Monday, November 10, 2008

Average is OK

'I wanted my children to be the BEST; anything wrong in that?' my mom used to scold me... Well, I wasn't (still am not) the best in anything, but whats wrong with that!

Having been a regular kind of kid, a regular kind of student, a regular kind of professional, I am leading a very regular kind of life. I do want to be very famous and very rich and very powerful and want to remove poverty from this world; and these are very regular kind of desires. Like a regular guy, I have fallen down and continued stumbling and have simply carried on; allowing time to blur my memory. Very much like a regular person I think I am unique, I am capable, I am bound to be successful, etc etc. And like an ordinary human-being, I allow myself to forget my dreams. Very regularly, I conflict myself.

I want to be 'big' (physically, I have achieved it!). I want to 'change the world'. I want to be influential and 'pull some strings!'. I want to be a 'contributor to society and not a burden'. I want to be a 'leader of men'. I want to be 'rich'.
Everyone wants these things, so whats great about me? Maybe the truth is nothing. And that might be so difficult to accept. I live thinking that 'someday' my dreams will be realised, but dreams are realised through sweat, blood and sacrifice; none of which i am willing to give. And that is difficult to accept. But if six billion people become big and powerful and rich, there will be a crisis. A crisis that will ultimately result in 'average'.

It is okay to be average I guess. Like the song from Fiddler on the Roof, 'If I were a Rich Man...' proclaims I would do a lot of things If I were a rich man!

Big is glorified. It may not be so enjoyable to be hugely successful after all. If I have to first work hard at being successful and then worry about how to continue being so; I would rather be average and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Screw success. I may not be big, rich, powerful or influential; but I am lazy, I love food, I love movies, I love hanging out with friends and I better be happy! Not many people can afford these things! As long as I am me, I am OK. I am average and Average is OK.

PS: A friend recently said 'I am not in a hurry to achieve something yet'.