Most of the times we feel as though we are surrounded by setbacks, obstacles, failures, and adversities; both little and big ones. And each time, this results in overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and despondency. The reason is that we are inclined to the negative aspect of life and fail to filter positive points of it. We must not take life as an ‘existential impasse’ rather we should take it as an ‘existential boon’. Absurdist approach to it has to be avoided in order to grab its hidden bounties. We must don the hopeful apparels to it and doff its silly and despairing robes. Thomas Hardy in his novel, ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ so cogently said that happiness is an occasional episode in the general drama of pain. This is the reality of our life. But this bitter reality should not dampen our spirit and vivacity to live happily.
Take life head on in whatever way it confronts you. Life is the blend of blissful occasions and somber situations. If we have a tendency to celebrate successful strokes of our life, we should also have tolerance to bear the unsuccessful and failed moments. We humans are more prone to pessimism than to optimism. Small fizzles and occasional failures dash our hopes; and stop us from aiming further. We must live our life happily in spite of failures. We must stop from being glum and gloomy. We must learn how to handle the failed situations and how to smile away the setbacks. It is a truism to say that life is a kind of lop-sided affair. When I call life a kind of lop-sided affair, I actually mean to say that it has lot of despondency attached to it than glee. It is pertinent to quote Thomas Erikson, the Swedish behavioral expert who says, “Life will always throw you curveballs. It’s how you respond that counts.”
Showing strength and determination at the onslaught of any misfortune, failure, economic slump, or anything that happens contrary to our hopes; are the two buoyant forces that help us to get going happily in our life. Whatever we are facing- be it redundancy, a relationship catastrophe or yet another job rejection- when life goes off-track, we need to follow the right strategy to overcome the aftereffects. Life is what it is; it is more a question of what we make of it than of what happens around us. Life has to be lived in whatever guise it comes to us.
Taking life positively may certainly save us from perishing in the sea of time prematurely. Negative approach to life may surely sever our ties with it untimely. In order to widen the horizon of our expectations and hopes, it is mandatory to look at life by wearing the sanguine specs and gleeful glasses. Besides this, we must associate ourselves with those who think positively about life and should keep at bay those who are full of negative thinking and pessimistic ideology. ‘Stay away from negative people- they have a problem for every solution,’ so says Albert Einstein.
We should not throw in the towel if we fail in our attempts. There is always the second time. Failure is actually the second name of a delayed success. Having said all this, we must keep our pecker up to steer the boat of our life in the unfathomable and troubled waters of fast changing time. By keeping our pecker up, we can save ourselves from drowning into the noisy whirlpool of competitive and fast changing world. Thereby hangs a tale!
Postscript: Men must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness is all. Shakespeare
(The author works as a Lecturer (English) in SED (J&K). He has qualified UGC-NET and JKSET in English and has done Ph.D and M.Phil from, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. His book of poems ‘Sounds of Silence’ will be published in 2024 by Blue Rose Publishers. He can be mailed at: [email protected])
