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A Date - Part 2 (How Are you?)

( This is a sequel to A Date - Part 1 )

“How are you?”

“I don’t know!”

I had given that reply a few times recently. People gaped at me as if I was a green monkey.

But seriously, that was a very honest reply. ‘I don’t know’. A beautiful ‘I don’t know’.

I always had this question in my mind. When people smugly beam that they are doing fantastic, what is their point of reference? Queen of England? Paris Hilton? Thomas Alva Edison? Jesus Christ? Florence Nightingale? Adolf Hitler? And when people sulk, “It’s been hard”, what are they comparing against?

Well, I can declare that, “Oh, compared to what I was before, I am better / worse. Actually, I am my own reference”. Sure! That’s a logically acceptable argument. But let us take it a bit deeper. If I have to declare that, then am I really a worthy reference to measure myself against?

How much do I matter?

I was born, fed, loved, abused, pampered, spoiled, praised, shattered, filtered, I was feeling, caring, sharing, healing, supporting, bonding, nurturing, growing up as a non-believer, believer, non-achiever, achiever, non-fashionable, smashing, low maintenance, expensive, upfront, introverted, never stood to last anything, adamant, new wave, old schooled, hardwired, soft spoken, bio degradable, interactive, hyperactive, at times radio-active, raging workaholic, working rageaholic, never sent to rehab but a wrong rebel.

Did anything matter?

I worked, lazed, produced, wasted, passed, failed, I was brilliant, dumb, diversified, multicultural, post-modern, cutting edge, a bad multitasker, politically, anatomically, ecologically correct / incorrect, mad, uplinked, downloaded, inputted, outsourced, downsized, upgraded, have my database in cyberspace and can give a gigabyte of nonsense in a nanosecond,

Does anything matter?

My output is mostly up, income is always down, a junk male, love junk food, watch trash movies, deep thinker, tough lover, nice dude, raw deal, lean, mean, cocked, locked, ready to fire, struggle to abide, still learning to glide - on my stride.

How much do I matter?

At the end of everything, the quintessential question is – Is there an intrinsic meaning behind me? And everything I do? Is there a point in seeking the meaning at all?

And I discovered that there are 4 major philosophical theories that explain the above. I heavily subscribe to one of them. And that explains my 'I don't know' and why I was unable to have a breakfast date with myself.

More in the next post.

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