Making a decision is sometimes an exercise in self observation. It throws light on the double edged nature of the mind.
This is most apparent when the choices on offer are of equal measure but divergent in nature: career decisions, choice of a life partner, and, changing professions in midlife are examples of such junctions of life.
What appears as solid and most apt looks like an illusion and completely unworthy after a few hours. A few words of well meaning advice from friends and family can turn the tide and yet again you are back to thinking, "what if I chose the first option, rather than this one?" after a while. It can be tiring. You feel as if your own mind cannot be trusted for suggesting to you the right direction of action. You are left in the lurch by your own mind!
All options are good to start with, and yet in practice, you can go along only one path. What to do, becomes a harrowing issue.
One small way out is to imagine how it would feel some ten years down the line if one chooses one option versus another. The emotion attached to that option would perhaps be a more accurate guide. If the option works out well, good, if it doesn't, at least your heart is not pained about the decision.
Have you come across a better way of dealing with such issues?
11 June 2010
10 June 2010
Caller Id
This morning I saw my mobile screen glow up with the caller's name: a prominent individual of our city, who has been consulting me for some time now. By default I greeted him with, "Good morning, Sir". No sooner had I done this I realized that, in another perspective, I was only greeting a cell phone number that was identified with an individual.
There are times when another family member uses an individual's cell phone to make a call, and, I am sure, that there are funny incidents occurring on such occasions when the person answering the call greets the caller assuming that it is the same individual with whom the cell phone number is identified.
Our names, our identities and our social images are like the cell phone numbers: these are tags to help others recognize us from amongst a whole lot of others- a simple code. The trouble begins when the code takes us over! The disease is universal, and blindness to it is equally all pervading.
Are we our codes (names, and our other identities)? What was just a matter of facilitation has gone amok.
There are times when another family member uses an individual's cell phone to make a call, and, I am sure, that there are funny incidents occurring on such occasions when the person answering the call greets the caller assuming that it is the same individual with whom the cell phone number is identified.
Our names, our identities and our social images are like the cell phone numbers: these are tags to help others recognize us from amongst a whole lot of others- a simple code. The trouble begins when the code takes us over! The disease is universal, and blindness to it is equally all pervading.
Are we our codes (names, and our other identities)? What was just a matter of facilitation has gone amok.