One thing that seems to disturb us as humans is failure. No one likes to lose. Some people see it as merely just an extra fact about an event. But whether you see winning as merely a bonus to a good effort, or as the main point in an attempt, everyone would rather win than lose. I’m sure we’ve all heard and been told a million times that ‘Give it 100%. That’s all anyone can ask from you’ and stuff like that. But what I’m starting to realise is that this is not true. I mean of course, 100% is really all we can give and it’d be silly and illogical to think otherwise. But what I’m saying is how often we fail to remember this and look plainly at results.
I find a lot of the time in this world, rather than the preparation, it is the results that is most important. For instance say you have a one off exam to do something that you and your friend are both sitting. As we all know from personal experiences, the two people will of course study different amounts and it would not be really that surprising for the student who studies less to beat the other one.
Rather than it not being ‘fair’ or ‘unfair’, I think the point that people miss is the appreciation we have for each other’s efforts. I remember staying up during the 2008 Olympics to watch Usain Bolt go crazy and blitz the 100m men’s race. I can’t remember who came second. I’m not sure how many of you know who it was, but I mean that really isn’t the point. Because it isn’t our duty as spectators to really care about that, rather to just gape in awe at a freak of nature called Usain Bolt just doing his thing.
But when it is important to us, is with each other, I think. Too many times I see people, especially myself, disregarding other’s situations. Like often something happens and we will become upset yet we fail to truly look and try to understand why it happened. I always seem to find that the only people that hurt us are the ones we care about and that care about us, and this alone should be enough for us to realise that mistakes should be seen purely as that: mistakes.
I find a lot of the time, as I was saying before, we take small things too seriously and big things too lightly. We undervalue things that are important to others and overvalue things we could do without. It is the old story of the spilt coffee. Say you have a little brother who runs past eagerly playing some game at high speeds, as little kids do, and spills your hot coffee on you. Sure it hurts and you can’t drink it no more, but whether you tell your brother off or not, it’ll still hurt and you will still not be able to drink it. If you just were to ignore it mostly and just wipe it calmly, accepting that accidents happen, life goes on. If you chuck a fit in the end you’ll upset someone you care about and surely you’ll feel bad as well. When you think about it, there isn’t really a decision to make here. Of course, like most things in life, easier said than done.
But speaking of taking little things too importantly, I find we do that too much with life in general. We are forgetting the basics of happiness and trying to excel at the minor things. My favourite quote in life, and really my motto, is “Life is way too important to take seriously.” Very little goes to plan in life, but regardless of whether we laugh while we stack it, or cry when we fall, we are going to fall regardless. Something local wise man James Tang showed me:
“Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, ‘Did you bring joy?’ The second was, ‘Did you find joy?’ “
And when you think about it, shouldn’t that be the two questions we constantly ask ourselves while we are alive? Mythology and religion and culture are often created to describe things we cannot see or feel like the afterlife in order to change the way we see the lives we live at the moment and what we have in front of us.
In a hundred years, we will merely be memories and though some of us may change the world and still be remembered that will hardly matter. If we cannot make those around us and ourselves happy, then it is irrelevant if in a hundred years people learn about our name and a few numbers detailing our birth and death.
Too many times as humans we are guilty of not truly appreciating what is in front of us. Too many times we take things for granted. It seems that the grass is always greener on the other side. But what we fail to notice is that the grass is still green on our side. Often I in particular, but others also, find this world and the human race in general saddening and at times disappointing. Not you guys of course, but I mean when you see the wars going on, racism, the hatred, it is easy to be disappointed in people in general. I mean as I’ve said to like a billion people, it is just plain ridiculous that skin colour still means anything at all in this world. How many years more do we need for the entire world to realize that we are all the same? We seem to have a billion anatomy books but still think that the colour of our skin changes things.
Crazy world.
But having said that, one day I was listening to a song, and a line came up where the singer went “because I am only human.” That confused me somewhat initially. Of course we all have flaws, but ‘only human’? Sure we have plenty to learn as a race, and plenty to learn from nature and animals and everything in general, but if you look at what we have been able to do thought we are ‘only human’, it is crazy. Just for a single, quick example, those two conjoined twins that were separated recently down in Melbourne. I mean that is insane. Only human. Ha it almost sounds funny. But then again we are so awesome that some of us feel compelled to do stuff like bash a man in a wheelchair. I spose it’s kinda confusing, and really I sometimes think if we can make it all work and at the moment I don’t think it’s possible. I don’t think we’ll ever all not consider skin colour important and we won’t all not be knobs. But I spose that’s just life, and we can’t really get so caught up in the bad things that we forget the beautiful things in life.
Speaking of lines in songs, another one that is similar is the line “I can only give you love.” It sounds crazy that the artist believes that only being able to give love is not enough. We’ve all watched so many movies to know that regardless of how successful you are at life, without love it feels pointless and also on the other side of the coin, regardless of our struggles being in love can fix most things or at least make them feel irrelevant. I spose it’s like what I was saying before. Even if you love someone to death, you can still make mistakes and we easily overlook how much someone cares for us and just look at the mistake in front of us. If we just appreciate it a little more I reckon we’ll make life a little happier and easier too because then we don’t have to worry too much about making the little mistakes in life.
But of course we can’t be happy forever. Of course when we fail it hurts and sucks. Of course we get disappointed when someone lets us down. But I’m sure as heck that guy who came second in that race in Beijing worked way harder than to be forgotten that easily.
