Dialogues from the Hindi movie Sparsh (1982 ) :
Following is the meaning of a few dialogues from the movie I found insightful:
I had heard this many times in the past and I thought I had grasped it's meaning, but I was incorrect. Only recently did I realize the essence of it.
For a while I thought that if I reach a milestone in my life I would be happy and content, but that never happened. Once I reach the milestone, there is happiness and contentment and a sense of accomplishment for a brief period of time and then the mind wants to move to something else : a new pursuit. So I realize that as we pursue our different goals as part of our lives, we will collectively spend only a brief amount of time in those goal-achievement/fulfillment periods. Much of the time will be spent in the pursuit or the journey. So its a wise thing to enjoy the good and the ugly parts of the journey and it's wiser to chose those journey's that are meaningful to us. It would be very sorrowful to chose a journey which keeps you unhappy for most of the time, only for the sake of reaching a destination that is still meaningful.
We will never arrive to a place and stay there content/happy forever.
"The Importance of Being Earnest" is a play written by Oscar Wilde and I remember reading this in my middle or high school. My first encounter with the word "Earnest" was this and the mind has permanently linked the word with the above sentence. I don't remember anything about the play anymore. Perhaps I will read it again one day, but that's not the subject of this blog post.
This is the meaning of the word "Earnest" in its adjective form:
Ardent in the pursuit of an object; eager to obtain or do; zealous with sincerity; with hearty endeavor; heartfelt; fervent; hearty; -- used in a good sense.
I am realizing that all it matters is whether I have been earnest in all my dealings. How the outcomes are don't really matter as long as I have earnest effort into the dealing.
I desire this to be my personal standard. It will take practice, but this is my yearning.
Following are my notes from the book HO'OPONOPONO : The ancient Hawaiian practice of gratitude and forgiveness by Carole Berger.
"People can help you in many ways throughout life, but there are two things nobody can give you: curiosity and drive. They must be self-supplied.
If you are not interested and curious, all the information in the world can be at your fingertips, but it will be relatively useless. If you are not motivated and driven, whatever connections or opportunities are available to you will be rendered inert.
Now, you won't feel curious and driven about every area of life, and that's fine. But it really pays to find something that lights you up. This is one of the primary quests of life: to find the thing that ignites your curiosity and drive.
There are many recipes for success. There is no single way to win. But nearly all recipes include two ingredients: curiosity and drive."
source : https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1/april-25-2024
If we view our differences (in various aspects, the things that seem to separate us from others) as our preferences (or our tastes, rather than our identities), I think there would be a lot of harmony between us.
In general we entertain and accept our different preferences and tastes more readily and don't feel threatened by those differences.
One of my favorite columnist is Arthur C Brooks. Publishes articles mostly related to human psychology.
A few lines from his recent article :
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/happiness-time-aging-mood/676964/
I have seen this phenomenon in people close to me who, in late middle age, made a choice to practice character virtues that enhanced life for others. Sure enough, in old age they were absolute superstars of goodness, remembered as such after death.
Start each day by imagining the person you want to be as the years go by: not ruminating on grievances, not wasting time being grumpy, and sharing words of kindness and encouragement with whomever you come across. Notice how this imagined version of yourself makes you feel. The idea is to have this vision become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then, every night, think about ways you can be better still in these areas the next day.
And towards the end:
And therein lies the last lesson to help you prepare for your golden years: Start appreciating seniors more for their natural gifts. The practice of seeing yourself valuing old people will reprogram the way you think and feel about your own aging. That will allay your fears, and free you up to get on with the important business of becoming happier.
For some reason I have always connected with older folks, sometimes there's an urge to ask them questions as to how their life experience was, what were their good choices, what were their regrets, with the intent of learning from their experience. But with a little thought later, I realize that its good to listen to their stories just with the intent of listening ... just like it would be interesting to listen to younger kids describing their wonderful world... and not with the intent of learning. You could definitely borrow some lessons from their lives, but you got to live the life as it comes with a mix of planning ahead and a mix of being open to experiences and sail through the tempests as well as the placid blue waters of the ocean of life.
Santhosh recommend this book (Anne from Green Gables) to me and I borrowed it from the library and started reading it.
The book is based on the character of a 11 year-old (?) Orphan girl living near Nova Scotia in Canada during the 1900s. I found the book really interesting, many a times I would smile wholeheartedly reading through what Anne has to say in the book.. about her various imaginations... her expectations/desires/preferences and her attitude towards life. Quite simple but still beautiful. The fact that I have a daughter who is slightly younger than Anne, I guess makes it more interesting. Provides me a window through which I can peek into their beautiful world.
Some of what she says are quite mature for her age and I feel that's where the author has put her words through Anne.
Here are a few excerpts from the book, which I found worth documenting:
"You set your heart too much on things, Anne", said Marilla with a sigh. "I'm afraid there'll be a great many disappointments in store for you through life."
"Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them." exclaimed Anne. "You mayn't get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, 'Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.' But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed."
From a recent Wired Magazine this was what a 19 year old founder of ChatGPTZero said when asked about what he thinks about doing in life.
Chasing the Derivate
is what he said.
It's an interesting idea and seems a good philosophy to follow in life.
As per Khanacademy, this is the meaning of the mathematical term *Derivative*
The derivative of a function describes the function's instantaneous rate of change at a certain point. Another common interpretation is that the derivative gives us the slope of the line tangent to the function's graph at that point.
Pleasure or Pain is associated with Change in our state. If you are in the stable state and following a function which is a straight line, then the derivate of that function is 0 or a constant. And when you are in this state, then there's no excitement, and life gets boring.
This is my interpretation of what he meant.
But as a counterpoint, you can follow the path of a circle and keeping going along the circle and chasing the derivative, but why? Is life always going to be a chase? From one thing to the other, one experience to the other.. continue chasing the ever unsatisfactory impulses/desires?
I have been on goodreads for over a decade and over this period have found one particular user called Eric Graff quite interesting by reading his reviews.
Makes me think that he is a learned person. He sprinkle's his personal experience in his reviews and that makes it interesting.
Check this out to read the reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/974210-erik-graff?order=d&sort=review&view=reviews
