I have reached the pinnacle of 'busyness'. No one asked me to start a blog. Having started it, it was only reasonable to expect regular posts. From the feeback I get, I realize that the readers have got tired, if not vexed, of visiting the site and finding the same old post for more than a month. While a long hiatus is unexplainable as well as unpardonable, I hope the readership will pardon this and excuse me this time.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
I was wondering about the power of context as well as perspective. Sultan of Brunei has his aeroplane fitted with lots of gold...How much do I care? However, if my neighbour purchases a new car, it begins to hurt me. Bill Gates riches don't inspire me for a better performance but if my colleague wins a lottery or gets a promotion...a sudden rush of blood question, 'why not me?' is asked.
People crave for particular things at various stages in life. During childhood, its winning a game; youth is about winning the hand of a particular guy/girl; a career is about a specific job profile and the list goes on and on. Coming to think of it, how does it matter? For example, consider a MBA grad looking for a consulting job...at present, this is the only job that he would ever consider. However, if that doesnt happen, will he brood about the same thing 10 years later?...I think not. His priorities will be to benchmark against the 'best guy' around and surpass him, which will engage his thoughts all the time, consulting being the least on his priorities.
Such is the power of context...a drastic terrorist activity a few years back seemed horrendous while it is commonplace now. Globalisation was opposed by the Chinese back in the '80s while they are the frontrunners at present. There was a time when people used to respect people who stood for morals. Nowadays, technical ineptitude is a greater sin than moral turpitude. The world was not the same before as it is now nor will it ever be the same again. The same holds good for people and their thoughts.
So how do we rule ourselves out of this 'context' and hence be unbiased. Distance gives perspective. It is very important to distance oneself from the context to be able to make the right decision. Another of the easier said than done types!!!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
The Power of Context...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Apologies accepted!
Contexual integrity.. contextual references... we are laden with them. To have observed this and pointing it out with such apt 'contexual' references was neat.
I agree upon the distancing concept, but then its quite tough too.
Keep blogging.
Context and Comparison…Aren’t we confusing both the terms?! Until now, I believed that it’s not actually the circumstances but the plight of human nature to identify oneself with those situations is the reason for agony. True, a a neighbour winning a lottery is torturous than Gates becoming a little richer. But, isn’t it that the innovation is shaped by interactions with the world? I mean if there is no comparison with our fellow being, then I guess there is little to crave for in any aspect. Why for that matter…We are being compared right from our childhood…In school with co-students w.r.t. marks, in the young age w.r.t. topping the positions in the chosen career, in the middle age w.r.t. neighbours’ accumulating riches. I say that this is good until we don’t fall as a prey to jealousy, but the fine line there is again hard to recognize, find and tamper with. I think this situation has bothered our ancestors too…Geetha says - Do what u ought to do and leave the rest to me (God)…isn’t that an alleviation of this self imposed suffering?! And this I guess is the basis for any religion to come into existence (well according to me of course)…With in reasonable limits, comparison within the context is agreeable since mankind is shaped by the desire to achieve something. But, it very hard to know when and where to stop in this game and true, the solution is to distance oneself from it, which is very hard in practice.
I think people in the olden times have mulled over these things and found some answers to them.
For a long time One of the things which really got my goat for a long time was why don't "bad" people get their just desserts, why doesn't lightning crackle on their bums?
Sat-Sang describes 'context' as Good-Company. Our 'context' changes by choice...
The power of our Actions is such that at each step in our life we choose the path which takes us far from where we all start out. Each such action takes us farther and farther away from where we started out. I've seen some cases in my own life where diverging paths do loop-back.
Felt good reading your blog. Keep it up!!
P.S.: Now I get why you're named as CONTEXT in orkut!!
Post a Comment