We are all born courageous, yes we are! When humans come out
of the womb of the mother they are filled with courage by default. Logic being,
they are coming out from the safety of the womb to an utterly cruel world. The
invisible injection injecting this courage is unbiased and every child has
equal level of courage at the time of being born. This courage remains at the
same level till the child is capable of hearing and understanding the stories
that people around them tell. And with this ascends the fears. For every child
this fear is unique coming from the precautions their family takes to keep them
safe and sound. Some may fear dark, coming from the horror stories of venturing
into a dark room. Some may fear old men/women, coming from the spine-chilling
stories of that person stuffing you in their huge backpack and taking you to
the unknown land. Some may fear animals, coming from the scary stories of them
biting and you having an incurable disease or even death.
Then arrives the bed time stories, ironically called
fairytales, in which without fail there is an evil queen or a witch or a wicked
magician who is out there in the world to destroy the good. And slowly as per
individual perception, children start developing fear of different things.
The next vital stage of life, school, has its own horrors.
From homework, difficult subjects, heartless teachers, bullies to high
expectations of parents, all start constructing a pyramid of fear inside
people. Our mind starts racing swiftly to keep ourselves safe from these evils
of the world and everyone finds their way of living with these fears.
Slowly growing with fears, the fears growing exponentially within
us, we land in the real world. Mostly this is the time when people come out of
the safety net of family, are out on their own and trying to prove the purpose
of our life (Yes, that’s the perception that we all have a purpose). Life becomes
a battle with these fears because now they are your environment, all around you
in college, office, with friends and even out in the streets.
Sadly, a lot of us give up to these fears and lead a
miserable life or just end it. But that is a different topic.
I have dealt with kids and constantly deal with adults. Kids
are braver, still ready to fight courageously, indifferent to the consequences.
Adults, somehow, have lost all courage. This is not a generalization.
We are all like 'Courage the cowardly dog'
We all
try to put forth a brave face but inside we know that our world is breaking
down. A lot of us wish to do so many different things and we blame the shackles
of society. We want to raise our voice against widespread injustice but we keep
it to ourselves, cajoling our inner being by the statement “we have better
things to do”. A lot of us don’t see any meaning in what we are doing and have
far forgotten that purpose which was de facto some years back. We fool
ourselves into believing that this is the right way. We get lost in the world
of Gucci, Louis Vitton and call it success. We get lost in finding ourselves
and call it taking the road less taken. And writing this I feel that either way
the world and we are hopeless.
The only way to come out of this hopelessness is to be
courageous. To follow what your heart says, to stop following the well drafted
directions of the society and make rules of our own. How many of us can really stand in front of
the mirror, be honest to ourselves and say I am living my life my way? (Mind
you! this takes courage) Self help books do not help, the only person who can
help you is YOU. If ever your heart says I wish I could do this, try your best
to do so. If ever your heart says I wish I had done that, its never too late
fellows.
One mantra that has so far helped me is that I constantly
fast forward my life and think that I don’t want to end up as an old lady,
rocking on a rocking chair and telling a neighbour I wish I had known this
before or I wish I had done that before. I want to be the heroine of my life
and not the victim.
Thanks to the people who ensured our safety when we were
toddlers, I am on my feet and still toddling. But it’s fine as long as all are
toddlers. We were pushed out of the womb so we have to fight and probably find
that umbilical cord that injects the courage in us with which we were born.
“A ship is safe in
the harbour, but that’s not what ships are for” – William G.T. Shedd
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