my nose...

The other day, while we sat in class, I had a very interesting discussion with the bunch of highly self actualized, focused individuals who are doing great things in their field or focus areas. It seems an eternity since I saw such passion in ones eyes that I today admire that persons commitment towards that cause. Where have we all gone off to I wonder, has logic taken such a great toll on us I wonder.
Issues close to ones heart be it geriatrics, children, the environment, water, air, special needs, underprivileged or any other so called specialized areas you may want to take up, I would rather call it a place where a little of your attention, love and understanding is needed. This place which each treasures so much seems to drive one o the level of becoming blind to the cause of the other. There was distaste in a majority of mouths since my argument though supportive of the topic that day (children) balanced itself on different fundamentals and approaches.
Today we live in a world of complexities and paradoxes, a world where the simplest of things can become the most complex to the person sitting beside me; after all God does need something to amuse himself with, so I guess we do have to say – so be it; as though one has a choice. Anyway, the question was simple one, it had only an affirmative or negative answer but in that answer lay open everything one worked and believed for. To save the children at Sivakasi, would you approach the factory owners there to donate money for the cause. Yes or No?
Ethics and morality evoked a ferocious response in the negative, how could one think of such a thing, when it’s the same person who is starving the child, is it morally right on your part to ask them for funds and so on and so forth. I do feel the love behind each of these questions, I feel the passion too behind each of these questions because I too feel them and I too understand them. It is not that I did not ask these questions, I too did a couple of years back and I too felt fiercely protective about it. Today however I will say yes; yes I will take money from such a person and I will use that money to help an unfortunate child. To me it’s a simple question, Would I approach a person and ask him for money to help or save a child; when it is that same person who is harming the very existence of that child. My morality doesn’t have anything to do in this matter, it cannot save, feed or protect the child, it can only protect me. what irritates me most is when I look at it, i stand at a point of confusion where I cant take one of the roads because i know that there is truth in what they say also.
While walking along this thought process, a few previous discussions and memories with friends do crop up. Questions arise which do not have a correct answer or an immediate solution. The solution is within society and with an individual. That carpet adorning your home and keeping your feet warm must have been woven by and beaten by a child since an adults fingers is not dexterous enough, those pair of diamond earrings you have been eyeing must have been dug out of a tunnel so small that adults couldn’t fit into. The chances are more likely that they were since these are child labour intensive industries. Does it mean that you wont buy your fiancée a diamond ring, will you allow your child to play on the cold floor and catch a cold rather than just put a carpet and allow your child to be a child. There are hundreds of such issues and hundreds of solutions, each one very important and correct; it about time we stopped wondering which was more correct or more important and start doing something in that direction.
I so clearly remember PT period in school, where we all stood in a line and took an arms distance before spreading ourselves into a field of aligned dots. While frowning at the sports teacher and on the sun beating down on us, I learnt a very valuable lesson. When I stretch my arms to the front or either side of me, I had to make sure that my arms however I swing them did not touch the person next to me. It was a simple thing actually, all you had to do was think of getting slapped on your head from the back because your friend behind you didn’t stand far enough when we started doing our exercises. Your freedom stops at my nose, be aware and be conscious of your actions. This I think helps me in a small way in being a better human.
I was sitting before two middle aged ladies who have worked towards so much and given so much to society. So tell me about your project, what are your plans, what is your topic of interest, how are you going to change the world and a few similar questions. So I rattled off something that was there in some nook of my mind but they had done this a hundred times before I guess and so didn’t accept my answer. “What are you passionate about?” asked one; I had no answer. She felt me on unsure ground and to support me, provided a few leading questions. What did I have in my heart and what did I strongly feel about, did I want to work with children, education, people empowerment, anything. To date I do not have an appropriate answer, the best way probably to answer it would be with what I learnt in my PT class, but how do I tell someone… my freedom stops at your nose and vice versa, I believe in humanity; its only that much I am sure of. I for a long time believed my calling was children and working with them; because I loved them so much. I still do love them, they mean the world to me and that’s why it probably hurts so much more to realize that I might be wrong. But I haven’t yet found my calling, it can be children, it can anything else and it might be nothing I had ever thought before.