RISE OR FALL?

Rise higher or Fall deeper – is it a decision by our state of mind or by our rational mind?

3 weeks into our internship – as for me there was little to do, but even that little work had kept my hopes high – of a promising future. My co-intern, on the other side, dreaded the future – busy mentors, little or no work, spending 8 hours in front of a screen, feeling the body weight for just short intervals (which were even fewer). We had limited us to monologues with the screen; dialogues spread out sparsely over the 8 hours, so that they don’t become monotonous and seem worse than a monologue, taking away from us the only source of entertainment available to us.

Our heads turned to face each other; it was time for a break!! We walked out of our cubicles to have chocolate. The vending machine poured a cup of chocolate for each of us, and then we stood silently looking at the vast space in front of us, above us, and of course, below us. Our hands were taking the support of the railings that was 3 floors above the ground. We waited for the other to speak, and then suddenly I burst out – a conversation prevailed-

I - “ Won’t it be nice to jump over the railing into the air…..”

My friend interrupted, but continued with what I had said-

Co-intern – “To fall into the depths below, to keep falling, as if there was nothing below us – not here, not 3 floors below, never. Just an endless fall.”

I waited for him to complete – not to please him, but to absorb his apperception of what lay ahead. I wondered – that was not what I had intended! What he spoke begun with what I had said, but didn’t end that way.

I – “Why not to rise higher and higher, to have wings – to reach the zenith!! Why do you want to fall? What’s wrong with going higher above?

I rested to let him speak.

Co-intern – “It requires effort”.

The conversation ended. His answer was simple and justified. I had never thought of that answer. Another conversation triggered, but now with my mind –

I – “Isn’t it related to our lives! That mere conversation of about a minute or two had made me think of something. Was the conversation an analogy to our lives!”

My Mind – “Yes, it was. When we see a promising future, don’t we try harder to reach there, to do it honestly, and to put in our best efforts, because that has brought us so far, that’s what we believe in. But, if we fail once, if we see no future ahead of us, don’t we fear putting in the efforts, isn’t our faith shaken!!”

I – “What has changed – we, or our mind, or the opportunities that present before us?

My Mind – “No, none of these; it’s just a change in frame of mind, which makes us do some honest mistakes, to stoop lower and lower, only because that seems easier. We keep falling to rise higher.”

I – “But, isn’t that an anomaly? We try to believe that there is no ground below, that there is no limit to our fall.”

My Mind – “May be that’s true!!”

I – “Then what’s the difference between the low and the high, when both reach infinity. If I consider myself rising facing downwards, won’t it be the same.

My Mind – “Yes, it would be the same; you have justified your falling.

But, there is a fallacy. We want to rise higher with our head held high and up, not facing down. If we are happy to see others who are below us, isn’t it a hollow happiness!! It’s the same as if we are walking a path full of roses, to look behind and see the roses we have crushed on our way, and not the roses that lay ahead. How can we feel happy about that!”

I knew the answer then -

We know what’s that we want. Our mind knows. But, what curtails it is our frame of mind.

So, think once before you leap into the air – “Is it a Rise or a Fall”!

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