Shifting sands

As we continually look for stability and certainties in our lives as demonstrated most vividly by the lifestyles we seek, the jobs we go for, the education we pursue and the demands we have for our lives as well as for others, we failed to realize, or rather, refuse to acknowledge the fact that everything changes, including people.

I have seen priests becoming demons, and demons becoming angels. I have seen the good turn bad and the bad turn good. And in all these, there is only one thing constant – change.

Whether some would consider it evidence for the evolution of the human species, I wouldn’t know. Admittedly, I am not a specialist in that field, nor have an interest to study that field in detail either. But if it’s any consolation, I am not talking here about the evolution of humans, rather, the evolution of humanity. That is, the evolution of social interactions, the evolution of self-realisation and the evolution of thought.

So what on earth am I driving at here?

Well, I know that in many varied circumstances, we all seek some form of assurance, some form of certainty in which to live our lives. That is why we harbour dreams of our ideal partner, our ideal lifestyles, ideal homes, ideal jobs and even ideal ideals (philosophies on which to base our life principles on).

Yet, this is all too fundamentally flawed, fantasies we’d like to see. Even though we know that change is constant and there is never assurances in life, nor will there be, we’d still like to think that we are special way above everyone else and that it’s all going to be different for us somehow.

I’m so sorry to burst your bubble. We’re not. It’s just that it’s happening to us and that’s why we feel the pinch more than anyone else.

Having said that, we can formulate and crystallize our sense of self actualization or as some would call it, self discovery, to deal with our lives that’s less than perfect.

See, for us to be able to see and admit to ourselves that change is constant, even within ourselves, is the first step towards dealing with fluid elements in life such as change. Knowing and acknowledging that we can change from being a priest to a devil (and vice-versa) at the flicker of a moment, we can then learn also of ways to stabilize and make our thoughts and emotions constant to a certain degree for that’s about as realistic we can ever come to encapsulating constant-cy.

Some call this “coming into one’s own”, others, more crudely as “getting old” and therefore becoming more “sage-like”. I’d like to just call it as self-actualization… or as the Bart-man, Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet : “This above all: to thine own self be true.
And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

So, first step to self-actualization? Acknowledging the truth that nothing is ever constant except change… both in others and ourselves. Know our weaknesses and strengths and formulate our principles more realistically, not by the standards the society has set, but rather, by our own self-actualizations.