Have you ever wondered that we might be like various blocks of a puzzle and our world when united is one solved puzzle as a whole? It just happened to me a while ago during my fits of contemplation. Read on and see if you agree.
We are like the pieces of a puzzle. Neither perfect nor complete. So there is one block that completes either one or multiple others. There are some people who complete us or many others at once. Sometimes we are the middle piece of that puzzle requiring many people to complete the space and meeting the requirements of them too and sometimes we are the side blocks requiring the support from just a few other incomplete pieces. Here by completing the requirements I mean any sort of interdependence viz. emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual, financial or any other.
So we live in a world where we need each other to attain a perfection and a great life for sure. Our weakness is covered by their strength and our strength is enhanced by their efforts and vice-versa. Just then we look at our creator and smile back and say now we know why He did not make us that perfect- appreciating this socially dependent life.
Author's Note: Do you feel so too? If yes, your feedback is welcome. If no, I want to know that perfect and isolated happy block that is not the part of this puzzle!
let us suppose... humans are like puzzle; then we must solve it ....but every puzzle is not made to be solved for; some are meant to be just puzzle with no solution.
ReplyDeleteso there are two ways to live with puzzles :
1. continously solving puzzles for ever and ever
2. stop solving anyone of them;
and life works with both ways either you take it as a puzzle or no-puzzle.... and there is third way also...half puzzle & half no-puzzle!!
this is a personal apperception.
-----------------------------------
Out of the cradle
onto dry land...
here it is standing...
atoms with consciousness
...matter with curiosity.
Stands at the sea...
wonders at wondering... I...
a universe of atoms...
an atom in the universe
~~~ Richard Feynman
Pratibh first of all thank you for the lovely poem. It adds meaning to the post when u share those wonderful writings.
DeleteSo are you talking about the people with no solutions or the isolated blocks even if imperfect?
As you have read, I did not talk about solving them but I talked about having somebody to fill up where you lack!
OHHh...missed the main point mentioned by you in the post.. 'll read again and see
DeleteYepp Sure :)
DeleteQuite a fresh take using an old metaphor- comparing people and puzzles! We are complex sets and then permutations and combinations of different pieces, we make trillions more possibilities. While some of these pieces just fail to fit (keep running away getting wasted with friction), some do perfectly, or after a while of testing, levelling each other's edges with frictions.
ReplyDelete(And since there are so many possibilities of creativity skimming the surface content rather than diving in, odds are against our ever understanding what is being said.)
Now, I also firmly believe that we don't live in a universe but are beings of multiverses. Each of us has his/her own universe, the way we perceive their surroundings, people around, that's our individual perception. Some universes harmonize while others make cacophonies. Still no universe exists in isolation, gravity is always on the go, however feeble it's force be, however strong our defence mechanisms.
I once heard a part of this poem in a movie, again another metaphor harmonizing with what you said:
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
~John Donne
P.S. Really cool accompanying graphics.
Wah! and i feel that should have been a post... I have read and re-read what u wrote and i do agree with you.
DeleteNice poem. Suits the idea! Thanks to you too for making it meaningful and worth a read.
and thanks for appreciating the graphics ;)
Interesting take and there is some grain of truth in it . However reality is little more nuanced . Interdependence is good if you understand true nature of it ( most people don't ) otherwise most of the time we feel shortchanged and life seems unfair . this cause a lot of pain .
ReplyDeleteHumans live through their lives oscillating and balancing between two forces: Identity (who am I ?) and environment ( why I am here ? ) Any discussion on the topic must be clear about its stance on role of interdependence in both aspect .it's not explicitly clear here what you support.
I think interdependence in identity is inescapable . I wish its not like that but harsh reality of life is that We are shaped by world around us. Most of us define who we are in relative comparison to others , Our aspiration , Our Dreams everything is derived by what we see around us. this arrangement works for most of the humanity . But for some it doesn't work. they are the misfits , the piece of puzzle which fits with no one . Like Nunez in Country of Blinds and Mougli in Jungle Book . They have little understanding of their true and intrinsic identity and because they don't try to understand it and society never tries to educate them about it . So Like Moguli , they spend much of their lives being being a "Man Cub " trying to be accepted in a "Wolf Pack " . I have been there . Its a shitty place to be .
Other part of this puzzle of identity is the role of surrounding ( why I am here ? ) : What is the purpose of life . What difference our existence make in the scheme of things ? and Blah blah Blah . Most of us answer this with interdependence (relative to other) . ie : Purpose of my life is to be a good < insert your thing here > .
I know very few folks who can answer this question without involving third party approval . which means that pursuit of their life will be useless if they are the only person in world . A person who write a good poetry or compose a great symphony of music they can enjoy it even if they are the only one alive . but sadly out side of artistic pursuit this can't be said about many other thing. Certainly not about software development :) .
I think society should help Individuals to find its true calling but most of the time society tries to shape our inner calling and ask us to settel for something which is middle path . thats why their is so much mediocrity in world and thats why most of the original thinkers and creators are hard to work with and perceived as anti social bastards (some time very well deserved ) . only way interdependence can be of any virtue is when it help individual to attain the purpose of their lives without corrupting / polluting its essence .
Like Howard Roark Says in Fountain Head " To get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences. The work, not the people. Your own action, not any possible object of your charity.The only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself. My work done my way."
I seriously recommend that you should read this Book .
I recommend you read Fountain Head by Ayn Rand .
Okay so now this comment initiates the actual discussion I believe.
DeleteYes I agree with you when you said interdependence is good if u understand the true nature of it.
Humans are caught up between two questions "who am i?" and "why am I here?" to seek the truth behind their existence. Where are the other questions viz. where am i? who are they? why are they here? why are we here? why I am not perfect? why is there an idea of one super hero in the fictions and why not everybody being one?
I totally understood it when you said that we are carved up by the world around us. and there might be misfits, but those misfits belong to a different puzzle game and sometimes may be you need to search your own world. Like you gave example of jungle book- where Mowgli lived with animal instincts rather than human- and he focuses on random plays, prey hunting, food gathering. But as he grows up he finds people like him, and finds himself a de-shaped block that doesn't belong to where he was since beginning. Either mold yourself according to your surroundings or search for your actual surroundings. Likewise you can take the example of Tarzan from another fiction.
So it is not necessary that you were planted as a block of the world you are living in but sometimes the blocks need to search their own puzzle which they belong to.
As Rochana @above mentioned that some blocks live in isolation failed to find where they fit in, at least some of them find a block or two to make it sustainable.
while I have some intellectual needs, emotional needs, financial needs along with the spiritual needs. So I can be the block which caters to emotional needs or may be spiritual needs of the people around me and they take care of other ones in return. (either one person completes the puzzle or many others-it depends)
You wonderfully pointed out that a society should help individuals to find its true calling.Yes being part of the society has more virtues than vice. The blocks when met with the basic needs, are inspired to find the world they belong to- if they already are not the part of it where they stand.
eg. some people are happy coding-decoding software and some are busy doing the same with life. We are made up like blocks belonging to different multicolored worlds.
P.S. One more friend today asked me to read Fountainhead. I will for sure.