Is There a Positivity Thermometer?
We often hear requests
from people asking us to be happy and cheerful. “Be Positive”, they say. And I
am like, “Yeah! That is my blood group.” My poor jokes apart: “Is this Universe
listening to you?” Wouldn’t that be a lot of noise?
I have comfort in think
whatever I want as no one is judging me in my head. When someone asks me to be
positive it is like I have a traffic cop in my head, diverting all the “Bad
Thoughts”. This led me to thinking two things:
1.
Who defined Good
and Evil?
2.
Does the Universe
not go deaf with so many people emitting their thoughts to it?
Let’s take it one by
one. The definition of Good and bad is a hoax. The truth is, there is no clear definition.
Life is in shades of grey. Same thing is really Good at one instance and really
bad at another. Do I sound confusing? Fear not! There is a simple explanation
behind this. Unni (Lovely character in the book “The Illicit Happiness of Other
People” by Manu Joseph) believed that there is no Good in this world. Good lost
in a battle to Evil. Evil infiltrated to our world in 2 forms: Apparent Good
and Apparent Evil.
Think about it for few
seconds, it all comes to you. Are you closer to being a Good person if you are
God fearing and trusting? Or are you just not strong minded to debate other
possibilities. Why is being a Good person so difficult? See the ideals we have:
Buddha, Jesus, Lord Rama and the 20th Century’s Mahatma Gandhi. These
are not stretched targets, it is just impossible. I love this book “The
Difficulty of Being Good” (Gurcharan Das). Not because I am an ardent reader
and read the whole damn thing (I did not, I promise); but because of the honest
title. It is really difficult to be Good the conventional Good.
I surely do not know
who defined Good and bad. But I do know this: It is a big bloody scam. You keep
running behind this mirage like golden ideal, you forget to love yourself in
that sprint. It is like Moral Anorexia,
world full of Goodness models, wanting to be that perfect size zero (zero EVILness).
We never appreciate the beauty of shades of grey. Each blurry line gives you a
new possibility, a new destiny. It is like one of those books where you get to
choose the next page and decide the story. If life were just black and white,
it would be too easy. To do or not to do is a constant question.
We have established
that we have no clue as to who came up with the laundry list of “Good and Bad”.
This is a good thing. I would not eat food from the floor; God knows where it
came from. So do not take hand-down morals too. Build your own. Jaggi Vasudev
said that nothing is yours not even your thoughts, which is kind of true. It is
mostly just old wine in a new bottle. Choose your wine and its flavor wisely.
Am I confusing you? Good,
my objective has been established; because right here you should not trust me
either. Trust is a great thing. But blind trust is necrosis of that
relationship. Take your time figure out what you think is right and stand up
for it. Do not keep thinking what others will think about it. Everyone is a
hypocrite and we all love to gossip. Even if you were a saint according to
current Goodness standards you would be called innocent and not shrewd. Stop
seeking external pat on the back and march ahead.
Now that we are happy
with question one (Yes we are happy. This is my wine, deal with it), let’s
consider question two. Is the Universe listening? Mitch Albom is one of my
favorite authors. In his latest book the Time Keeper, the protagonist is the
man who first measured time and hence cursed us all into this rat-trap. Time
and its effect on us can be saved for another day. The protagonist (The man who
invented time) was curse to be immortal and listen to every scream by a person
about time. Sometimes we scream that time goes too slow and sometimes too fast.
The fact that he was listening to voices for millions of years (I do not
remember the timeline, go with the flow already!) was his punishment for doing
greatest harm to all mankind: finding time.
If you extend this
theory, is it a person called Universe who made up negativity? Is that why it
is cursed to listen to us wailing? Is there some respite it seeks with the
positive thinkers? Or are they just pissing the Universe off?
Universe’s habit of eavesdropping
could be aligned to the story of “Pandora’s Box” as well. Once all the Evil was
let out, it was Hope that saved the day. Is the Universe trying to undo a dreadful
mistake? Did it release all this pain and misery? Did it sprinkle optimistic
people to balance out its poor job? We will never know. But it is fascinating to
think, isn’t it?
In case you have slept
in mists of my musing (for which I forgive you), here are the key take-aways:
1.
There is no Good
and Evil that is universal. You have a wonderful brain and hopefully a values system,
please use it
2.
Grey is in! As
we are burning the planet down; understand that there will be situations of
ethical dilemma. Throw out the ethics and think what you would do. Ethics is
often misleading and too righteous to be implemented in real life
3.
Trust Darwin! It
is nice to be giving but not by chocking your own needs. Survey says that most
religious men suffer from head ache post sex as their mind is conflicted. They
had fun but God thinks sex is a sin. This conflict of ideas causes migraine.
Trust Darwin, evolve with time and need
4.
I do not know if
the Universe is listening but by all logic it is as twisted as you are. If it
were that Good, it should not be eavesdropping without your consent. Birds of a
feather flock together
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