Saturday, May 27, 2006

Survival, Change, and Perfection

All due respect to the person who wrote this, but I don't think it's quite true all the time. Not everybody understands what "being content with oneself" means.

This chain of thoughts has been sparked off by a friend's Perceptions. He talks about why people like/dislike certain people, and that people constantly change themselves so as to be liked by others. Someone responded saying that it was necessary for survival. I disagree.

Survival is the basic instinct of any living being, right from single-cell organisms to the most advanced homo sapiens. But we call ourselves "advanced" because we differentiate ourselves from other beings due to our ability to "think" and "create" like no one else can. Survival is no longer the sole purpose of all our actions. Of course, it is a basic requirement to fulfil every other purpose, but, it is not the only purpose.

People live and die for various causes, some within and some beyond their control. The causes are an individual's choice. If one says that one is laying down one's life for (or to save) others, it is still that person's choice. Even if those "others" have asked that person to do so, the final decision is the individual's. Unless it's an unexpected murder ;-)

But let's not go to extremes. I was talking about changing oneself so as to be favored by others. How necessary/appropriate is it? It's again upto an individual how much importance (s)he attaches to being favored.

There are people who are rigid, solid, who'll never change, come what may. They'd rather die than change themselves, or give in to the beliefs of others, or sacrifice something that they hold sacred. Then, there are those who change every second. They try to fit in. So much so that they lose all that is theirs. In the end they do not know who they were born as and who they are now.

And then there's me :-) I change everyday too. Knowingly or unknowingly, for better or for worse. But the "better" according to me is not necessarily in agreement with what others think. It's according to what "I" think. This "I" is what I call the core, which never changes. The soul. That which I hold most sacred. It's judgement is what precedes every action. Often, those actions may not be rewarded with the desired result. Then, I look towards other ways of doing the same thing. This is what I call change. The judgement, or intention, is pure and it doesn't change, but the method I use to get a certain result can change. This change is what I call growth, or improvement. And this change is my way towards attaining perfection.

Perfection too, is not one thing to me. It is many things, simultaneously. I will not discuss what those things are. My point is, perfection, to me, is not one goal that I will attain someday and get a trophy for ;-) If perfection is a point to be reached, those who reach there will stagnate, will get bored. And I don't want to be bored. So I keep finding reasons (or things with regard to myself or my surroundings) to improve and ways to do the same.

So yes, my perceptions, my habits, and my behaviour have been, are, and will keep changing, but the "I" will never change. It does not need to survive; it exists even beyond death. "I" is the only perfect thing, and it is not bored of itself :-)

I like this better. It's my favorite!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

My experiments with hair

Got the French braid right after a long time, inspite of the really short hair.

A side view, but obvious.

Another side view :D