Random Musings 2009

What surprises me about human beings is that we never learn.

There are so many sayings out there.. learnings .. teachings on what not to do, what to learn from, how to live, what to eat and yet nothing sinks in… I’m not even talking of the big picture, for global warming, plagues, diseases, war, hate cannot be tackled till we learn to live happily as an individual.
I know I will get into a lot of trouble for saying this, and it’s not like I don’t think of all these things. It’s not like I don’t care about the poor or the orphaned or the starving. I feel as bad as the next human being when people die or are hurt in natural disasters or in wars. I feel equal amount of angst at recession or cruelty to animals or any of the big things out there… but I also have now come to strongly feel that what is the point of caring for all that when u don’t know where to start in rectifying your own life.
Why is it that we never learn from our own examples? We sit and feel sorry for ourselves and our plight all the time. Be it a bad job or a good job with a bad pay package. Be it heartbreak or loss of loved ones. Be it kinks in our own personalities, we crib but how much do we do to just be happy.
Happiness is in your own hands is what everyone says. I disagree. How is happiness in your own hands when human beings as a species are social beings? No man is an island and thus if people in your life are not happy or people who surround you don’t make you happy how can u be happy? If you’re healthy but your parent/sibling / husband/child is not your also not healthy, even if it’s just a feeling of sickness in the pit of your stomach you are not healthy either. If your best friend is going through a bad job spell you will feel miserable at the working culture while you might still thank your stars for your job. If you love your job but you hear of the brilliant pay hikes being given to acquaintances even you will feel wretched at your own meager earnings. If you see a really fit person you would envy them while you reach for a packet of fries. And even if you know how to be all that you rarely ever would make the sustained effort over time to be all that. These of course are just influences of exterior factors in your life , then you have the whole gamut of your own insecurities, complexes and emotions to deal with and fight with every minute of every day.. Waking or sleeping.

You will keep suffering disappointment, heart break, stress and worries and no matter how hard u run, you can’t run far.. so how does one achieve the ever shifting goal of happiness?