly bear with me (if at all you care to read these!).
The Pledge
I didn’t write for a week — workload increased, my productivity decreased, what I was writing didn’t seem ‘worthy’ — multiple reasons. Anyway, I was humbled to know no one noticed and asked why I stop writing. But what made me happy was that this didn’t disappoint me / affect me adversely. I always have had an innate worry if all the quotes, posts I share are somewhere to seek validation or get fame — but glad to have it confirmed to myself that is not entirely true — and is a minuscule part now — whether what I write will be liked, shared or well-received, even. My wife sent me a pic — so decided to write whenever I could, about what I felt intensely, even if for a few moments.
Many life lessons (L.L.s, it can also be short for something else in my vernacular, and ironically it’s also apt :P) for me in the past week — will list them out throughout this blog.
L.L. #1: “Pay attention to who you are with when you feel your best”
Also, being silly and being wise are not necessarily two opposite ends of the spectrum. Life is all a balancing act, and only those who can walk the tightrope, survive the longest.
So, be silly enough to miss someone like the desert misses the rain. However, be wise enough to know that the rain doesn’t really care about the desert. :)
Without further ado, let’s begin — for the days are short, the tasks grow longer, lazy labourers prefer to idle even though the “reward” is great, and the “Master” ever-urgent!
The Turn
The optimist in me believes in ideals like persistence, hard work, honesty, determination, dedication, devotion, hope and all the other moral values taught during primary school.
The realist in me knows that the combination of patience and hard / smart work indeed pays dividends over longer term. A simple analogy like — “A stone-cutter hammers away at rocks, perhaps a hundred times without so much as a crack showing on them. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow the rock splits in two, and it’s not just the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” — does make sense to me. I can’t outright reject all ideals.
The realist in me also likes the fundamental message the image below intends to convey.
However, the pessimist in me looks around at all the ‘learned’, ‘successful’ people around me — and I can’t help but wonder — what if, life is a long preparation for nothing, or even worse, something that never happens? Or the worst yet — even when something happens — it is hardly fulfilling and so fleeting that the satisfaction doesn’t last before the aspiration for the next ‘something’ takes its place?
What if, what we call experience, is nothing but disappointment — and there’s no virtue in being old / growing old — all that elders have acquired throughout their lifetime are not lessons on how to thrive, but useless / already outdated lessons of those who survived? I am not sure whether maturity is just another habit we acquire living through an ongoing stream of constant disappointments — as the kid in us ‘walks away’ figuratively, leaving the cynical adult behind. “We mature with the damage, not with the years.”
The Prestige
Talking about ‘Persistence’, 8 years back, my first “paying”, “working” internship ended at Persistent Systems Pvt Ltd, Nagpur.
It taught me a lot of things, for the first time in life — which I had read about previously, but ‘experienced’ myself and have never forgotten since then. So, in no particular order, more L.L.’s
L.L. #2: “Money can be gained or lost. Time, once lost, cannot be gained back.”
(OR, alternatively)
No amount of money ever bought a second of time. ~ Tony Stark
L.L. #3: “Although the world may seem vast and anything we do inconsequential, at the end of the day, on a personal level, all that matters to everyone is love and memories — so make sure people around you feel loved/respected/admired, and ensure their memory of you is a story worth remembering — because you never know when they’ll no longer be an active part of your life. (In most cases, it’s sooner rather than later.)”
(OR, alternatively)
You will be shocked kids, when you discover how easy it is in life to part ways with people forever. That’s why, when you find someone you want to keep around, you do something about it. ~ Ted Mosby
Also it taught me that no endings are final, unless we make them so. Hence if I ever go silent again, without a proper written goodbye, always remember:
Goodbyes are not forever.
Goodbyes are not the end.
They simply mean I’ll miss you
Until we meet again!
L.L. #4: “Farewells are necessary before two people meet again. And if two people are meant to, they will inevitably meet again, after moments or a lifetime.”
