On Expectations
After the Prophet left with his sails all high, they wrote to Sophia. She with her daily routine opened the mail box, picked one letter and opened it to read. It read
“Dear Sophia, Tell us about ‘expectations’?
And she looked at the question and smiled to herself recalling the moments when the people she knew did not return something when it was expected and when people whom least expected from gifted her some 'things’ totally out of surprize
She didn’t really have a definite answer for this one. All she had were experiences. But were they enough to make a generalization. Was generalization at all needed? What about individual differences, she thought?
Sure, Greek Philosophy tells us that Sophia was the wisest of all, but she was in her young years, trying to make out from life, from people, from relationships what expectations meant, in which way and what did they in turn do to us when fulfilled and when not fulfilled?
Of course, she was wise enough to go beyond the usual answer of feeling beautiful and content when they were fulfilled, and being ‘inevitably’ hurt when they were not!
But something made her curious. Why was the word ‘inevitable’ there? At all? Did that mean expectations were never meant to be fulfilled? Or if they were fulfilled, was that a matter of chance? Well, if we take the latter probability, they getting fulfilled as a matter of chance, then were any relationships ‘true’ in the real sense of the word. Sure the word ‘true’ is problematic in its sense, but she wasn’t ready to accept that every single human relationship could be SELL-FISH!! ??
Well, what about Love then? Was it a true enough emotion to exist? Yes, she thought to herself at least that was something she would have wanted to believe in! She thought again. “Sure, hearts fluttered like butterflies, and yes they crashed harder than crystal too, then if relationships were to be formed, then wouldn’t there be expectations too?”
The rest she left for the people to think, for there was no definite answer. Some believed some didn’t. But could someone ever, ever be so giving? Never to expect anything in return?
PS: The beginning of this post has been inspired by Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet". It's a must read for everyone! You can find it online as well!
3 comments:
I have a whole philosophy on Expectations...and reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend not too long ago...at the end of which...when I remarked.. 'its tough being a human..', he told me...'Thank god, you are not one..' :P
There are no definite answers for sure...or may be if there is one...we aren't going to find one. :)
May be, we should have expectations...but we shouldn't expect our expectations to be fulfilled every time. :D
true, thatt is ..expectations always lead to disappointments :O
Kunal....hmm...so nicely put! kabhi detail mein btana ur views on Expectations:)
@ Trisha: Well, not always, just when they aren't fulfilled..so the qstn goes back, whether to have them, or not to have them at all?:)
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