Or perhaps do something you've always wanted to do but never got down to it because of parental disapproval, lack of financial support, procrastination, sloth or plain excuses?
Well,one man had the courage to pursue his dream....
He is:
ZOHAN!!!
Or rather....Mr SilkySmooth who'd always wanted to be a hairdresser (barber lah) but never got down to it as a result of National Commitments and the oh so shameful reason of parental disapproval (like hello, we're old enough to make our own decisions?)
Well, the same goes for so many of us who have dreams unfulfilled...To be that tennis star smacking his way to the Wimbledon trophy,
that Valedictorian who got the honor of a lifetime,
the artiste who crooned and grooved to millions of screaming fans.
Or perhaps on a lesser scale, the desire to learn how to play the guitar,
the urge to grow lean and slim or perhaps just passing the science quiz tommorrow morning....
And on an even lesser scale, the malnourished kid (of any colour) who just wants to fill his rumbling stomach with a few spoonfuls of rice,
the cancer-stricken patient who wishes for a cure and a healthy body,
the old lady next door who yearns for the company of her children who have all but forgotten about her...
On a scientific note, our dreams are defined by our yearns and wants, shaped in turn by events occurring amidst our lives, knowledge and societal norms. Just as a child brought up in a tribal village which calls the Amazon Jungle its home wouldn't yearn for a Porsche as he and his tribesmen have no prior knowledge of what a locomotive is, neither would a urbanite relaxing on a divan in his posh Manhattan home constructed within the concrete jungle, which we term the Big Apple,appreciate the emphasis of traditional values and respect for nature held by the the Amazon tribesmen nor seek to understand it...a result of societal pressures to pursue wealth above all cost.
Our happiness is thus determined by the fulfillment of expectations we set for ourselves, subjected yet again to comparisons with our peers. Why do we seek high-performance cars,
exclusive condominiums,
limited edition watches,
branded accessories and private jets?
For comfort (which the elite classes often delude themselves into believing)?Or prestige (which has overtones of arrogance - a frowned upon trait)? While no one disputes that comfort is definitely part of the exclusive package, its true value lies in providing its owners with something others don't possess...a sense of self-worth determined by material goods (or if you prefer a more positive term, physical representations of one's uniqueness).
Yet this is not an affliction which infects only the elite class but a global pandemic particularly endemic in developed countries where individuals at almost every strata of society trade their freedom and happiness on a stock market which fluctuates with an intensity of a Mexican Jumping Bean. A stock market so volatile that the lifespan of each share is about 70 years and shaped by far more factors than Wall Street, Shenton Way and every other stock market in the world put together. To this end, we end up living for others rather than ourselves. Even those who believe themselves to be the mavericks of the society are playing just the role society has set aside for them, with the rebel subculture being embraced, celebrated and commericalised by advertisers and businessmen into T-shirts,music,mugs and advertisements on Coke-Cola and Pepsi...
Nevertheless, not all is lost, all gloomy and bleak....We've been given a choice since the beginning of time to determine how happy we want to be, how we define happiness as it is. To savour the simple pleasures of life, of God's creation and the countless miracles we encounter every single day of our lives...
Of course, there will be detractors who proclaim that such privilege is only for those who do not have to face life's trials of famine, murder, being borne in a land and into a family where they live in fear everyday as a result of religion (eg. persecution of Coptic Christians by Muslims in Egypt), race (genocide of Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust) or nationality(Immigrants settling in a country away from their native homeland).
Such detractors have but fallen into the trap we've been discussing all these while, that our happiness should not be pegged to that of others. While its true that disasters such as being struck down by cancer might bring a patient and his family grief, his life need not spiral downhill. They've been so many cancer-stricken individuals, Elizabeth Choy amongst them, who've never once given up in their pursuit of happiness while healthy youths fall into debt,drugs and depression. We see the poverty-stricken citizens of Bhutan and The Philippines leading an amish life with smiles on their faces while the wealthy grumble about how they've to constantly keep up with the Joneses and gossip endlessly about each other. The comparisons should of course, not be taken as a generalisation of the wealthy and the poor, the healthy and the afflicted but rather as a stout rejection of the generalisation that materialism brings with it happiness and satisfaction in life.
We can choose this day to live life anew, waking up each day to beautiful weather, a shelter over one's head, a full stomach and yet not falling into complacency and entrophy but rather, a self-driven initiative to make the best out of one's life...
~Bliss~
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