Maybe it is because of the heat that I have been feeling so wiped out--it has been in the high 80s the last couple of days. It was quite an effort to walk through the aisles and pick up stuff. I was tempted to sit on one of those chairs there and enjoy the air conditioned spacious store.
I reached the counter. The young woman with a pleasant smile was such a source of energy. I looked at her name tag as I placed the items on the counter.
"How you doing, Kasey?"
Her smile got even wider. If only we could light up the world with smiles alone. If only we could treat the sick with smiles alone.
"Did you find everything you were looking for?" she asked.
I wanted to grab her hand and tell her that was one profound question to ask anybody.
A philosophical question to ask ourselves.
The immediate challenge when that question is asked is this: what exactly are we looking for?
Most of my angst during my younger years was all because I really didn't know what I was looking for. Nobody could help me either--directly, or via books--because I couldn't articulate to anybody what it was that I was looking for.
Life became a tad easier once I had some kind of an idea of what it was. But, that was merely one part of the challenge because I still had to go find it.
College, in the American settings, is often described as a process to find oneself. But, I would think that it can happen only when one is looking for that. My undergraduate experience seemed to muddy the waters a lot more than clearing things up for me. I had to then work harder to know what I was looking for.
And what a relief, and a pleasure it is, to then find whatever it is that we are looking for. The angst fades away. The dark clouds are gone. A brilliant sky seems to extend forever.
I am yet to find everything, but, there is a contented feeling within that I have found something. Something that is very much along the lines of what I was looking for.
I smiled at Kasey.
"Yes, thanks. I found the ice cream. Who cares about anything else" is all I told her, and spared her the philosophy. We laughed.
Plus, the security guys would have thrown me out if I had grabbed Kasey's hands!
2 comments:
Congratulations my friend, for having found "something". Many of your fellow brethren stalk the world without finding anything. For many, not even looking saves us from the the philosophical problems of whether everything has been found, or even if anything has been found !
Love the way profound issues are triggered for you by even a casual comment. You should send Kasey a link to this post !
an everyday philosopher!
our friend, a_sudha, emailed me that i should at least shake that kasey's hands and brief on this philosophical take ;)
seriously though, as i age, i realize that i am quite lucky, after all ...
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