Fireflies

Celebrating a birthday at this age seems like a desperate ploy to look lively and happening. After all what is a birthday but a celebration of your continuing presence in this world.

Thanks to  the web, there was a plethora of messages from  social sites, shopping malls, music stores etc. The ones from the social sites were warm and personal and genuine while the others had a commercial twinge in them. The “live” ones came from family ,friends and colleagues and were more intense. Cakes and flowers and sweets  kept on coming and in a peculiar way made me feel “wanted”. I suppose that is in a nutshell what a birthday celebration means—that you feel that you can still contribute meaningfully to others.

 

Later on, in a rare moment of soliloquy, I started reflecting on whether such a day is a good time to reiterate my own philosophy in life. Quagmired in routine, one can fall into the dangerous trap of comfortable existence in familiar circumstances. The challenges are all external—i.e. what other people throw at you. How much better it would be if you can challenge yourself intellectually and performance wise. But can you do that? All the time? Every day?

So, it boils down to a philosophy, a statement of intent, a methodology.

We are all like fireflies. Flickering, floating, here and there…With one surety. That one day, we will cease lighting up our surroundings—and subside to the ground. But see the way, the boundless enthusiasm with which the way the firefly moves , committed to brightening the  world when it in darkness---because it must.

There is a beautiful line from the Chandrabindu song “Adarer Nouko”

Clutch the beauty of the firefly to

your heart …and run…and run.

How about that for a way to live??