WAS
watching a rooster strutting around. Quite a magnificent specimen, not the faded
kind you usually see in cities; it was vividly coloured and seemed quite aware
of its looks. It was obvious somebody was breeding him, there was food of a
kind spread out in a pile for him to peck at, and his feathers had the shine of
a well-cared-for appetite.
THE
wives who followed him, as he walked with certain stride up and down the little
pile that held food grains and other delicacies for him and his family, were a
dull but admiring lot. I could not, as is my habit, help comparing his life with
our own.
THERE
he stood, so proud and confident of his power over his harem, sure of his
ability to lead and to procreate, but what he lacked very definitely, was a
sense of perspective.
FROM
where I stood, I could see him as but a silly bird, who preened over a pile of
moulding rubbish, who sooner or later, would end up on a table, stuffed or
barbequed, or if he escaped that, would probably die some other wretched
death.
How
like him we humans are, I thought. How we hold on to our little possessions and
our little vanities and quite forget that there is a universe beyond our petty
selves.
OUR
needs, our desires, our joys and pleasures are paramount in our lives, and we
work with deep concentration towards accumulating what we can... be it cars and
houses, or power over the minds and lives of those who are below us in station
or intelligence.
IN
the process,
we increasingly tend to forget that everything material we have can be removed
from reach by any quirk of fate.
WHAT
remains regardless, is our spirit, if we have nurtured it, that
is.
One
lesson I always share with young people setting out on the journey of life, or
climbing the career ladder is that all the friends they make, the people they
help on their way up are the ones who will support them and stop them from
falling should the rung they are standing on suddenly break.
I
HAVE
seen many
break that rule, and watched with sorrow how those they cast away, exulted in
their misfortunes.
WHAT
will be left of the rooster, once it has been reduced to a pile of chewed bones?
Not even a memory.
BUT
we can leave so much behind.
IMMORTALITY
is not in the positions we hold or in the cars we drive, it is in the good words
we speak, that remain in others' memories and in the good deeds we do that
others benefit from and talk about, and pass on, even after we are
gone.
Immortality
is the glow that the sun within us leaves behind, after we set.IF only we can
remember that every little deed of love we do, whether it is helping someone old
cross the street, or letting someone else climb into a bus or train first, or
passing on a good word about a struggling junior to a higher up, we glow that
much more from within, our lives could be the richer for it.
IT'S
not an easy
lesson to learn. We are, as I said, so full of the must-haves, that we forget
the must dos and the must gives. But I for one, have taken a resolution. Call
it a year-end resolution if you
must...
THAT
I will glow. And Glow and Glow.
YOU
see, I for one, am staking my private claim to immortality.GOT COMMENTS OR
QUESTIONS? E-MAIL US AT
femina@timesgroup.com
WITH 'ME TO YOU - I WANT TO BE A GLOW BUG' IN THE SUBJECT LINE
Femina Archives
