People Value Things More When They Have Suffered for Them.
Quoting from the very famous book by Indo-Anglian author Upamanyu Chatterjee - English August - The ecstasy of arrival never compensates for the emptiness of departure. In short the whole of this line encompasses the feel and thought of the statement made above.
We, human beings have the tendency of taking things for granted. We never really feel the presence rather ironically we miss the absence of it. So in essence the value of that thing is more apparent when we miss it not when the object is there just beside us. This stems from the very root of the human psyche - A deeply en grained thought that has its roots in the short term memory. We have all heard about the cliched adage "Public Memory is very short". This is in essence the main string that causes us to devalue things over prolonged usage
We never really value what we have, rather we always rue about what we don't have. In short the very nature of our mind is greed. There is a constant battle that we have between the haves and the have nots. We fail to appreciate all that we have and only miss that when its absent on a later date. How many days do we pray for having our daily bread - but we do definitely say a prayer the day calamity strikes and we are left fending for that bread. On a very personal note I never said a prayer after every safe train journey till the train I was supposed to catch , and fortunately missed, met with a gruesome accident. Since then I have been very thankful for every safe trip, be it by road, rail or air.
In terms of relationship the oft complaint one partner has against the other is that he/she is taken for granted. There is no butterflies in stomach feeling that used to be a prelude to the meetings, the joy of seeing each other the thrill of holding hands - in short the very spark that characterized the romance in the early days of the relationship seem to wane down after a while. The running Joke that goes in a marriage is that of a 7 year itch - that if partners can survive that they can sustain their relationship for life. Jokes apart its only if the relationship does not work out dows one sit back and introspect what could have been done and miss the other person. The value of the person somehow is more when he/she is not there anymore.
In this world of great divide where the gnawing difference between the developing and the developed nations its tough to envision the effect of the unit value of currency. In the USA thinking of getting a meal for a dollar is just not possible but for a lot of the developing nations a dollar a day makes for the salary of a bulhk of the labor population. The water and the Gas we take for granted today and wastefully use , would come back to haunt our progeny in the coming days. Almost any tangible natural resource that we use today, not judiciously, would pinch us in the future. The effect of inflated Gas prices last summer made us shudder to think for a second and ponder over the fact that what could happen if we suddenly run out of it. We have to understand that the oil quantity that can be drilled from onshore and offshore rigs are finite and if we don't really appreciate and conserve it today we might be staring at a very dark tomorrow.
The same holds good for electricity. Between Oil, Electricity and Water we have three resources and energy component that we just cannot do without. Do we thank our light company for ensuring the electric supply 24*7. Its only when the storm hits us, like the December 13 2008 Ice Storm that struck the Northeast states and took nearly 60% of households without power , some for over 2 weeks, till power was restored - that we really sit and value this resource. Sitting as I write this do I have a backup plan if tomorrow I am struck by a storm of a similar nature - Yes I do, check into Motel 6 at Wethersfield, and dine on KFC, Town Line Diner and Subway. At the end of it maybe I would be able to appreciate my daily bread and electricity and be grateful for the bucket of water that I take for granted every time I step into the shower.
The value of anything, people, place , object, thing, money, resource can thereby be said to be realized more when they are absent and one longs for them. While they are there just by your side you fail to realize or recognize them even neglect them. Nothing could be truer than the comment made above. The loss of the goose who laid golden eggs is only understood after killing it.
We, human beings have the tendency of taking things for granted. We never really feel the presence rather ironically we miss the absence of it. So in essence the value of that thing is more apparent when we miss it not when the object is there just beside us. This stems from the very root of the human psyche - A deeply en grained thought that has its roots in the short term memory. We have all heard about the cliched adage "Public Memory is very short". This is in essence the main string that causes us to devalue things over prolonged usage
We never really value what we have, rather we always rue about what we don't have. In short the very nature of our mind is greed. There is a constant battle that we have between the haves and the have nots. We fail to appreciate all that we have and only miss that when its absent on a later date. How many days do we pray for having our daily bread - but we do definitely say a prayer the day calamity strikes and we are left fending for that bread. On a very personal note I never said a prayer after every safe train journey till the train I was supposed to catch , and fortunately missed, met with a gruesome accident. Since then I have been very thankful for every safe trip, be it by road, rail or air.
In terms of relationship the oft complaint one partner has against the other is that he/she is taken for granted. There is no butterflies in stomach feeling that used to be a prelude to the meetings, the joy of seeing each other the thrill of holding hands - in short the very spark that characterized the romance in the early days of the relationship seem to wane down after a while. The running Joke that goes in a marriage is that of a 7 year itch - that if partners can survive that they can sustain their relationship for life. Jokes apart its only if the relationship does not work out dows one sit back and introspect what could have been done and miss the other person. The value of the person somehow is more when he/she is not there anymore.
In this world of great divide where the gnawing difference between the developing and the developed nations its tough to envision the effect of the unit value of currency. In the USA thinking of getting a meal for a dollar is just not possible but for a lot of the developing nations a dollar a day makes for the salary of a bulhk of the labor population. The water and the Gas we take for granted today and wastefully use , would come back to haunt our progeny in the coming days. Almost any tangible natural resource that we use today, not judiciously, would pinch us in the future. The effect of inflated Gas prices last summer made us shudder to think for a second and ponder over the fact that what could happen if we suddenly run out of it. We have to understand that the oil quantity that can be drilled from onshore and offshore rigs are finite and if we don't really appreciate and conserve it today we might be staring at a very dark tomorrow.
The same holds good for electricity. Between Oil, Electricity and Water we have three resources and energy component that we just cannot do without. Do we thank our light company for ensuring the electric supply 24*7. Its only when the storm hits us, like the December 13 2008 Ice Storm that struck the Northeast states and took nearly 60% of households without power , some for over 2 weeks, till power was restored - that we really sit and value this resource. Sitting as I write this do I have a backup plan if tomorrow I am struck by a storm of a similar nature - Yes I do, check into Motel 6 at Wethersfield, and dine on KFC, Town Line Diner and Subway. At the end of it maybe I would be able to appreciate my daily bread and electricity and be grateful for the bucket of water that I take for granted every time I step into the shower.
The value of anything, people, place , object, thing, money, resource can thereby be said to be realized more when they are absent and one longs for them. While they are there just by your side you fail to realize or recognize them even neglect them. Nothing could be truer than the comment made above. The loss of the goose who laid golden eggs is only understood after killing it.
posted by shaun's world at
2:44 PM
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