The equity to reality…
After all these years in a roller coaster ride in a super chaotic world, I think I understand something when it comes to the equity attached to reality. How much is too much ? I personally feel too much realism stifles you because you limit your capabilities within the prickly pillars of what others think is possible.
If man were realistic, he wouldn’t do space travel, build rockets, spaceships, visit the moon or plan on visiting our next door neighbor, Mars. I feel to achieve the improbable , you need to dream up the impossible. Today, the idea of Mars colonization seems probable albeit difficult but not impossible thanks to our unrealistic forefathers who first made the ‘almost impossible for everyone else, possible. Only the slightly deluded I believe, create history.
When the regular aunty labels you a witch/wizard or outright crazy, their template of reference is often themselves and what they could and could not achieve. If you follow their template, your life too will be spent gawking and jeering at others. To me, that is the definition of a life wasted. Either pave your way, make way for your fellow compatriots or at least get the hell out of the way.
Realism although does keep you grounded. It keeps the fluff around in check. A dash of occasional delusion with eternal optimism propels you forward while reality gets you ready to accept the setbacks if and when they do occur. Having a flight of ideas is alright as long as you can create something beautiful out of it and your ego doesn’t take flight along with. To me being only realistic is extremely depressing. It is like letting the naysayers win and joining them in their well of limited possibilities.
Personally, I like a healthy balance of the two. Realism gives you a good nights sleep while with with eternal optimism you will have Shantanu Da’s , ‘Bhuj gaya tha kyun diya’ playing as the BGM of your life. Beautiful song, beautiful lyrics and beautiful rendition. If you understand Hindi, do hear it.
I sometimes wonder. Who decides your limits and your capabilities? Like I said, with the right encouragement, they are malleable. Consider humanity’s milestones. When I first heard of the Mars Mission, my immediate reaction was ‘People have gone nuts’. Haven’t we wrecked up our planet enough and can’t straighten things out here, but we are set to propel ourselves a million miles away to try our luck there. But, what if everybody who lined up before me thought the same way? Would science and technology progress to where it has today?
Maybe an underground rail system, colonizing Mars, extracting resources from the moon, intergalactic space travel are all remote possibilities and it would be criminal to discourage the idea. Even on a personal front, when you discover and re-discover your capabilities, only then can you know the true range of your possibilities. Amen to that.
