My blog friend Stoney posted a lovely article in a social network Sulekha.com which I reproduce below and I also reproduce my comments on her blog post.
“You like scary things… but you don’t like to be scared. How do I show you the things that frighten while making sure that you don’t get scared? The Vampire Man who laughs when you press the green button – you don’t want to hear. The witch whose eyes flash purple when you woggle her broom – you don’t want to see. Look at that nice ghost over there doing woo…woo…woo – want to see? No? Kabir! I keep trying to tell you these things run on batteries – they’re not real. What? No, they won’t suddenly become real…what do you mean ‘how do I know?’ – I know, that’s all!
Kabir, why are we standing like this, doing nothing? What? I can’t hear sweetheart – the music is so loud… What is that?…eat an ice cream and go home?
OK suit yourself…
What is that?…come back when you’re six years old…OK, let’s do that then. Would you like to eat the ice cream in the park? Yes? Good…
Halloween is the easy part, ladduram. Halloween I can deal with. In the morning they will dismantle the Vampire and the Witch and the Ghost…they will switch off the music and fold away the tent…in a few hours it will all be forgotten. Until you’re six years old, that is. But what do I about the things that are out there? Outside the innocence of this park? Outside the security of my pouch?
Because you see, there are things out there that don’t run on batteries that will confront you, ladduram. Scary things of my own creation.
You will find yourself at cross roads all the time. Which way will you choose? Will you be like me – wanting to choose the right way but ending up choosing the other way ?
Justifications…justifications and then more justifications. A thousand right reasons why the wrong thing had to be done.
Don’t follow my footsteps, laddu…don’t! Too many mistakes, too many regrets…too many sins. Let this trail of blood and venom end here with me.
You…you start again. Make a new plan. So, if there is a gift I can give you, other than this ice cream, let it be the gift of love. Love for yourself. Love for others. And love for all God’s creatures.
Let it be also the gift of respect. Respect for yourself. Respect for others. And respect for all God’s creatures.
May your tomorrows be nothing like my yesterdays.”
My comments –
“Stoney, this is a great post as posts go, to express a particular emotion at a particular moment in time. In this case, Halloween.
I have seem many Halloweens and Diwalis and Christmases. I am now in what are known as the twilight years of my life.
I get inspired about life in general and mine in particular by going back often to Viktor Frankl. I quote and I hope that you will get inspired too.
“…..the opportunities to act properly, the potentialities to fulfill a meaning, are affected by the irreversibility of our lives. But also the potentialities alone are so affected. For as soon as we have used an opportunity and have actualized a potential meaning, we have done so once and for all. We have rescued it into the past, nothing is irretrievably lost, but rather, on the contrary, everything is irrevocably stored and treasured. To be sure, people tend to see only the stubble field of transitoriness but overlook and forget the full granries of the past into which they brought the harvest of their lives: the deeds done, the loves loved, and last but not least, the sufferings they have gone through with courage and dignity.
From this one may see that there is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is ture that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the fuuture, they have realities in the past – the potentialities that they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized – and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.”
Viktor E Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning.”
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