Warmth and comfort

Sometimes, all it takes for a person to understand they have everything within their hands is the realization that all life is fleeting. Death is the great equalizer, and the our reaction to the moment when we finally get it, when we finally understand that life is a one way street, that reaction defines who we are as a person.

I'm not talking about how we react to the fun-fact that we are but brittle building blocksfor future generations, but rather, how we react to an experience that really opens our eyes and shows us the vast, inky black infinite and our own insignificance in the grand picture. That moment comes to us all sooner or later. It may come to us on our death beds, or the first time we really, truly fall sick, or the time when we witness the death of a loved one, and it is different for us all and we all react differently to it, but the fact remains, that we all go through it.

That understanding can lead to many different reactions. Some people freak out, some people turn to a life of hedonism, some people start tallying up their punya points and take appropriate next steps in order to ensure a satisfactory end-life review. And then, some people decide to let go of all cares and enjoy life to the fullest. There have been many movies, stories, comics etc featuring one of the above reactions as a premise (Dasvidaniya was a brilliant execution of the last one, for example) , to the point where such reactions have become a cliche. But then again, things become a cliche only because they are popular.

Soldiers in the field often have what is called 'The thousand yard star'. It is said that only battle hardened soldiers who have truly experienced the horrors of warfare have that look (for an excellent example, see Full Metal Jacket, or google Marlboro Marine). That look comes as much from physical exhaustion, as it does from phsycological trauma, and it is said that it stays with the soldiers for the rest of their lives. It is a haunting, frightening gaze, the look of a man who has seen the horrors men are willing to commit on each other in the name of the larger picture.

A mustachioed dude once said that one death is a tragedy, and a million deaths are but a statistic. People have debated on this again and again, but the fact remains, all the deaths and torture and sadness that occured in the past is something that most of us will never experience in our lifetimes, although millions right now are going through tragedies and violent abuses that would send a shudder down the spines of some of history's most bloodthirsty warlords. You who read this blog or tweet from the comfort of your homes, you probably don't know what real sadness and horror is, and neither do I. There are things that no human being should have to go through, and people go through those things day in and day out without respite. We all know that the world is fucked up place and that we are all truly lucky, but we don't know just how fucked up this world is.

A person who I knew from the internet died in Libya a few months ago. He wanted to write a blog and travel the world. He will never be able to write a popular blog or share it on twitter. I, on the other hand, started at least three blogs that died after less than ten posts because I am lazy. That was all the perspective I needed for me to have my own moment. All of us have one life, but not all of us are lucky enough to be able to do what we want.