Of late, I've been reading self-help books. No problem finding them around every corner these days, since they breed like veritable rabbits. Some are what I would term as very me-too: basically a clever distillation of things said before, masked with the chicanery of words. But now and again, once hits a gem. Something that changes your perspective,... or at least shifts it subtly enough for you to be able to comprehend a little bit more that you did before. In the end - comprehension leads to awareness, and I am assuming that that is the end-goal.
But there is a deeper question emerging: and it has something to do with the context of a life. I'll quote from Hawking, who said that we are an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. Or think about the new ring of Saturn discovered recently (not really new then, is it!) - one so large that it would take a billion earths to fill it. The point I'm trying to make is that - life itself is a mere blip on the horizon of the universe / eternity, depending on the scale you choose. So what then, sets me apart from the illiterate scratching his head next to a dried up well in a remote Indian village with no electricity? Way I see it - the only thing that will separate us when we both buy the proverbial farm, will be that I will have eaten a couple of hundred more hamburgers than him, had a google account, watched Christina Aguilera reach #1 being Dirty, and paid a fortune to be insulted by attractive flight attendants on economy class. Get my point?
My wife says that the difference is that life experience makes me (or those of us in economy class etc..) more aware. And the more aware we are, the better choices will all shall make. Well, some of us at least. (Is that a groan I hear from Mr Woods?)
Nevertheless, will anyone remember my name when I am gone? And why is that important at all, since I will at best be cosmic cow-dung by then.
I'll let you know when I get the answer.
