Friday, May 05, 2006

The secret of life

Been reading Oscar Wilde. And discovered the key to extracting joy from life. The secret to life is to take pleasure in being terribly terribly deceived. I felt as I read that line that I had come home. I had discovered everything that was there to know.
Of all the things that people are unhappy about... I mean really really soul-killingly unhappy about, being betrayed and deceived is the worst. Even poverty is made more unbearable by exploitation. You get cheated out of your wages; you get turned down for a loan from someone you trusted... And that hurts more than actually being in financial low water at that point in time.
This can be sort of transferred into any negative experience you have. It's the fact that you're let down that hurts more than the loss of the experience itself. You feel more sorry that you've been stood up than that you missed the movie.
Now what if... What if you go through life a lot more rashly? Not afraid of being betrayed or let down. What if you make plans to go out with someone, knowing that there's a possibility that he/she won't keep their word? What if you can take that kind of deception and distil from it only the fun times you had together, won't that be completely totally cool?
Why not be gullible? So much better than being cynical... Is it too much of a risk? What do we lose anyways? The most that can hurt us is that someone we trusted deceived us. The secret to life is to take pleasure in being terribly terribly deceived...

5 comments:

vish said...

wow ..oscar wilde is awesome .But your perspective..even better !

Careless Chronicles said...

@ Vish: Terribly complimentary...

vish said...

lol..terrible or complimentary ?

Simply Kapil said...

Although saying strong words like accepting the betrayals may seem to be 2 encouraging but actually experiencing the situation is 2 difficult. And the one who learns how to swim from the scratch in those conditions is the actual winner.Ur revealation of secret of life was giving philosophical touch. write something wich relates to a common man as well n tell them how to come out without being too unusual. A writers writing should not only bring the temporary motivation but some means to really tackle such situations. Regrets if i hurt u.

Careless Chronicles said...

@ Kapil: Yup, maybe it's a 360 degree turn if I ask folks to enjoy ebing betrayed as much as they enjoy being loved. But when you're faced with a 360 degree knockout blow like a betrayal, I think drastic measures are needed. Don't you? For if you let betrayal embitter your life, it can really poison it. If you embrace it, you'll come out stronger. And that to me is not temporary. Only a change of your own attitude can protect you from the stuff life throws at you - whatever that is. And no, you duidn't hurt me at all. Thanks for dropping by. Let's keep this conversation rolling.