Tuesday, September 1, 2009

MULTUM IN PARVO--THERE IS MUCH IN LITTLE

Man has dual contrasting extremes of attitude in mind, good or evil; light or dark; hot or cold; strong or weak; fast or slow, excess or deficient, and so on and so forth. This overwhelms man with no end. Always a choice, always a decision to make, always not satisfied with the result. Duality permeates us from beginning to end, a riddle, a puzzle all the time. Hence, there was felt the need of bringing about the desired results that there were as many theories and beliefs as there were great philosophers and religious institutions that introduced them. Every scripture, indeed, contributed to the different ways and methods by which we may balance the two extremes and achieve transcendence in life.

But man is an intelligible rational being and he is inclined to bring about a more intense unity within himself, which are harmony between his actions and his character as well as his will and his passions. Although his passions are aspects of human flourishing or human well-being, the same must be subjected to the governance of reason, temperance and fortitude. Bringing order to the passions is a means to an end. A person aims to be temperate and brave for the sake of possessing the highest good.

With my experiences in life for a good span of time and have made so many mistakes and had reflected on them, I found out that what is always the case is that, if you want something badly enough, you will always get another. In fact, the one you get is often not exactly what you expected. It is always lacking of what we had hoped for. It’s some kind of, when you’re looking for something you will find another. Indeed, any mobile object that is being pursued for different reasons always eludes or runs away from the pursuer. It would be wholly in keeping with the underlying aphorism “He who chooses takes the worst.”

Considering the nature of man as having an attitude of contrasting views, this is the reason why he is always frustrated than fulfilled. Who would want to have less than the others in business and life? Man is voracious in everything; he is infantile in his desires and always discontented all the time with what he has and craves anything what he has not. People complain of favoritism for others, an ironic complaint; they ought to complain of the insatiability of man.

It is man’s foible that he is always immediately attracted to objects which others have that even for the smallest of pleasure he would risk all and lost all just for greed due solely to the vagaries of chance. Our attitude is that we are fond of idolizing somebody then, bestirred to ride on the latter's coattails. Then we start to adore, worship and follow their actions, their leanings and tendencies. Then, we begin to fantasize and create stories and we fit ourselves exactly like our idol and imagine we are the image and replica of him. Much more, we put him even higher in our esteem and consider him as the be-all and end-all for us. We give him everything we owned just to sit on his table, and just a smile would lighten everything, so to speak. That was probably a more complicated move than simply sorting out the truth. We idolize and copy everyone we like because we are lazy spending the trouble of studying ourselves to know who we really are until we lost track in the labyrinth game of life.

When can we ever learn? If only we would resign our fate that whatever comes to us is just what we are supposed to receive; and that we cannot transcend the limits of our nature, then, we would not be disappointed with our life for we would not be aspiring to be at par or outshine anybody. We just let everything takes its normal course like the “farmer who waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains" because if something is meant to be, it will come together naturally. Whether you love it or hate it, it's yours for life, so accept it. What counts is what's inside.

Let yourself shine with your natural glow

with all its force, purity and splendor

The world was waiting just for you

you’ll get yours yet

however big you think you are

Bring forth Self-respect

for this is the only treasure you can have

that no one, as yet, is suspicious

Be voracious with knowledge and wisdom

for these are the only things

you cannot be considered greedy.

Do not squeeze yourself through the crowd and add to a mad, chaotic scene who all desire to be like those people who have tasted the perks, privileges and glories of the sunshine. Do not think that life is a matter of how you struggle to maneuver and pushed your way into the flow of the crowd like birds in a flock or sheep in a pasture as it could only wreak all kinds of havoc and danger to you. Really, it takes time to inculcate the lessons of life. The less focused and mindful you are, and the more distracted you are, the less you see and can integrate into yourself the complex elements of man which are harmony between his actions and his character as well as his passions. Just wait for your time and just be yourself who is original and cannot be duplicated. Go with the sentiment-- "History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies."

For people who have reached the mountain top of success, you may not be surprised if some will think you are favored by fate. They may have some bases for such a trend of thought since wealthy people have different atmosphere and condition that even the air you breathe is an ocean of difference of what they breathe. With just a snap of a finger like magic you can create anything material that you can think of. You are often spared with road accidents, diseases, calamities and disasters than the poor and destitute. Road accidents often involved public transportations, and the ones who ride at them are mostly poor people. In calamities like flood and volcano eruptions, we often read and saw on televisions that the victims were usually poor people because they live near the shores and river banks, or the mountains as they have no other place to stay. So, their makeshift structures are prone to be washed away by raging waters and so, they are buried alive by landslides, or lahar. In pandemic outbreak of whatever diseases, it is seldom witnessed where wealthy people had been affected. Even in getting old, they age longer because they can afford to be injected with growth hormones costing something only they can afford. With these, who would not classify wealthy people as the elite and the chosen few?

My wish for those who are in the lap of luxury is that, be kind to those who have less in life. You may not think you are more brilliant or hardworking than the others who are poor. Whatever it is, it could be that you were really born to receive that wealth you have. Be that as it may, perhaps it would not be too much to ask you to share your graces to others who are born to receive only so much. These people are hopping from one labor to another getting barely enough to sustain them to face another day. Surely, their children and grand children are doomed to continue the cycle, and cannot walk away from the grooved surface of misery that their parents and ancestors had routinely tumbled as they walked their way if nobody with a good heart like you to lift them up even a breath away from their anchored roots where bitterness in life is mundane that zings the heart. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE MY FRIEND!

No comments:

Post a Comment

 
Your Ad Here