WINDOW — By Ahmed al Falahi — The world is so strange a place and human beings are the strangest creatures on the face of the earth — they are neither resting in the shade nor toiling in the sun forever. Man knows no stability and no peace of mind, in summer they complain about the heat and yearn for winter but when it comes they deplore the cold weather. When a person is wronged by someone he judges all the other people as unjust, and when he meets someone good he considers all people to be nice. Human beings spend their whole life lamenting their luck until death.
The adage says: ‘Contentment is a treasure which is never exhausted’. It takes a wise man to feel satisfied of what he possesses no matter how little it is. It is not easy to be contented with what you have and to ignore our desires. We indulge in and satisfy every whim to the point that we become alien to ourselves and ignorant of our existential truth. This is the paradoxical nature of human beings.
Elbert Hubbard said: “At first a woman doesn’t want anything but a husband, but just as soon as she gets one, she wants everything else in the world.” A man’s wants never stop and he continues to crave to satisfy every desire that spans his entire life. These wants increase with age and the older we get the more they become. A child doesn’t want more than to stand upright and walk steadily like those around him but when he learns to walk he craves to run and climb trees. A student aspires to succeed and move up a grade level but when he reaches the top rung of the education ladder his ambition shifts to getting a job and when he gets one he aspires to become the most important person among his colleagues.
The Almighty God says in the Holy Quran Man is created weak. (Surah an-Nisa 28). Man’s weakness is what worries him and confuses his reckoning. Generally, the fear of loss is the main cause of worry but when the thoughts of gain outweigh those of loss our anxiety subsides and we feel more at ease. Some people believe that the accumulated life experiences one acquires by old age rid us of the tension that we suffered during earlier stages of life. Old age is marked by wisdom and balanced emotions. It is the stage of life when the burning desires calm down and we acquire the power to control our emotions and behave in more rational ways. Unfortunately by the time we achieve such balanced personality we have already lost too much and are left with only little time to live.
