Carpe Diem!!

With a moot memorial to write in two days without any idea of international law, this probably doesn't seem to be a good time to write a blog but i just can't help it. Carpe diem is one of my most favourite things, probably one of the best ways to live, and with the word around for the last four days in the form of our college fest, i need to blog to glorify the great concept of carpe diem.

I always tend to relate the specific term 'carpe diem' to the movie 'Dead Poets Society' from where i got to know of the term but the essence of carpe diem is what i always felt and still feel as something necessary to keep me alive or to keep anyone alive. 'Seize the day' as the term literally means, it implies a lot more than that (at least in my perception). Though it means that one should live in the present and utilize and enjoy the present to the fullest and not let future concerns/worries ruin the present, it should not be misunderstood as a careless attitude, rather it is an instant-specific carefree attitude which tells you to not bother about future consequences only when they go to the extent of restraining you from living in the present. It saves people from being what i might like to call 'losers' as it is just when you are about to lose your precious potentially enjoyable present that  carpe diem comes to the rescue! And life seems to be simpler and satisfactory and happy if one is able to extract as much as possible from extractable time i.e. the present rather than whining for the unalterable past or worrying/getting confused for the unprecedented/unpredictible/uncontrollable future. Carpe diem would not, however, mean that you ignore the obvious consequences that lie ahead of the present acts.

An illustration of this was on for the last four days here in college. The essence of carpe diem seemed to be illustrated totally. Over cautiousness took the backseat and despite the moot memorial and project submissions, people participated with all vigour. It was evident how each one of us has talents (which might not be realized or utilized just because of a lethargic or over-cautious attitude) and the best thing that would lead us to utilize those talents was 'carpe diem' (pun unintended!). It indeed is amazing how at one moment you might feel nervous or short of self confidence or  disinterestedly lethargic about doing anything and you think about carpe diem and simply go into everything with focus and concentration. But all this to prevent the loss of present. 

Therefore, it again appears how living in the present and enjoying it makes life worth living and the only reason why people get over cautious and start worrying about future is that they lack the confidence and self trust to face any future developments. Future remains as mysterious and unexpected as it is and the only difference that exists is that whether you reach your future by enjoying the present and extracting as much from it as possible or by sacrificing excessively those resources of the present to reach the future which could have been enjoyed/utilized and still the same future could have been reached.

So the bottom line reads that carpe diem is something which when correctly understood, makes life 'life' but for that one needs to be self-confident about facing anything that future has to offer and should have enough self control and prudence to practise carpe diem only for the benign/enjoyable things which might be sacrificed due to over cautiousness and excessive concern about the future and not for those things/activities which have prima facie consequences to the detriment which could not be even justified. Thus, a present-centric concept of carpe diem needs to be combined with prudence but at the end of the day, it will serve no purpose if the present gets wasted. So finally here's a post about my favourite approach - 'Carpe Diem'!!

Have a life... Move On!

Okay, after the last few days of quite a lot of happenings and non-happenings (tangible non-happenings but a lot of metaphysical happenings), i finally sit down to blog my mind out. I think it's going to be a big post!

I finally returned home after some anxious awaiting and a gradually stocked up excitement but with mixed feelings and realization of the diversified changes. I spent the entire Sunday staying at home, watched the entire india-new zealand match with dad, spent time with mom, chatted with my sisters on screen trying to feel their virtual presence; with the coolers on, cold watermelon, Sunday-special home food (pasta and chicken being indispensible!), cricket match, a deep siesta and family, I felt as if I was back to my middle-school summer vacations (one of the best days ever!). Then after dinner, as I went out to the porch and front open campus, I could sense a lot in the slightly pleasant, cool and soft breeze that was soothingly rushing into my hair. It was the March breeze, the breeze with the extremes of feelings and memories blowing in the month which used to be so. There was this tension of exams in it, then there was this relaxed feeling of getting over with exams and a short free time to enjoy exhaustively and extremely in it. I could visualize my friends with their bikes on my gate or myself with a book and a cricket ball. That feeling of emptiness in the school premises after the exams and the planning of parties in our parking area. I knew all this was gone now, but I was too happy missing them rather virtually reliving them despite realizing the futility of it. I could've called a few friends who are here back home and hung out with them, but I just wanted to be in memories.

But now I know the reality, I cannot go back in time and relive those days but can make the present days worth reliving later, so I decided to think of the college ahead. However, the nostalgia still lingers inevitably on each visit back home. So I realize that we have to move on with the changes, try welcome them so that we can later reflect upon them and feel the same vibes and joyous excitement as we do now. One thing which is like an axiom of life is that we realize anything once it is gone, we know we like anything once we start missing it and for that, change is inevitable and good to be so! As I missed my middle-school days, so did I gradually miss the high-school days, reflecting upon the change that had occurred and had been successfully utilized/enjoyed. Talking about change, it is equally true that if you compare any situation before and after any change and feel like laughing at the prior situation, it means you're doing good and that's how I feel many a times. And talking of changes and improvements, you may never know what may happen next, how things may take shape in future and that's where the limitation to the 'larger picture' lies and the policy of carpe diem comes to the fore.

Today I was talking with a genuine stud friend of mine, all about the desired balances and preferences of life and inter alia we realized how erratic future usually is, erratic w.r.t. the larger picture as seen by us. Our conversation started with a rather sad topic of 'death' and gradually we talked how we could never have imagined a year back whatever situation exists now and neither can we visualize the larger picture as we never know whatever may happen next. However, humans as we are, we can never give up thinking about future and basing and planning our actions and placing our preferences consciously on the 'larger picture' as we see it. However, first of all, the larger picture turns out to be different from what everyone might perceive individually and secondly, placing our preferences is though subjective but is based on a common ultimate aim. That ultimate aim is to get satisfied which never happens absolutely and obviously can never happen absolutely. However, on a metaphysical level, satisfaction is achieved by an inherent social desire of keeping certain relations with certain people.

The logic behind it goes like this - another axiom of life is that ultimately self interest prevails over any other interest, but what is the purpose of self interest? Survival probably, but again, why does one want to survive? Why does one want to succeed and improve? The answer lies in another axiom of life which is that everything in life is relative and is quid pro quo and therefore every activity of every person ultimately has something to do with any other person. Hence, we reach the ultimate conclusion of basing everything towards establishing/maintaining certain relations with certain people. Now what this conclusion explains is the presence of emotions as the inherent and distinctive characteristic in us and their role and significance (latent if not explicit) in shaping our decisions and preferences. When the decisions are based explicitly on what one wants/feels they are generally considered stupid on account of being devoid of reason and reason is generally observed in exclusivity with emotions and the immediate desires and in accordance with the 'larger picture' more sophistically put as 'practicality'. The value system generally observed is materialistic and if value-based economics is extended to include the intangible metaphysical elements i.e. emotions, they would supercede if not equate the material values that people consider while making choices.

The solution, according to me lies in striking a balance between the 'larger picture'(as observed individually) or practicality (as perceived subjectively) and the policy of carpe diem i.e. to seize the day and enjoy and cherish whatever we can in the present without ruining it by worrying about the future as we never know what it may be like. This way we can enjoy the surprises of life without predicting/expecting anything about and from the future and at the same time face whatever future has to offer. Neither of the two approaches are perfect individually but both are optimum when kept in balance with each other. So what we are left with to keep in mind is that changes are a part of life and we are supposed to move on with them,  neither getting too much into the past nor ignoring it altogether and neither ruining the present worrying about the future/'larger picture'/practicality nor leaving it totally unconsidered. Fear is how we all fall and fear about the future consequences of present developments is what moves the srongest of people, so lets just live the moment and face the future optimistically and happily.

Obscurity of the far sight..

I remember reading it somewhere, 'An atheist is like a person who is all dressed up but doesn't know where to go'. Being a theist with a somewhat different and customized definition of God, I though use this quote once a while to mock at atheists but the truth is, it seems, that not just an atheist, we all are dressed up, rather perpetually dressing up without any realization of where to go or where we are going. It is scary when realized but we do not have any idea of what's going to happen next. But come to think of it, there wouldn’t be any thrill or fun in life if we knew about future. All fun lies in not expecting (does not mean not hoping) anything because if you expect everything to be good, you won’t be as happy at everything being good as you would’ve been if you didn’t expect everything to be good. 

            Today, i am slightly free all of a sudden, moot memorial submitted - something that took a few nights' sleep and on a positive note, drowned me into work to not bother any other stuff. I feel good thinking about it, wish as if the same enthusiastic focus and drive continues with everything. But to try and look at the larger picture, i feel myopic, almost as if there is no end to what i am trying to vision. I feel very scarily aimless or rather unsure about the aims and objectives to be achieved. I try finding out the preamble to the Act of life, infinite as the long title of this Act is, I try using the doctrine of pith and substance to get the intent of the Creator while enacting the Act of life. And I end up conceding to the point of nothingness. It's just like the opening words of the song 'boulevard of broken dreams' which goes.."I walk a lonely road, the only one that i have ever known.. don't know where it goes but it's only me and i walk alone.."

            Doing anything honestly and earnestly without the concern for the ends or the results is what i perceive as living in depth and to the core. We all know what things might probably end up in but we don't realize our purpose of doing them or rather the purpose of our purpose of doing them. We just keep living without realizing where we are heading to. That's why it's best many a times to just follow carpe diem and let the time take its own course. However, many a times we feel like defying the time from taking its own course but that's how time takes its own course and makes us strive to defy it. So often we lose patience and start craving for recognition, achievements, superficial superiority and give in to competition. This again as usual, makes me conclude at striking a balance between the active approach and patience.

Talking about the place of recent realizations for me, i do concede to the fact that this place can depress people very easily and has a strange sadistic romanticism where people (barring a few exceptions) know where they are going wrong and why they don't like the place, still keep enjoying the dissatisfied feeling and the rock bottom energy levels. But afterall it depends on how you want the place to treat you. Everything in life is quid pro quo. And after moaning about theamount of work we have in such a place, I now do not wish to have free time here, I just don't want not to be busy. 

            Anyway, with the resort of such postings, I try to reflect how disastrous it becomes when I get free and write down all such crap. Now that I have realized the futility of concerning the myopic eye which fails to look at the far-off (not larger) picture, I again try infusing carpe diem but no, how can I seize the day? it is night right now! The only way I can do that is by dreaming of it in my sleep till a 'day' actually starts which can be seized.. (I hope the literal meaning of these sentences would be the last to come to mind in presence of a strong and beautiful latent implied meaning..).