Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Cross roads

Life, is a journey. When we are little, our parents teach us the ropes of how to walk it and walk a part of the way with us. Then, one fine day, just as the child graduates from his/her infallible tricycle to an unstable bicycle, we're on our own. Just the magic of being on our own and making our own decisions is inspiration enough to get us started. We want to prove ourselves and sometimes believe that we are the epitome of creation, such is the audacity of youth. Soon enough, we come upon cross roads and realise that our beloved path, now branches into many different directions. We become dimly aware of similar situations our parents had faced while we were still making sand castles on the beach. Some of these paths eventually converge, some have a better view, some are dead ends, some have company, some don't, and so on. The bewildering diversity of life becomes a part of our concious experience. As it usually happens, our initial decisions are made with the help of our parents and friends and the burden of a particular choice being made doesn't rest heavily on our shoulders. Things begin to get complicated further along the way. We find ourselves increasingly alone as we are forced to choose one path over the other. Some invoke God to help in the decision making. Some invent purpose and derive their choices from this invented purpose. Some declare the entire journey to be absurd and contemplate on suicide being the only non-trivial question. Some find that there is no meaning to existence at all and the business of decision making, futile. Some go where inertia takes them. Its like looking down a kaleidoscope.