Paragon of stupidity...

Thus leaves me yet another month: October.  This month I have done a lot of blunders.  Very frequently I was caught up in awkward situations, and most of the time, my reactions were shamefully foolish.  This reminded me of the limitations of life, as I have written in a previous blog.  Maybe, I will argue that the knowledge of my limitations helped me to accept my foolishness, overcome it and stay calm.  It helped me not to loose my self-respect yet.  In the past, it was my arrogance and self-pride that helped me to stay calm in difficult situations.  But in situations where I look foolish, arrogance will not help; on the other hand, it may aggravate my shame.  This is where self-pity, not in the usual sense, but in the most profound sense, helps me stay calm.

Self-pity, for the weak man, is self-denouncement or self-negation, but for the strong, it is the knowledge of the "edges"--the boundaries, the limitations.  At the same time a strong man will also be aware of the opposite--the limitlessness of man.  Furthermore, only he / she who is aware of the edges knows how vast is the space contained by the edges.  This is very similar to my other favourite thoughts: "only he / she who is aware of the meaninglessness of life knows its meaning," or "only he / she who understands hate knows what is love."  Am I talking about the opposites here?  No, I am just saying there are no opposites--there are only duals.

Thinking about it, I am reminded of a few lines I read a few years back:

"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! --and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me--nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so."

--William Shakespeare

After all, quoting a man with rich words is much better than writing it down in my poor ones.

--Sandeep Palakkal