Life is not a Popularity Contest


For us who live in these modern times the word contest is not a strange word. We see it in our televisions, in our net working sites, in the newspapers, in life too. Contest is formally defined as a competition between individuals or groups with the aim of proving one's ability, nobility and superiority. What leaves me baffled is that many of us, teens and adults, think life in terms of a contest, to be precise as a popularity contest. 

Popularity as we know refers to being known and accepted widely. We are in a contest to become popular without ever giving a single thought to significance our life should make to the world. Life for me can never be a popularity contest and I hope many will agree with me. We are here for a reason no matter whether or not we are noticed or looked upon or admired we must carry out those which we think good, noble and spiritual. May be life has many things in store to teach me regarding this but what I am right now convinced is that we can never be ourselves in looking for recognition and popularity. It is a sickness that obsessing many of us. For instance, do you think you know everybody who is in your social networking site? I am not telling you to abandon social net working, even this is social networking. What  I am asking is that why are we at times so obsessed with finding as many people as possible, often keeping our criterion of friendships to mere looks, while so much to be done and thought about. Believe me my friends true happiness comes from listening to the inner voice that is so constant and yet feeble that being popular. Popularity is a curtain that we prefer instead of facing life. I think that is what the present so called celebrities teach us. I wonder how can a person be happy after defying a deaf ear to morality and values. Following them we reach nowhere. We are called for greater things; life a vocation, discern it.

Comments

aneeshsdb said…
Truly a great post......
What came to my mind while reading your post is this--- we put up many faceless faces (non-substantial faces)masked and soaked in the non-essentials....

WE worship a MYSTERY and attempt to understand that MYSTERY, And this MYSTERY reveals FACES. Our discernment should be to discern daily the many-faced faces of the Only Necessary (God).

U have great convictions... i appreciate it... Don't allow these kinds of reflections without it being jotted down....The whole instance of 'incarnation' becomes alive when we give skin to God...through the daily expression to the manifestation of the Real through writing and reflection... good keep it up...
September 11, 2011 at 6:35 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Tragedy of Macebeth

Image
Recently I was reading Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth.   The following dialogues are worth mentioning. "Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desire." Macbeth before murdering the king.  "Is this a dagger I see before me? I have thee not, and yet I see thee still." Macbeth's guilt is manifested in the form of a dagger. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" Lady Macbeth washes her hand every quarter of an hour. She sees blood stains in her hand. Her guilt is manifested in this way. She again says: "Here is the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." It was a pleasant reading. There are a lot of things we can learn from this tragedy. There are Macbethian symptoms in our modern age. There are people who live in guilt and die of it eventually. Perhaps Shakespeare helps us to see the psychotic and neurotic tendencies that our mod
Read more

THE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF PAULO FREIRE [IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION]

            1. Introduction Education has always played a vital role in the shaping of any nation. It has been the torch-bearer of human progress and thereby remained a natural component of all societies. Many men and women, both in the East and the West, have dedicated their lives for the betterment of their societies through education. One among them is Paulo Freire. He is one of the luminous intellectuals of the 20 th century whose words and deeds are closely intermingled with his experience of poverty, hard work, oppositions and exile. He was born in 1921, in Recife, the Northeast of Brazil. Freire’s family suffered greatly during the great depression of 1929. Even as a boy he vowed to fight against hunger and injustice. Qualified as a lawyer he went on to complete his doctoral studies on education. Soon after the military coup in 1964 Freire was jailed for seventy five days for his subversive educational activities. It was in exile that he came to be known as a radical
Read more

Swelling Is not Growth

Image
Of late I have become apprehensive of statements such as "India is competing the rest of the world" in terms of economy. A couple of days back I happend to be in a city super mall, here in Nashik. It is certainly one of the richest commercial centres I have ever visited. On my way back I did observe our citizens carrying logs on their heads, children roaming the streets in tattered clothes. Something struck me hard as I gave thought to popular saying of the day "India shines." Can we call India a growing country or a swelling country? Does this sound funny, perhaps yes. Growth is intergral development and never scattered development. What we see in India is the accumulation of riches by a few and an existential struggle for survival by the majority. We never call "swelling as a growth." It is not even a symptom of growth. Rather it is a sign of  maladies. In the name of industrialization and modernization today the indigenous people in many parts of the s
Read more